Della Dante Sutorius: Double Black Widow – Ohio, 1996

FULL TEXT: A woman convicted of killing her fifth husband was sentenced to life in prison by a judge who compared her with a poisonous fish that “consumes all who come in contact with it.”

Della Dante Sutorius, who had allegedly threatened to kill several of her previous husbands, was sentenced Monday for the Feb. 18 shooting death of Dr. Darryl J. Sutorius. Prosecutors described her as a black widow spider who shot her husband for his $900,000 in assets.

But Judge Richard Niehaus said she reminded him of a lionfish he saw while scuba diving, beautiful but with fins that are as sharp as needles and poisonous.

“It consumes all who come in contact with it. That creature is you,” he told Della Sutorius.

She got the maximum sentence for aggravated murder: life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years. She also got three years for using a gun during a crime and 11/2 years for drug possession. A tin of cocaine had been found in her bedroom.

Prosecutors painted Della Sutorius as an insecure, manipulative, high school dropout who married for money. She met the 55-year-old heart surgeon through a dating service and had been married to him for 11 months when she shot him in the head as he sat on a couch in their home.

Dr. Sutorius had been planning to divorce his wife. The defense said he had been depressed and suggested his death was a suicide. Prosecutors said the angle of the wound and the distance the gun was held from the head proved otherwise.

Several of Della Sutorius’ former husbands said she had threatened to kill them. In 1990, shortly after she divorced husband No. 3, she was convicted of threatening a boyfriend with a gun.

Della Sutorius declined to comment and said nothing in court. Her lawyer said she will appeal.

[“‘Black Widow’ Sentenced For Killing No. 5,” AP, June 26 1996]

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CHRONOLOGY

Aug. 8, 1950 – Della Faye Hall born August 8, 1950, Auxier, KY.

1968? – Joseph Hoeffer (18), husband #1; daughter.

1972 – files for divorce from Hoeffer. The daughter was eventually put into foster care.

1974 to 1979 – married James Beyer (“Ralph”?), husband #2.

1979 – leaves second husband, Beyer, returns to Hoeffer.

1981 – unnamed boyfriend; Della attempts to hire her sister’s boyfriend to kill him. Multipole attempts to murder him through electrocution, kerosene lantern burning.

1982 – Northern Kentucky boyfriend; house burns down.

1990 – marries Grant Bassett, husband #3; Dallas; Della told him, “Do you know that I could kill you if I wanted and this world would never miss a beat? They would never miss you,” Mr. Bassett told prosecutors. Della also had Mr. Barrett arrested several times; she once told police that he had raped her.

1990 – moves back to Cincinnati. Dates wealthy and well-known men. Uses name “Dante.”

1991 – Jeff Freeman, stockbroker boyfriend; pretends to be pregnant; convicted of menacing and threatening him with a gun at his office.

1992-1994– David Britteon (Brennan, erroneously) (29), husband #4. Threatens to murder him multiple times.

1994 – Uses false domestic violence accusation to loot Britteon while in jail.

Nov. 1994 – Della meets Dr. Darryl Sutorius through a dating service.

Feb. 19, 1996 – Dr. Darryl Sutorius, husband #5,  found dead shot in back of the head. Symmes Creek, Cincinnati.

Feb. 19, 1996 – Dr. Darryl Sutorius, found dead shot in back of the head. Symmes Creek, Cincinnati.

Jun. 7, 1996 – convicted of Daryll Sutorious murder.

Nov. 20, 2010 – Diana (60) dies; Marysville, Union County, Ohio

Della Sutorious’ weapons: arson, knives, guns, dating agency, false rape accusation, false pregnancy claim, false domestic violence accusation, paternity fraud, automobile sabotage.

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EXCERPTS from Anna Magma, Female Terror: Scary Woman, Modern Crimes, Virgin Books, 2002, 37-41. --

“Sentencing her in June 1996 the Ohio judge Richard Neihaus opined that she was beyond rehabilitation. He compared the small 46-year old woman to a lionfish. ‘The outward appearance of the creature completely belies its deadly, poisonous aggressive nature. The lionfish attracts its prey through its appearance and then consumes all that comes close to it. That creature is you.’” [p. 37]

One sister recalled that when they were children, growing up in Cincinnati, Della, aged seven, claimed she had murdered a dog. ‘Do you like what I did to it? ‘I saved the best part for you”‘ She said. ‘I saved the best part for you. You get to do the eyeballs.’ She then poked at the dead animal’s sockets with a sick.” [38]

There were five husbands before Dante netted Darryl Sutorius through a dating agency in Ohio. Five husbands whose bank accounts had been cleaned out, who had been stalked and followed and threatened. A stock trick, on rejection, was to inform the man that she was pregnant.

