The suspected victims of Roberta Elder include 3 husbands (including “Common law husband”), 4 of her children, 3 step-children, her mother, her grandchild, a cousin, and the former wife of a husband. (See list at end of this post)
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Roberta Elder was charged with murder yesterday by order of
a coroner’s jury after a state expert testified that her husband the Rev.
William Elder, died of arsenic poisoning Aug. 21.
The woman’s step-daughter, 9-year old Pearl Elder, also died
of arsenic poisoning Jan. 11 1951, City Detective J. E. Helms said.
The other deaths in her family since 1948 include her
mother, two previous husbands, three of her children and another step-child.
Helms told the coroner’s jury that the woman took out
insurance policies ranging from $50 to $3,000 on most of the persons whose
death is being investigated.
[“Negro Woman Jailed For Poison Deaths of Husband, Child,”
syndicated (AP), Waycross Journal-Herald (Ga.), Sep. 20, 1952, p. 2]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 8): Atlanta – Tagged as “Mrs.
Bluebeard” by local police, Mrs. Roberta Elder, 43, is being held here as a
suspect in thirteen deaths which may have been caused by poisoning.
Police say that thirteen relatives of Mrs. Elder have
probably died from arsenic poison seasoning of food during the last fourteen
years. Among the dead was listed the name of Mrs. Nora Scott Harris, a
94-year-old friend who lived at the 1328 Eason Street home and who died on Dec.
22, 1951.
Coroner's physicians, who examined death certificates,
concluded that all of the listed causes of death in the suspected foul play
cases, such as pneumonia and food poisoning, could be manifestations of arsenic
poisoning.
The list of other deaths being investigated by police is as
follows:
THE REV. WILLIAM M. ELDER Sr. – late husband of the suspect,
whose death according to State Toxicologist Herman Jones was caused by arsenic
poisoning.
ANNIE PEARL ELDER, 9 – daughter of the minister by a
previous marriage, whose death, officials say, came front arsenic poisoning on
Jan. 11, 1951.
MRS. KELLY BROWN –
mother of the suspect, who died here in 1945.
WILLIE MAE THURMOND – 2-week-old daughter by her first
marriage.
LIZZIE MAY THURMOND – one week-old daughter by her first
marriage. (Both children died when the mother lived in the rear of a Harris
Street address)
JOHN WOODWARD, 36 – common law husband of Mrs. Elder, who
died of an undetermined cause in 1938.
WILLIE THURMOND, 12 – who died in 1939 from malnutrition and
respiratory trouble a recorded on the death certificate.
JIMMY LEE CRANE HUNTER, 2 – grandson of Mrs. Elder by a
previous marriage, who died in 1943.
GLORIA EVANS – the suspected woman's cousin, who died from
food poisoning Dec. 26, 1944.
JAMES GARFIELD CRANE, 45 – her husband by a previous
marriage, who died in 1947 from food poising.
MRS. WILLIE MAE ELDER, 41 – previous wife of the deceased
minister, who died from influenza in 1950.
FANNIE MAE ELDER, 15 – died in 1951 from pneumonia.
ANNIE PEARL ELDER, 9 – died in 1951 from pneumonia.
At a coroner's jury hearing. Mrs. Elder denied knowing what arsenic looked like, but admitted taking insurance policies on most of the deceased a few months prior to their demise with herself as beneficiary. The policies ranged from $50 up to $3,000.
It was further revealed that two living daughters of the
poisoned Hunter Hills Baptist Church pastor have been treated for poisoning
this year at a local hospital.
The woman was arrested by order of a Fulton County coroner’s
jury and the case was being investigated by Detectives L. T. Bullard and J. E.
Helms.
The Rev. Mr. Elder became
bedridden at his home after he took sick on a construction project where
he was working as a carpenter’s helper. Mrs. Elder said she thought he became
ill from eating bananas and cheese while at work.
[William Fowlkes, “Quiz Woman in 13 ‘Poison’ Deaths’ –
‘Poison’ Deaths Probed,” Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Sep. 27, 1952, p. 1]
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 3 of 8): Atlanta – Roberta Elder faces life imprisonment for the
poison murder of her husband, the Rev. William M. Elder.
