Unknown Gender History: Ivy Crabtree, 16-Year-Old Mass Poisoner

NOTE: In the Ivy Crabtree case, here are three separate attempted murder events, the final of which involved the poisoning of four persons, resulting in one death. 1) She is reputed to have attempted to murder her baby, after which the child was removed from her custody. 2) “It is reported that the girl attempted to poison her mother-in-law once while living at the home of her husband,” George Crabtree. 3) Poisoned four while living at the home of her parents, the Warthens – stepmother, father, brother, a visiting neighbor (old man) – all survived but her brother.

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VICTIMS of Ivy Crabtree (nee Warthen), married George Crabtree in 1898.

Baby boy Crabtree – born late May 1899; attempted strangling; survived.

Mrs. Crabtree – Ivy’s mother in law, attempted poisoning; survived.

Walter S. Warthen – Ivy’s father, poisoned Jul. 25, 1899; survived, but with injuries. Life insured for $2,000.

Mrs. Warthen – Ivy’s stepmother, poisoned Jul. 25, 1899 ; survived.

Berry Carter – elderly neighbor, poisoned Jul. 25, 1899; survived.

Floyd Warthen – Ivy’s brother (14), poisoned Jul. 25, 1899; died Jul. 28, 1899.

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 7): Carmi, Oll., Jul. 27. – Ivy Crabtree, 16 years old, wife of George Carbtree, from whom she has separated, and mother of a 4-months-old baby, of which he has the custody, is in jail here for the murder of her brother and the attempted murder of her father and stepmother and a neighbor, an old man, by poisoning. She has confessed her guilt and talks of the crime with an air of bravado except when mention of made of the death of her brother. Toward him she had no animosity, nor toward the old man, the neighbor. But because her parents refused to let her leave the house to visit her baby, fearing the same waywardness that led to her early marriage might again lead her into trouble, she hated them and planned their destruction.

~ Alleged Previous Attempts. ~

Further than this, it is said, the life of the girl’s father was insured for $2,000, and in her benefit. It is also said the girl tried some time ago to poison her mothger-in-law, and attempted to strangle her baby to death.

Ivy Crabtree before her marriage was Ivy Warthen. Her father, Walter S. WSarthen, was twice married. Ivy and her brother, now dead, who was 14 years old, were the children of his first marriage. He has also a child by his second wife, Ivy’s stepmother, that is yet a babe in arms.

The family lives on a farm five miles from this village, and in the Township of Carmi. There the daughter returned three months ago, when she and her young husband separated, leaving her child with its father. Since that time life in the Warthen household has not been pleasant. There was constant friction between the girl and her father and stepmother. The Crabtrees live in the same neighborhood, and Ivy often asked to be allowed to go see her child. As often her father objected.

~ Arsenic in Tuesday’s Dinner. ~

Last Tuesday the family was about to sit down to dinner, their noonday meal, when Barry Carter, an old man and a neighbor, arrived at the house. Was asked to dine with them, accepted the invitation, and all ate heartily.

Before the meal was finished all at the table were seized with violent illness. Their symptoms became alarming and physicians were summoned from this village. The delay of travel gave the malady time to develope, and when the doctors arive at the house they discovered unmistakable signs of arsenical poisoning.

All night the doctors worked over the members of the family and their aged guest, who by accident had become the unintended victim of the girl’s malice. At dawn the doctors said they had hope that all would recover.

One thing the doctors observed was that the girl did not seem to be as seriously ill as the rest. She complained, however, of being in great pain and they treated her.

~ Suspicion Finally Aroused. ~

When the patients were in a condition to talk, they said that they had noticed at dinner on Tuesday that the boiled cabbage and the coffee did not taste as they should. Still suspiction was not directed against any individual.

It was not long, however, before the fact of the poisoning became noised about the neighborhood. Then tongues were set wagging. The girl’s history was known and hints were thrown out that she had gone from bad to worse in this attempt to commit multiple murder.

