FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 3): Jarrow on Tyne, England – Police
asked today for more time to prepare for a hearing to determine if Mrs. Mary
Elizabeth Wilson should stand trial on a charge of murdering her third husband.
The mild-mannered 66-year-old widow was ordered held for a
further hearing next Monday.
Mrs. Wilson, of nearby Windy Willow Nook, is accused of
killing Ernest George Lawrence Wilson, 76, a retired engineer, last month.
She was arrested after police exhumed the bodies of four men
who died in her home within 26 months. The woman had been married to three of
them in succession: the fourth was a lodger.
A formal plea has not been entered and police have not yet
made public details in the case.
Mrs. Wilson, a stout little woman, has told newsmen she gave
the four men “nothing but kindness.”
[“British Widow May Stand Trial In Four Deaths,” syndicated
(AP), Dec. 17, 1957, p. 14]
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 2 of 3): Leeds,
England, Apr. 3. – A 66-year-old widow probably wishes she had not joked about
the deaths of her three husbands.
The condemned woman is stout Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Wilson,
known as the merry widow of Windy Nook, who was convicted of poisoning two of
her mates. Windy Nook is the community near here where she used to live and
where four male inmates of her house died in just over two years.
~ He Lasted 41 Years ~
The woman’s first husband lived with her 41 years before he
expired in August, 1955, but the other two survived the ceremony only two
weeks. The fourth man was a lodger who came between husbands No. 1 and No. 2.
One of her gruesome jests which led ultimately to police
inquiries was voiced at a reception following her marriage last October to
76-year-old Ernest Wilson. A friend asked what she was going to do with a large
number of cakes and sandwiches left over.
“Keep them for the funeral,” she replied.
Wilson laughed with the rest – and lived just 15 days more.
~ Joke Recalled ~
Then it was recalled the widow of Windy Nook made another of
her jokes at the registrar’s office, where she had been married and had then
returned to record her husbands’ deaths.
“There should be a discount for me,” she quipped.
A gossip flew in earnest, police finally took note. The
bodies of Wilson and her second husband – Oliver Leonard, who died in 1956 at
the age of 76 – were exhumed. Police pathologists found traces of phosphorous
in both.
A jury last week found the widow of Windy Nook guilty.
Then Mrs. Wilson became the subject of a twist in Britain’s
new and somewhat complicated homicide law. Killing by poisoning is not a
capital murder for which the death penalty is imposed any more.
~ Law Outlined ~
But the death penalty can be imposed, no matter what the
manner of killing, if the accused person is convicted of another murder done on
another occasion. And Mrs. Wilson was found guilty of two murders. In the first
case of its kind since the new homicide law went into effect a year ago, she was
sentenced to death. Her attorneys have served notice of an appeal.
The prosecution made little headway trying to establish a
profit motive. Leonard and Wilson left 200 pounds ($560), which the defense
dismissed as “paltry benefits.”
“Men like me, and I like men,” the widow of Windy Nook
explained in the course of her trial.
[Alvin Steinkopf, “Trapped by Her Tongue – Sense of Humor
Leads to Death Cell, “ syndicated (AP), Spokane Daily Chronicle (Wa.), Apr. 3,
1958, p. 6]
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 3 of 3): London – The "Merry Widow of Windy Nook"
escaped the gallows today. Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Wilson, sentenced to death for
the murder of two of her three husbands by cockroach poison, was granted a
reprieve by the Home Secretary.
The
first woman to be sentenced to hang under Britain's new Homicide Act, Mrs.
Wilson had already had one appeal turned down by the court of criminal appeal.
The
reprieve meant that Mrs. Wilson would serve a life sentence, it was understood.
[“British Widow Escapes Gallows,” syndicated
(UPI), Redlands Daily Facts (Ca.), May 31, 1958, p. 1]
***
The murderess died aged 70 in Holloway Prison in London.
***
***
***
***
***
For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
***
[4724-1/10/21]
***
No comments:
Post a Comment