Police
said 14 members the 45-year-old Negro's family have died under mysterious
circumstances in 14 years. She still is to be tried on murder charges brought
for the poison deaths of
two step-children.
A Superior Court jury yesterday
convicted her of murdering her husband but recommended mercy and made a life
sentence mandatory. Witnesses testified that the woman, treasurer of the
religious organization, was short in her accounts and had a $500 insurance
policy on her husband at the time of his death.
[“Roberta Elder Faces Life Imprisonment For
Husband's Death,” syndicated (AP), Thomasville Times-Enterprise (Ga.), Oct. 2,
1953, p. 7]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 8): Atlanta, Ga. – When Atlanta’s
Rev. William M. Elder died in 1952, after reportedly “eating bananas and
cheese,” his family physician refused to sign the death certificate.
The doctor noticed that the skin of the middle-aged Baptist
minister had “shifted” and that there were sores in ruddy spots of the man’s
emaciated body.
Oddly enough, he recalled that he had signed a death
certificate the year before for This is the first of a aeries of four articles
by the Courier’s William A. Fowlkes. Elder’s daughter, Fannie Mae, the cause of
death having been listed as pneumonia. He admitted he “might have been in
error.” And the year previously Dr. had signed a certificate for Annie Pearl
Elder, another daughter, the cause of death also having been listed as pneumonia.
The medic associated the similarity in symptoms of pneumonia
and arsenic poisoning.
He then notified the coroner that there should be a
postmortem examination, and suggested that an investigation be launched at the
Eason Street, N. W home of the Rev. Mr. Elder and his careful-talking, almost
emotionless wife, Roberta.
Tests showed that enough grains of arsenic were in the Rev.
Mr. Elder’s body to kill three men two and seven-tenth grains.
Atlanta detectives called into the case – principally Detective
J. E. Helms – carefully compiled a list of persons who had died since, 1938
while living in the households of Roberta Elder in her native Watkinsville,
Ga., and in Atlanta’s Northeast and Northwest sections.
They found thirteen possible victims, from two weeks old to
93 years of age. Most of them had died of pneumonia, uremic and or “food
poisoning.” Most of them were insured with policies worth from $30 to $500.
Most of them died a year or slightly more after being insured.
When Detective Helms presented his findings to the hastily
assembled coroner’s jury, listing the possible victims and the sequence of
their deaths in Mrs.. Elder’s dwelling places, Fulton County Coroner Ed Almond
declared:
“This is an unheard of thing . . . Why, this reads like something
out of a story book . . !”
Indeed, it was!
The jury ordered Mrs. Elder held for murder . . subsequent
court orders resulted in the bodies of two of the Rev. Mr. Elder’s young
children being exhumed from the lonely “garden of death” Mrs. Elder had
“planted.” They found the tell-tale evidence in their young bodies – arsenic!
Although the state only tried Mrs. Elder on one of the three
murder indictments, Fulton County Grand Jury returned against her, and was able
only to get life imprisonment for the accused, she will probably never get out
of prison.
The other two murder accusations are waiting against her
should she and some lawyer decide the time is ripe to appeal for parole after
serving seven years in a Georgia prison. Mrs. Elder never confessed a thing,
although the state pointed as strong an accusing finger toward her as has been
pointed toward a murderer.
Circumstantial evidence in a Georgia murder may be appealed
away from any electric chair conviction and does not stand up in higher courts.
Atlanta police claim Mrs. Elder, whom they continually
referred to as “Mrs. Bluebeard,” outdid the original namesake and all his tribe
in both the Old and New Worlds!
[“Atlanta’s ‘Mrs. Bluebeard’ – The Strange Case of Roberta
Elder!” Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Aug. 29, 1954, p. 5]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 5 of 8): Roberta Elder “was cool as a
cucumber” when Atlanta police told her she would have to attend an inquest
seeking the cause of death of her husband, the Rev. William M. Elder, a Baptist
minister and week-day carpenter. She way just as “cool” when the state finally
got a life-term sentence against her nearly two years later. With as much
indifference as a cornered opossum, Mrs. Elder merely shrugged her shoulders
when deputies escorted her from the courtroom.
She never confessed anything!