Acting on the statement made by the patients about the cabbage, the doctors found remnants of the meal and made tests for poison. They found it readily. Then a search of the house was made and in the bottom of the mantel clock were found a package was covered with dust and did not appear to have been opened for considerable time, but the box showed signs of having been opened recently.

~ Girl’s Brother Dies. ~

On Wednesday the sick boy, Floyd Warthen, grew worse. The physicians had expected to save him, but that night he died. During the day Sheriff Ackman, who had heard the talk in the neighborhood, visited the house and questioned the girl. She denied having any knowledge of how the poison came to be in ther cabbage, but notwithstanding the fact he had no proof, the Sheriff was convinced from the first of her guilt.

The death of the boy added to the excitement of the people, who had gathered in large numbers from the country about and stood outside the Warthen premises talking of the strange case.

Further investigation on the part of the officers was demanded, and Sheriff Ackman, who had left the house because his presence seemed to distress the sick members of the family, returned to the neighborhood. He went to the house of the girl’s uncle near by and sent for her. Sge went in answer to his request and again was questioned.

~ Girl Makes Full Confession. ~

At first the girl stoutly denied her guilt, as she had done on the preceding day, but at last broke down and confessed all. She professed sorrow at the death of her brother, but there was a look of hatred and defiance in her eyes whenever she spoke of her father or her stepmother.

Today, while the Coroner was holding an inquest over the body of her brother in a shed adjoining the Warther house, and her father, stepmother, and neighbor were lying in pain and perhaps near death within the house, Ivy Crabtree was brought here and placed in jail.

The question of the girl’s motive in a mooted one. Had her plan been entirely successful she would have received, in case she escaped prosecution and conviction, not only the $2,000 life insurance of her father but also his property, which ius of considerable value.

Tonight the sufferers at the Warthen house are said to be slightly better, but all are in a critical condition still, and there is a possibility some of them may not recover.

Barry Carter, the old man who was a guest at the poisoned dinner, is an old school teacher and long had been a friend of the Warthen family.

The inquest over thje body of Floyd Warthen was not completed. It will be resumed tomorrow.

[“Tries To Poison Family. One Death Already Result Of Girl’s Revenge. – Ivy Crabtree, a Mother of 16, Tries to Kill Her Brother, Father, Stepmother, and an Aged Neighbor – Wayward Career Ends in Crime – Brother Is Dead and Others in Danger – Confesses Deed to the Shriff at Carmi, Ill.” The Chicago Daily Tribune (Il.), Jul. 28, 1899, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 7): Carmi, Ill.: Walter S. Warthen, wife and son, 14 years old, and Berry Carter, an old man, all living five miles northwest of here, were taken violently sick on Tuesday while eating dinner. A doctor who was called pronounced it a case of arsenical poisoning. The son died this morning and the others are still in a critical condition, hardly expected to recover. Ivy Crabtree, 16 years old, a “grass widow” and a daughter of Mr. Warthen, was placed in jail today, having confessed after two rigid sweatings that she had administered poison in boiled cabbage at dinner.

Ivy was wayward, and became angry at her father and stepmother, who are excellent people, for trying to save her from evil ways. Though so young, she has a baby only 4 weeks old, which she is accused of trying to strangle. Her husband had abandoned her because of her recklessness. It now transpires that she had recently tried also to poison her mother-in-law.

Mrs. Wharton’s life was insured for $2,000, part of which, with some other property, would have come to Ivy had her scheme been successful. She is utterly indifferent about her crime. Mr. Carter is an old teacher, and had stopped with the family for dinner. Other developments are expected.

[“Poisoned a Family.” The Daily Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, S. D.), Jul. 29, 1899, p. 8]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 7): Carmi, Ill., July 28. – Ivy Crabtree, the 16-year-old girl poisoner of Carmi, was born three centuries too late and ten stations too early. Born in the proper year and the proper station, she would have given the world another Catherine de Medici or Catherine of Russia. Cleopatra at her best could not have exhibited a more indomitable resolution to sacrifice everything and everybody to her own will than has been shown by the little prisoner of Illinois’ Egypt.

