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.
***
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.
***
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]
***
***
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]
***
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]
***
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.”
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 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
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]
***
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]
***
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.”
[261-12/29/20;1934-1/25/22; 2467-11/15/22]
***
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