She was “positive” that she did not place - any of the “pink
stuff”“ used to sprinkle and kill insects on flowers into a bottle of milk of
magnesia, contents of which allegedly were given her “sick” husband.
The Rev. Mr. Elder became ill on his construction job. He
started vomiting and sweating. His stomach was real sick. When asked what Was
wrong, he told his foreman he had eaten “bananas and cheese.”
Later, as the Rev. Mr. Elder lay on his deathbed, his body
wasted away, fellow - workman Henry Smith said he commented:
“Well, I didn’t know bananas and cheese would hurt you.” “I
didn’t know it myself!” the Rev. Mr. Elder replied, never knowing what was
sapping his life blood away. All the while, Mrs. Elder testified in coroner’s
hearings and in an unsworn statement
Mrs. Roberta Elder entering at her trial that she was
“caring for” her sick man.
Family physician Dr. --------- testified that Mrs. Elder
called him to the home when the minister first became ill. The sick man was
given medicine and Mrs. Elder was told to call the doctor if the Rev. Mr. Elder
failed to show improvement and cure. The doctor later told the court that he
was not called again until the Rev. Mr. Elder was dying. It was then that he noticed
the preacher’s skin had slipped and there were peculiar skin discolorations and
sores on his body.
The doctor refused to sign the death certificate and called
in the county coroner, the circumstances proving to be deaths suspicious.
When the bodies of Annie Pearl Elder and Fannie Mae Elder
were exhumed later, a coroner’s physician and licensed criminologist reported
1.20 milligrams of pure arsenic were found in the hair and the skin tissues.
Their death certificates showed “pneumonia” listed as the cause of their
deaths.
Mrs. Elder is still under indictment for murder in the Annie
Pearl-Fannie Mae Elder deaths.
The state, which listed thirteen possible victims of
Atlanta’s “Mrs. Bluebeard,” holds these accusations over her head in the
announced aim of keeping Mrs. Elder behind bars for the rest of her natural
life.
[William. A. Fowlkes, “Atlanta’s ‘Mrs. Bluebeard’ – The
Strange Case of Roberta Elder – Matron Goes to Prison – Georgia,” Courier
(Pittsburgh, Pa.), Sep. 4, 1954, p. 7]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 6 of 8): Atlanta police were never able
to find a record where Mrs. Roberta Elder actually purchased arsenic which
Fulton County grand jurors accused her of using to kill her husband and two
step-daughters for their insurance money.
Witnesses told coroner’s and grand jurors that sacks of the
“pink powder” would turn up at the Atlanta Eason Street home of the Elders
after Mrs. Elder took trips .to a brother’s farm near Watkinsville. The
powdered poison was “to kill plant insects,” survivors said they, were told.
Police could not produce a witness who saw Mrs. Elder place
arsenic in a milk of magnesia bottle, the contents of which were invariably
given the sick who came under Mrs. Elder’s care.”
The Rev. Mr. Elder’s surviving children – William Jr.,
Dorothy and Viola – whose lives also were covered with policies with Mrs. Elder
as beneficiary, “knew” the bottle and its effect. Their two sisters – Fannie
Mae and Annie Pearl – died from arsenic poisoning, the state determined.
Dorothy told a coroner’s jury she was ill once after Mrs.
Elder gave her some “milk of magnesia.” Viola said she vomited and was ill
after her step-mother gave her “some medicine.”
Police claimed the following persons died under “suspicious”
circumstances while living in a household with Mrs. Elder since 1938.
John Woodard, 36, 519 Bedford Place, N. E., alleged
common-law husband of Mrs. Elder. Died in December, 1938.
James W. Thurmond, 13, 519 Bedford Place, a son of Mrs.
Elder by her first marriage. Died In June, 1939.
Jimmy Lee Crane Hunter, 2, 1221 Eason Street, a grandson of
Mrs. Elder. Died Dec. 16, 1941.
Gloria Evans, 3, 1221 Eason Street, N. W., died Dec. 26,
1944. (Cause of death: acute gastro empiritis [sic].)
James Garfield Crane, 1. Died December, 1943.
Willie Mae Elder, stepdaughter of Mrs. Elder, 279 Chappell
Road, N. W. Died January, 1950.