As it is, the girlish poisoner of Carmi is a quiet prisoner of White County’s jail, while in a log house in the back regions three victims of her crime lie in the exhaustion following the spasms of arsenic poisoning, and a graveyard has the fourth.

“I wanted my own way and they hindered me,” is the unconcerned statement of the girl murderess.

Four people drank the coffee and ate the food into which Ivy Crabtree had emptied poison which Ivy Crabtree had emptied poison on Tuesday night. Her brother Floyd died within twenty-four hours. Her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Walter S. Warthen, and an old friend oif the family, Berry Carter, a schoolteacher, suffered the extreme agonies of arsenical poisoning and are still living, but physical wrecks.

The girl who did it, with as much unconcern as she would have poisoned rats, is 16 years old. She has been married over a year and is the motherof a 4-month-old baby. She has a pretty, refined face. It is deathly pale now, and the eyes are a little swollen and red, as if from crying, though no one has seen her doing. The girl’s intelligence is above for a farmer’s daughterr in southern Illinois.

~ Sorry Brother is Dead. ~

The murderess talks talks of her act and the motives leading to it as simply as she might of some schoolgirl’s mischief. She acknowledges to some contrition. Her brother, for whom she had no ill will, died, and an old man, against whom she had no maslice, suffered agony.

“I did mind that right smart,” she said. “However, they had to be sacrificed,” with the fatherb and mother of whom she wished to be rid.

The presence of Carter at the supper table was by chance. He happened to pass the house, and was asked in. His fate and her brother’s were cast with those who bothered her, and she did not stoop to half measures. She wanted to be free from restraint, and the fact that four lives were to be free from restraint, and the fact that four lives were to be sacrificed counted as nothing. There are practically her own statements.

Sheriff Eugene Ackman has five murderers at present in jail, but Ivy Crabtree, he says, is in a class of her own. She confessed her guilt to him, and will retell the story to any one who asks for it. Her unconcern has stupefied the Carmi officials. She realizes what she has done, and even confessed it is worrying her right smart.

“Yes, I am sorry my brother died,” she said today, “but my father hindered me doing what I wanted to.” My home was tolerably pleasant. Probably my father tried to do what was right. I guess my stepmother did. I did not have anything especially against them. They just would not let me do what I wanted to do, and my father would not let me see my baby. Since I left my husband the baby has been with him, and I wanted it. They told me how I could have it now, but when it grew to be a great big boy and could make money its father could keep it again, so I would have all the trouble and he would have all the gain. So I did not want to keep it, but I wanted to see it. My father did not want me to, and he bothered me in some other ways.

~ Boy Suggests Poison. ~

“So on Tuesday night when I went to the pasture after the cows I met a boy I knew and I told him. He said if his father did that he would just poison him. I had thought of that a long time. When I got back with the cows I went into the kitchen and poured half a box of rat poison into the coffee, and some into the cabbage.

“No, I am not cruel. I do not like to see things to suffer. I just knew that rat poison would kill things. After they had begun to eat it I was a little soirry., I thought I would die with them, so I took some. It was not enough. Ii just made me sick. Yes, I am sorry now that it’s done, but that will not help it. I did not want to kill my brother. That has worried me right smart. But I wanted to do as I wished, and my father hindered me.”

The young woman, who would have sacrificed four lives for the privilege of having her own will, is regarded as lacking entirely the moral sense

When she was brought to the White County jail she was dressed in a slouchy gingham blouse and skirt. She was given a summer shirt waist and duck skirt by the matron of the jail. The change in dress made a revolution in her appearance. With her slender form and clean cut features she seemed a schoolgirl, pretty, attractive, and innocent.

Her confession was hard to secure at first. She beat off the officers with a stolidity that almost assured them of her innocence. It was two days after the commission of the crime and after examinmation, in which every effort was made to work upon the emotions which a girl of 16, having committed a terrible deed, might be supposed to have, that she at last admitted her guilt. This she did without breaking down.