‘If I marry her she will have an abortion,’ her fifth husband David Brennan told a friend: ‘If not she says she will come after me for child support for eighteen years.’ He capitulated and married her.

One of her many lovers woke up to find his bed on fire. Della denied it, of course. Later somebody broke into his apartment and smashed it up. Everything was broken. This fish died. Everything. Another, whose house burned to the ground, strongly suspected that Della had committed arson. She managed to wheedle her way back into his bed. He woke up the next morning to find the only possession that had not been burned in the fire had been stolen by her – his wallet and his cash. The very last things. She denied it, of course; told him she was pregnant and he would have to marry her.

Another man, in California, was threatened with a knife and was sure that Della was responsible for the fact that motor oil had been poured into his brake fluid, causing his car to lose control.

Jeff Freeman, a stockbroker, was made of sterner stuff. After a disastrous holiday where he grew tired of her cutesy voice, her snobbish airs and endless grooming and whining, he tried to extricate himself from their relationship. She pretended she was pregnant and then pulled a gun on him. For which she received a conviction. [39]

***

EXCERPTS from Kristen Delguzzi, “The strange life of Della Sutorious,” The Cincinnati Enquirer (Oh.), Jun. 23, 1996, p. 1. --

Soon after the demise of her second marriage, Della began exhibiting a violent streak.

Near the end of one relationship 15 years ago, Della tried to hire her sister’s boyfriend to kill her own boyfriend, prosecutors said. Her sister’s boyfriend declined.

After an argument with her same boyfriend, Della covered the bathroom floor with water and plugged in an appliance, hoping to electrocute him. She then used a kerosene lamp to set his backside on fire, prosecutors said.

Carla Magevney, Della’s half-sister, remembers the night the man awoke in flames. He called Della’s mother, who rushed to the apartment on Queen City Avenue.

“There was an iron that was plugged in in the toilet,” recalled Mrs. Magevney, who accompanied her mother. “She wanted him to reach in and electrocute himself.”

Della never was charged, and the man was not seriously injured.

. . .

With her dark hair dyed blonde, at least one of the two face lifts already behind her and claims that she was a UCLA graduate, Della quickly met her third husband, Grand Bassett, a photographer.

Theirs was the first marriage, prosecutors say, in which Della was violent and threatening. It was also the only time Della spent most of her married life outside Cincinnati; she and Mr. Bassett lived in Dallas, where he worked.

“She was instantly jealous,” Mr.  Logano said. “She was always suspicious.”

She began hiding knives around their house, burying them in couch cushions and sliding them in couch cushions and sliding them between pieces of stereo equipment.

One time, at a McDonald’s restaurant in Dallas, Della told her husband, “Do you know that I could kill you if I wanted and this world would never miss a beat? They would never miss you,” Mr. Bassett told prosecutors.

Della also had Mr. Barrett arrested several times; she once told police that he had raped her.

***

Wikipedia: Della Faye Hall Hoeffer Beyer Bassett Britteon Sutorius (born Della Faye Hall, August 8, 1950) is an American woman convicted of murdering her husband in 1996.

~Murder~

Dr. Darryl Sutorius was found dead in the basement of the house he shared with his wife on February 19, 1996. Though it was clear that a gunshot to the head had been the cause of death, authorities were initially unsure whether his death was homicide or suicide. Sutorius’s wife, Della, was arrested the same day when investigating police found a supply of cocaine. Though released on bail the next day, Mrs. Sutorius was re-arrested on February 27 when it was determined that she had purchased the weapon that had killed her husband and gunshot residue tests and autopsy results indicated that she had been the one who fired the weapon on the day of Sutorius’s death. This time the charge was aggravated murder with prior calculation.

~Investigation and trial~

Investigation into the background of Della Sutorius showed that the death of Sutorius, her fifth husband, was not the first time Della Sutorius had been associated with violence. Sutorius’s third husband alleged that she had repeatedly threatened to kill him during their marriage; after the couple divorced, she was charged with threatening another man, this time a boyfriend, with a gun. One husband had found knives hidden around the house he shared with her and had been surprised when she told him she “could kill you,” while her fourth husband told investigators that she was mentally abusive and he feared her to the point of hiding the bullets to his gun to prevent her from being able to use them. Hamilton County, Ohio prosecutor Joe Deters theorized that Della Sutorius had “a serious problem with rejection” after colleagues of her husband reported that shortly before his death, Darryl Sutorius had been considering filing for divorce. According to her sister Donna Hall, Sutorius’s approach to men had long been colored by monetary gain: “She said you find a wealthy man and, when they die, you get their money.”