Fannie Mae Elder, 1221 Eason Street, N. W., stepdaughter of
Mrs. Elder. Died March, 1951. (Cause of death originally listed as pneumonia
and uremic poisoning.)
Collie Brown, mother of Mrs. Elder. Died in 1945.
Willie Mae Thurmond,” 2 weeks old, daughter of Mrs. Elder by
a previous marriage, who died in Watkinsville, Ga.
Lillie Lou Thurmond, 1 week old, daughter of Mrs. Elder by a
previous marriage, who died in the rear of a Morris Street, N. E., Atlanta,
address.
Nora Scott Harris, 93. Died December, 1951.
The Rev. William H. Elder, husband of Mrs. Elder. Died in
August, 1952.
[William A Fowlkes, “The Strange Case of Roberta Elder (Part
3) – Atlanta’s ‘Mrs. Bluebeard,’” Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Sep. 11, 1954, p.
7]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 7 of 8): Roberta Elder, whose insurance
arsenic murder case shocked Atlanta and the nation, admitted to Atlanta
officials she had two husbands and friends.
One of these friends John Woodward died in 1938 under
mysterious circumstances in the Grady Hospital, according to Mrs. Elder’s
admission.
Incidentally, Mrs. Elder testified that she had a $125
policy on him when he died. She collected it, she said.
The husbands she alleged were the Rev. William M. Elder,
whose arsenic murder led to her life-term sentence, and Garfield Crane,
reportedly still living in Atlanta. Police say she had only one legal husband.
The insurance money which the state claimed was the motive
in most of the foul play deaths, came for the most part, in amounts from $50 to
$225.
A larger policy was held on the Rev. Mr. Elder, the benefits
of which the insurance company refused to pay because of the nature of death.
Depositions taken by police from officials of an Atlanta
fraternal organization, some of which were testified to in court, revealed that
Mrs. Elder had misplaced a fairly large sum of money as treasurer.
Irregularities were first noted in the bank account of the
group when a check bounced. There was no satisfaction of this item by Mrs.
Elder at first, even though, newly elected leaders insisted that she meet them
at the bank with the bank book.
Mrs. Elder always forgot the bank book, they said.
At one inquest Mrs. Elder testified that she had one $500
policy on the Rev. Mr. Elder which was taken out in 1951, the year before he
died.
The policies on Fannie Mae Elder, of which Mrs. Elder was
chief beneficiary, totaled $550, police reported.
When asked if she had given the Rev. Mr. Elder’s daughter,
Annie Pearl, proper care, Mrs. Elder told a coroner’s jury: At all times.
Asked three times if she had ever bought any kind of poison,
including arsenic, the accused Mrs. Bluebeard replied:
“No. I wouldn’t know what it looks like!”
Of the minister’s worsened condition following the doctor’s
visit, Mrs. Elder admitted he had a “set-back” after he ate “some cheese and
eggs” cooked at home. His first alleged attack came from eating “bananas and
cheese” bought away from home and eaten on his construction job, she said.
Atlanta police held Mrs. Elder in jail over nine months
before her case was presented to the grand jury, and over fifteen months before
the case finally went to trial.
Mrs. Elder was from the hubbies and really living on Easy
Street policies she held on deceased friends for compiling the convincing
circumstantial evidence.
It was believed that the accused would break down and
confess under the strain of waiting and watching the web of circumstantial
evidence being wound about her.
However, Roberta Elder has never admitted poisoning any of
the thirteen possible victims of arsenic who died while living under her
household roof. The state, which can’t electrocute her under the circumstantial
evidence code, says she won’t ever get out of prison for these revolting
crimes.
[W. A. Fowlkes, “The Strange Case of Roberta Elder (Part 4)
– Atlanta’s ‘Mrs. Bluebeard,’” Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Sep. 18, 1954, p. 7]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 8 of 8): Final evidence against Mrs. Roberta Elder,
44-year-old minister’s widow who is accused of poisoning her husband and two
stepdaughters, was submitted yesterday in Fulton Superior Court after a second
day of testimonies by witnesses for the state.
The state completed its case Tuesday at 2:45 p. m., and
Judge Claude C. Shaw excused the all-white jury until 9:30 a. m. today when it
is expected to hear the case for the defense, being conducted by Attorney W. O.