“I knew from the first it would be found out,” she said today, discussing the act.

~ Doctor Tells of Her Whims. ~

“There is something lacking about the girl,” said Dr. W. W. Apple, the physician who has been attending the members of the family in their sufferings. “I attended the girl before this occurrence when she would have fits of hysteria in order to accomplish her ends. At first the family was in fear she was about to die. Her hands and feet would be cramped as if she were iun agony. I discovered that she could simulate these fits and told her father. After that they paid no attention to them and she ceased to have them. The girl is morally and mentally lacking in something. It is not shrewdness nor intelligence, for she is above the average in those qualities.”

“I have dealt with hardened criminals,” said Sheriff Ackman, “but I never met so hard a case as this girl. I never ‘sweated’ a criminal so hard as I did this girl. I was almost persuaded of her innocence against all reason, and then at last she confessed. She has been quiet and unconcerned ever since. On the way in when we were bringing her to the jail she talked about the watermelon crop and gossiped about people we passed on the way. I think she realizes fully what she has done, and no one dreams of considering her insane.”

It is reported that the girl attempted to poison her stepmother once while living at the home of her husband. She is also said to have attempted the life of her baby, and this is given as a reason for her being forbidden to see it.

[“Girl Poisoner Talks of Crime. – Ivy Crabtree Tells How and Why She Attempted to Murder Four People. – Sorry Brother Is Dead. – Says That She is not Cruel, but That She Was Bound to Have Her Will. – Is Pretty and Intelliogent.” The Chicago Daily Tribune (Il.), Jul. 29, 1899, p. 5]

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FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 7): If the eminent Professor Lombroso [the founder of Criminology] were able to look at Ivy Crabtree, the girl poisoner of Carmi, Ill., he would discover at once in her features the distinguishing marks of the “degenerate.” He would point to her ears, her chin, or her forehead as evidence that it was only natural that she should follow in the footsteps of the Borgias. The Carmi doctors, do not call the girl a “degenerate” and point out the signs thereof. They say only that she is “morally and mentally lacking in something,” but “not in shrewdness or intelligence, for she is above the average in those qualities.”

The crime to which she confesses, and the motive assigned by her for committing it, justify the statement that she is morally lacking. Her father and her stepmother “would not let her do what she wanted to.” Her father would not let her see her baby as often as she wished and “bothered her in some other ways.” When a boy said to her that if his father treated him that way he would poison him the idea of getting rid of her father in that way, which had been floating in her mind for some time, took possession of her, and she immediately put some rat poison in the cabbage and the coffee.

Her father and stepmother did not die. A brother, whom she did not dislike, has died. An old man, towards whom she felt friendly, happened to sit down to dinner with the family, shared the poisoned food, and may die. This 16-year-old girl says she did not want to killer brother and that his death has “worried her right smart.” She regrets the sufferings of the old man, but feels that it was his own fault for being around when she was trying to get rid of parents who “hindered me doing what I wanted to.”

Her father and stepmother did not die. A brother, whom she did not dislike, has died. An old man, towards whom she felt friendly, shared the poisoned food, and may die. The 16-year-old girl says she did not want to kill her brother and that his death was trying to get rid of parents who “hindered me doing what I wanted to.”

A century ago a jury would have sentenced to death unhesitatingly a woman or a man who had been guilty of a crime like the one committed at Carmi. If the accused had made a confession like that of Ivy Crabtree it would have been taken as evidence of utter depravity, not as evidence that the murderess was “morally lacking.” Today the verdict will be that Ivy Crabtree should not be hanged, but should be locked up as a person who is so defective in moral sense that if at large there is no telling in whose cabbage or coffee she might put rat poison on the slightest provoc ation. Persons who are prepared to kill others when not allowed to do what they want to, and who are only slightly moved when the wrong individual is killed, are thoroughly irresponsible beings, who must be kept where they can do no mischief.

