3 deaths:
Jun. 12, 1898 – Thomas Meadows, husband No. 1, died.
Circa 1906 – William Gregory, husband No. 3, married 1900;
died circa 1906.
Aug. 6, 1915 – Dove McMahan – husband No. 6, died.
[Note: Some sources erroneously spell the name as “McMahon.”]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 4): Doug D. McMahon, a section hand
on the Tenn. and N. C. R. R. was found shot and dying in his home above Sunburst
last Friday [Aug. 6] morning about 5 o’clock, and a pistol was found about 2
feet from the left side of the bed on the floor.
Mrs. McMahan, the wife, was in the kitchen and another
woman, Mrs. Hamilton, was in another room near by and they cried out. Charles
Campbell was asleep upstairs and heard the shot and the cries of the women. He
dressed hurriedly and came down. Mrs. McMahan gave him a lamp and he went in
where the man was breathing his last on the bed. A pistol was on the floor. The
wife did not go into the room.
Dr. McFayden, the coroner, held an inquest Friday and
although the first news of the matter indicated suicide the jury was not
satisfied with the theory and would not pronounce it suicide.
The funeral was held at Dillsboro Saturday and Mrs. McMahan
was arrested and brought her for trial. A preliminary hearing was held in the
court house yesterday afternoon before R. Q. McCracken, Esq.
It was shown that he must have been shot while laying on his
back about a foot from the left or outside the edge of the bed and the shot
went straight through the body, bedding and mattress. Mrs. McMahon never went
into the room. The clothing was not much powder burned or scorched. The pistol
was on the floor on the left side. These were the main suspicious circumstances
the States representative, Grover C. Davis, relied on for holding conviction or
holding the accused.
Gilmer Leatherwood represented Mrs. McMahan very ably. He
put no witness on the stand. Mr. Campbell didn’t think the wife could have had
time to be in the room do the shooting and return to the kitchen from the time
he heard the short and her cry, just after which came from the kitchen.
After the argument Esquire McCracken announced that he could
not find sufficient evidence to bind the defendant and she was released. –
Mountaineer.
[“Charged With Murder of Husband.” Jackson County Journal
(Sylva, N. C.), Aug. 13, 1915, p. 1]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): Waynesville, Feb. 14. – In
Haywood Superior court Saturday, Mrs. Frona McMahan entered a plea of guilty of
manslaughter in having killed her husband at Sunburst, in this county, last
August. Judge B. F. Long sentenced the woman to three years in the state
penitentiary. Mrs. McMahan was tried at this term of court for murder in the first
degree and after spending 53 hours in deliberation the jury was unable to reach
an agreement, standing eight to four for conviction.
Mrs. McMahan is 34 years of age, and in the course of her
short life has had six husbands, three of whom have died under suspicious
circumstances and three of whom have deserted her. Small in stature [statue]
and a decided brunette, she was the center of interest to one of the largest
crowds ever attending a session of court here. Her story on the witness stand
was most remarkable, and throughout the trial she maintained a perfectly calm
appearance, never evincing any emotion even under the grueling cross
examination to which she was subjected by attorneys prosecuting the case.
A native of this county, she testified that she was first
married in Graham county, this state, when slightly under 16 years of age to a
man named Thomas Meadows. That was April 4. On the 12th of the June
following, Meadows killed himself in the presence of his girl wife and her two
small sisters, shooting himself through the side. She was tried before a
magistrate for having murdered him, but probable cause was not found and the
matter was dropped.
Two years later in Tennessee she was married to William
Metcalfe, with whom she lived for about five or six years, when he ran away
with another woman. Without bothering about a divorce a little less than a year
later she married William Gregory, also in Tennessee. Shortly thereafter he
obtained a position at Proctor, in this state, and one day when he was
journeying across the mountains to his home he was taken suddenly ill when
about a mile away and died before aid could reach him. Less than six weeks the
widow mourned for the departed for within that time David Shields had won her
heart and hand. He was rather an old man and it was a month or so before he
left for California without the formality of saying goodbye. The deserted wife
was consoled by a younger man in a very short time, again without the usual
divorce, this time to Luther Shields her truth being pledged. In the course of
a few months, however, the domestic harmony was shattered, a lady from Little
Rock, Ark., persuading the husband away.
Then came the sixth husband, Dove McMahon. The couple had
been living as man and wife for nearly two years and were getting along fine at
the big plant of the Champion Lumber company, at Sunburst, until one August
morning last year the man was found dead in bed, a bullet hole through his
heart.
The case against the woman was entirely circumstantial. She
testified that he had gotten up and then came back to bed, she getting up then
to prepare breakfast. A few minutes later the pistol shot rang out, while she
was in the kitchen according to her testimony, and she was discovered dead.
There were several people in the house at the time, but no eye witness. From
the wound and the position the pistol was found the state argued that the state
argued that he could not have killed himself, and that his wife was found to be
the guilty party. She pleaded innocence, and the jury could not agree.
[“Three Years For Killing Husband - Haywood County Woman
Enters Plea of Guilty on Charge of Manslaughter. – Has Had Six Husbands – Three
Died Under Peculiar Circumstances and Three Ran Away From Her.” High Point
Enterprise (N. C.), Feb. 14, 1916, p. 7]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 4): Mrs. Frona McMahon, only 34
years old, has begun her sentence of three years for killing her husband, Dave
McMahon, in Haywood county last August. She has had six matrimonial
experiences, three of her husbands dying under suspicious circumstances, and
three abandoned her. She remarried after each abandonment without the formality
of divorce.
[Untitled, The State Journal (Raleigh, N. C.), Feb. 25,
1916, p. 6]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 4): Durham, N. C., March 3. – Mrs.
Frona McMahon of Haywood county went once too often to the altar. As a result
of the death of her sixth spouse she started a three-year term in the state
penitentiary for manslaughter, pleading guilty after a jury failed to agree in
a fifty-three-hour session.
Mrs. McMahon is 34. She was first married when 16. The first
died suddenly, the second eloped, the third
died suddenly, the fourth and fifth eloped and the sixth, Dave McMahon,
she shot.
[“Admits Killing Husband – Woman Goes to Prison After
Disposing of Her Sixth Spouse,” Fitchburg Daily Sentinel (Ma.), Mar. 3, 1916,
p. 8]
***
For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
***
[691-1/4/21]
***
No comments:
Post a Comment