Sutorius declined to take the stand in her own defense at her trial. Though her lawyers argued that police had failed to prove that Darryl Sutorius’s death was anything but suicide and that his wife’s statements to police had not been preceded by a Miranda warning, she was convicted on June 7, 1996, with the jury deliberating for fewer than five hours before finding her guilty of aggravated murder. Later the same month, she was sentenced to more than twenty years in prison: twenty years for the murder, three because a gun was used in the crime, and eighteen months on drug charges.

~ After conviction ~

Della Sutorius appealed her conviction in the spring of 1997, claiming that the trial jury having been allowed to hear hearsay evidence of statements her dead husband had made and that prosecutors had made improper comments to the jury. The appeal was declined in June of the same year and Sutorius returned to serving her sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. She died there on November 20, 2010.

In order to defray the costs of prosecuting Sutorius, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s department seized and auctioned off Sutorius’s 11-piece jewelry collection. Despite the coverage the press devoted to the auction, bidders failed to meet the minimum necessary total for the pieces to sell separately and the lot was sold for a $5,100 lump sum.

~ In media ~

Della Sutorius’s dramatic history with her husbands and the public perception of her as a being “black widow” attracted high levels of coverage from the press; her lawyer, ex-husbands, and ex-boyfriends were all reportedly approached by talk show hosts and news broadcasts such as Geraldo Rivera and Hard Copy. A spokeswoman for the Sally Jessy Raphael talk show Sally, which also pursued the story, explained that the case was “highly dramatic” and would be of appeal to daytime television watchers. Despite jury selection being slowed down by already-widespread news coverage of the case, CourtTV was permitted to televise coverage of the May 1996 trial. A 2010 episode of Dateline NBC covered the case in detail, interviewing Sutorius’s family and friends as well as people who had been involved in her legal cases.

Crime reporter Aphrodite Jones covered Sutorius’s case in her 2011 book Della’s Web, a 2012 segment of the true-crime series Deadly Women also featured the case.

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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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[839-1/3/2021]

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Sharon Lynn Nelson, Double Black Widow – Colorado, 1988

FULL TEXT: Brighton, Colo. (AP) A Trinidad-area woman and her boyfriend have been arrested for investigation into the shooting death of her estranged husband over the weekend as well as the death of her first husband in 1983, authorities said Tuesday.

The case began to unfold when the burned body of Glen Harrelson, 45, a Denver fire dispatcher, was found by firemen early Saturday in the crawl space of his burned home in Thornton, a Denver suburb. An autopsy showed he had been shot twice in the face and the body then burned.

Thornton police detectives then went to Weston and questioned Harrelson's estranged wife, Sharon Nelson Harrelson, 43.

Police said the woman told them she conspired to have Harrelson killed as well as her first husband, Perry E. Nelson, a Trinidad optometrist who was killed in 1983.

Mrs. Harrelson was arrested on Sunday for investigation of conspiracy to commit murder, while Gary Starr Adams, 45, was arrested for investigation of first-degree murder. The woman was held without bond at the Pueblo County Jail, while Adams was held without bond at Las Animas County Jail in Trinidad, said Adams County District Attorney Jim Smith.

Police reports said the woman told detectives she paid Adams $50,000 to kill her first husband but that Adams killed Harrelson "just for love."

Nelson's body was discovered in Clear Creek Canyon in Jefferson County after he had been missing for nearly 18 months. Nelson's death was then ruled an accidental drowning.

Police affidavits said the woman named Adams as the killer in both homicides. The affidavit also said the woman told detectives Adams had been her lover for the past 6 years during the time of both her marriages.

The affidavit also said the woman said she was confessing because she was "tired of living a lie."

[“Colorado woman held in deaths of 2 husbands,” The Billings Gazette (Mt.), Nov. 23, 1988, p. 2-A]

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DENVER (AP) – A woman who confessed to killing two of her three husbands and collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in life insurance refused to testify in a lawsuit filed by children of one of the victims.

Sharon Lynn Nelson, 46, is appealing her two life sentences for the murders and said Wednesday she will withdraw the guilty pleas she entered.