[“The Carmi Poisoning Case.” The Chicago Daily Tribune (Il.), Jul. 30, 1899, p. 32]

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FULL TEXT (Article 5 of 7): Carmi, Ill., Aug. 11. – Ivy Crabtree, aged 16 years, was this morning sentenced to eighteen years in prison for causing the death of her brother with poison. She was accompanied by her father and her aunt, and all were crying as they entered the room. Judge Conger, her counsel, entered a plea of guilty and appealed to the mercy of the court on the grounds of her youth and inexperience. Least moved of all was the prisoner. She received the sentence the sentence stoically and with the same calm indifference she has manifested throughout. The girl tried to poison all the members of the family, but with the exception of the boy none died.

[“Girl Sentenced To Prison. – Ivy Crabtree, Who Poisoned Her Brother, Must Spend Eighteen Years in the Penitentiary.” The Chicago Daily Tribune (Il.), Aug. 12, 1899, p. 2]

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FULL TEXT (Article 6 of 7): Carmi, Ill., Aug. 12. – Ivy Crabtree, the self-confessed murderess, who poisoned her father’s entire family two weeks ago, resulting in the death of her brother, yesterday plead guilty to the awful deed and was sentenced to eighteen years’ confinement in the penitentiary in Chester [Southern Illinois Penitentiary; currently Menard Correctional Center].

Her father, now a physical wreck, and her aunt were in the court room when the sentence was pronounced by Judge Pearce. Both broke down and wept like babies, but Ivy Crabtree stood like a stone wall, unmoved by her horrible crime.

When the judge pronounced the sentence hardly a dry eye was seen in the crowded court room, but Ivy Crabtree never winced.

Judge Pearce’s lecture to the girl, preceding the announcement of the sentence, would have moved a hardened criminal to tears, but with a bold undaunted eye, Ivy Crabtree countenanced him throughout his entire lecture.

[“Girl Poisoner Sentenced. – Carmi’s Degenerate to be Confined 18 Years – Was Unmoved by the Court’s Decision.” The Princeton Clarion-Leader (In.), Aug. 17, 1899, p. 4]

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FULL TEXT (Article 7 of 7): Carmi, Ills., Aug. 23. – Shortly before Mrs. Ivy Crabtree, the murderess of her brother and the 16-year-old wife and mother who tried to poison all her father’s family, was taken aboard the train for Joliet, where she will serve fifteen years – minus reduction for good conduct – she talked freely of her crime and the motive leading to it. No regret was expressed, and she said she was glad she was going away from jail, as she greatly disliked the close confinement she was subjected to. “I will be glad when they take me away from this dismal old jail,” said Mrs. Crabtree, “for I know that my new home will be no worse than my present one, and I will have companions there, too.”

~ It’s All in a Lifetime.” ~

“Of course, I have some friends whom I love, and rather dislike to leave, but, you know, it’s all in a lifetime, anyway. Besides that, I may get to see all of them again, anyway, as I shall be only 33 years old when my sentence expires.” She talked apparently unmoved by her deed. A tinge of remorse, however, seemed to strike her countenance as her brother’s name was called. “I am sorry that he was killed,” she said, “but I had to sacrifice him to fix the others.”

~ Why She Tried to “Fix Them.” ~

“My father would not let me go to see my baby when I wanted to, and I told my troubles to a companion one evening when I went to the pasture after the cows, and he told me I ought to fix his ‘wagon,’” said Mrs. Crabtree “and I thought I would ‘fix’ him. My husband and I have been parted since the birth of the baby, and I had to slip off from home when I got to see it. Pa was hard on me, and didn’t want me to go about it, even though I loved it.”

[“Lack Moral Sense. – Ivy Crabtree’s Talk Just Before She Was Taken to the Penitentiary. – Not Worried Over Her Crime, - And Thinks It Is All in a Lifetime and She Will Be Out of Prison Before She is Old,” Moline Daily Dispatch (Il.), Aug. 23, 1899, p. 1]

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