Slate.
Fulton County Assistant Solicitor Frank Frrench has
painstakingly laid down a case of circumstabntial evidence against the widow,
attempting to show motive for the alleged poisoning of her husband through
benefit and necessity.
Although Mrs. Elder has been officially charged eith murders
of the Rev. willie Elder, Annie Pearl Elder and Fannie Mae Elder, she is being
tried simply in connection with the death of her husband who died August 21,
1952.
Key testimonies Tuesday mainly backed up declarations made
Monday by state witnesses. The state had offered evidence that the three
victims died of arsenic poisoning, and that Mrs. Elder was beneficiary of their
death claims; in an amount slightly more than funeral expenses.
SAY ARSENIC FOUND
Evidence had also been shown that medicine bottles,
containing arsenic were found in the home. Other evidence tended to show that
the Heroines of Jerico, of which Mrs. Elder had been treasurer, were pressing
her for payment of funds. She allegedly was short.
Judge Shaw, however, refused to allow much of the evidence
to be admitted into the case. Detectives had located an arsenic mixture used
chiefly in agriculture at Mrs. Elder’s sister’s home in Walkinsville, Ga.
One of the witnesses, Dortorothy Lou Elder, 20, Mrs. Elder’s
step-daughter, testified Tuesday that she had seen “something pink in a brown
paper sack” in the Elder home prior to her father’s death.
She told the court it was located “in the bottom of a
cabinet” where medicines had been kept, and quoted Mrs. Elder as saying it was
to be used to “kill bugs.” The mixture found at the farm was a pink mixture,
French declated.
EXHIBIT NOT ADMITTED
The state also produced Andrew has been announced at “The
Walla Medden, of 100 Arcadia Circle, who said he and his wife had driven Mrs.
Elder to Watkinsville on on Father’s Day. However, he said she did not bring
back anything in a sack to his knowledge.
Attorney Slate then objected to the mixture being admitted
as evidence, and the court sustained his objection.
French also also called on other residents of the Elder
home, and asked them under oath if they had administered any arsenic to any of
the three poisoned people. He received a negative answer.
Dorothy Elder also told the court that she had suffered two
illnesses with symptoms similar to those incurred by the dead relatives. When
asked if Mrs. Elder had been given her any Milk of Magnesia, she replied that
she replied that she had “two or three times,” and that “it made me worse.”
SON TESTIFIES
Willie Elder, Jr., 20-year-old son of the late minister,
told the court that Mrs. Elder had administered medicine to each of the three
people who died, and added that he stopped eating at the house after his
father’s death.
When asked why, he replied, “I thought if she poisoned them
she might try to get me too.” He testified that he had also gotten sick twice
at the breakfast table after eating.
[“Evidence Bared In Mrs. Elder’s Trial,” Atlanta Daily World
(Ga.), Sep. 30, 1953, p. 1]
***
The suspected victims of Roberta Elder include 3 husbands
(including “Common law husband”), 4 of her children, 3 step-children, her
mother, her grandchild, a cousin, and the former wife of a husband.
Husbands – Rev. William H. Elder (died Aug. 21, 1952); John
Woodward (36, common law h, died 1938); James Garfield Crane (45, died 1947)
Children (her own) – Willie May Thurmond (2-weeks-old);
Lizzie May Thurmond (1-week-old); James Garfield Crane (1, died Dec. 1943);
James W. Thurmond (13, Jun. 1939)
Step-children – Willie Thurmond (12, died 1939); Fannie Mae
Elder (15, died Mar. 1951); Annie Pearl Elder (9, died 1951);
Mother – Mrs. Kelly “Collie” Brown (died 1945)
Cousin – Gloria Evans (died Dec. 26, 1944)
Grandchild –Jimmy Lee Crane Hunter (2, died 1943)
Former wife of husband – Mrs. Willie Mae Elder (41, died
Jan. 1950)
Friend – Nora Scott Harris (93 or 94, died Dec. 22, 1951)
***
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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
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More cases, see: Female Serial Killers of Africa & the African Diaspora
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[11,288-1/9/21]
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Thanks, for sharing. There's not a lot of information on Roberta Elder.
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