Because both convictions are being appealed, District Judge Ben Hoffman said Nelson had a right not to testify Wednesday in the civil suit brought by the five children of Dr. Perry Nelson against Western States Life Insurance Co. and North American Life and Casualty. The insurance companies had asked that Sharon Nelson testify.

Perry Nelson, a 50-year-old optometrist, was Nelson’s second husband until his disappearance in 1983. His body was found a year later near Golden, and his death was ruled an accident by police and the insurance companies.

His children, who are suing the insurance companies for $400,000 paid to Sharon Nelson, claim insurance investigators uncovered evidence their father’s wife was behind his death but failed to share the information with police.

Nelson confessed four years later, in 1988, to murdering Nelson and Denver fire dispatcher Glenn Harrelson, her third husband. Harrelson was shot to death in 1988.

[“Woman Who Confessed to Killing 2 of 3 Husbands Central to Insurance Lawsuit,” AP, Nov. 7, 1991]

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1945 – Sharon Lynn born.

Year? – Michael "Mike" Fuller, husband #1, divorced young minister with the Seventh Day Adventist church.

1983 – Dr. Perry Nelson, husband #2, murdered, “accidental” optometrist in Rocky Ford, Colorado.

1988 – Glen Harrelson, husband #3, murdered,  died in an “accidental house fire.

Gary Starr Adams – proxy killer

La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colorado.

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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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[2873-10/25/20; 4228-2/27/21; 6030-8/6/21; 9628-7/13/22; 11,314-7/26/23]

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Dorothea Montalvo Puente, Serial Killer – California, 1988

FULL TEXT: SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A psychiatrist, acquaintances and legal records describe Dorothea Montalvo as a manipulative, chronic liar who had drugged and stolen from elderly victims more than a decade prior to the discovery of seven bodies buried in her boarding house yard.

But her statements show the 59-year-old multiple murder suspect considered herself a charitable soul whose transgressions in life could be chalked up to a string of mean husbands.

Montalvo was arrested late Wednesday [Nov. 16, 1988] at a Los Angeles motel, police said, after disappearing Saturday while police excavated her yard.

Nothing fits neatly into place when assembling a profile of this white-haired, bespectacled matron in high-heeled pumps who delivered food baskets to the needy but is suspected of murdering her elderly, troubled or disabled boarders.

Born Dorothy Helen Gray in Redlands, to housewife Trudy Yates and ex-serviceman Jessie Gray, Montalvo routinely told people she was of ‘Mexican descent’ and responsible for the support of 17 siblings in her home country.

She also has said she was a survivor of the 1942 Bataan Death March led by Japanese forces in the Philippines and a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Acquaintances, describing her as alternately sweet-tempered and foul-mouthed, said Montalvo recently claimed to be undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, but nobody is sure whether those claims are true.

She has lamented her inability to have children, but in fact gave up a daughter for adoption -- Linda Bloom, 41, of South Pasadena. When Bloom and her husband tracked down and visited Montalvo last year in Sacramento, Bloom said her mother claimed to be both a doctor with a clinic in Mexico and an actress and friend of Rita Hayworth.

[“Suspect has history of lying, hurting seniors,” The Press-Tribune (Rosevelle, Ca.), Nov. 17, 1988, p. A-4]

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CHRONOLOGY

Jan. 9, 1929 – Dorothea Helen Gray born, Redlands, California

1945 – Dorothy (16), marries Fred McFaul.

1946 – 2 daughters born between 1946 and 1948, but she sent one to live with relatives in Sacramento and placed the other child for adoption.

1948 – McFaul left her, late 1948.

1952 – marries a Swede Axel Johanson (Swedish), and had a turbulent 14-year marriage.

1960s – Gray was arrested for owning and managing a brothel and was sentenced to 90 days in the Sacramento County Jail.

1966 – divorces Johanson in 1966 and married Roberto Puente, a man 19 years her junior, in Mexico City. The marriage lasted two years.

1976 – Puente got married for the fourth time in 1976 to Pedro Montalvo, who was a violent alcoholic. This marriage lasted only a few months.

1976? – Puente started to spend time in local bars looking for older men who were receiving benefits. Puente forged their signatures to steal their money. She was caught and charged with 34 counts of treasury fraud, for which she received probation.

Apr. 1982 – Ruth Monroe (61), tenant, murdered. overdose of codeine and acetaminophen; ruled suicide.

May 1982 – Malcolm McKenzie (one of four elderly people Puente was accused of drugging) accused Puente of drugging and stealing from him.

Aug. 18, 1982 – She was convicted of three charges of theft on and sentenced to five years in jail.

1982? – in prison, corresponds with a Everson Gillmouth (77), living in Oregon.

1985 – on release, Everson Gillmouth picks her up at prison; make wedding plans.

Nov. 1985 – Everson Gillmouth murdered.

Jan. 1, 1986 – Everson Gillmouth body found.

1988 – all the persons whose corpses found in November 1988 were considered by the Coroner’s office to have died in 1988. [Desert Sun, Dec. 12, 1988]

Nov. 11, 1988 – police inquired after the disappearance of tenant Alberto Montoya (56).

Nov. 14, 1988 – end of yard exhumations.

Nov. 16, 1988 – Puente (59) captured in Los Angeles.

Nov. 17, 1988 – Sacramento Municipal Court arraignment; charged with one murder: Alvaro “Bert” Montoya (52).

Mar. 30, 1989 – charged with 8 additional murders. Judge John V. Stroud.

Jul. 9, 1990 – Sacramento County Superior Court. Orders change of venue to Monterey county. Judge W. J. Harpam.

1990 – book, Human Harvest, by Dan Blackburn published.

Nov.2, 1992 – trial. Monterey County.

Jul. 7, 1993 – trial closing arguments. 8-month trial.

Aug. 26, 1993 – convicted after 24 days of deliberation; guilty of 2 counts of first degree murder (Miller, Fink), 1 count of second degree murder (Carpenter). Jury deadlocked 11-1 of 4 of remaining 6 counts.

Nov 10, 1993 – sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Mar. 27, 2011 – Dorothy P dies.

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MURDER VICTIMS:

Everson Gillmouth, 77,

Ruth Munroe, 61;

Leona Carpenter, 78;

Alvaro “Bert/Alberto” Gonzales Montoya, 51;

Dorothy Miller, 64;

Benjamin Fink, 55;

James Gallop, 62;

Vera Faye Martin, 64;

Betty Palmer, 78.

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Wikipedia: Dorothea Helen Puente (January 9, 1929 – March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer. In the 1980s, Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and murdered her elderly and mentally disabled boarders before cashing their Social Security checks. Her total count reached nine confirmed murders, and six unconfirmed. Newspapers dubbed Puente the “Death House Landlady”.

~ Background ~

Puente was born Dorothea Helen Gray on January 9, 1929, in Redlands, California, to Trudy Mae (née Yates) and Jesse James Gray. She had a traumatic upbringing; her parents were both alcoholics, her mother was a prostitute, and her father attempted suicide in front of her. Her father died of tuberculosis in 1937 when she was eight years old, and her mother died in a car accident the following year. She was sent to an orphanage, where she was sexually abused.

In 1945, Gray was married for the first time, at the age of 16, to a soldier named Fred McFaul, who had just returned from the Pacific Theater of World War II. Gray had two daughters between 1946 and 1948, but she sent one to live with relatives in Sacramento and placed the other child for adoption. She became pregnant again in 1948, but suffered a miscarriage. In late 1948, McFaul left her.

Gray was sentenced to a year in jail for forging checks; she was paroled after six months. Soon afterwards, she became pregnant to a man she barely knew and gave birth to a daughter, whom she placed for adoption. In 1952, she married a Swede named Axel Johanson, and had a turbulent 14-year marriage.

In the 1960s, Gray was arrested for owning and managing a brothel and was sentenced to 90 days in the Sacramento County Jail. After her release, she was arrested again, this time for vagrancy, and sentenced to another 90 days in jail. Following that, Gray began a criminal career that over time became more serious. She found work as a nurse’s aide, caring for disabled and elderly people in private homes. In a short time, she started to manage boarding houses.

Gray divorced Johanson in 1966 and married Roberto Puente, a man 19 years her junior, in Mexico City. The marriage lasted two years. Shortly after it ended, Dorothea Puente took over a three-story, 16-bedroom care home at 2100 F Street in Sacramento; she would later rent an upstairs apartment at 1426 F Street. Puente got married for the fourth time in 1976 to Pedro Montalvo, who was a violent alcoholic. This marriage lasted only a few months, and Puente started to spend time in local bars looking for older men who were receiving benefits. Puente forged their signatures to steal their money. She was caught and charged with 34 counts of treasury fraud, for which she received probation.

~ Murders ~

Puente’s reputation at the F Street boarding house was mixed. Some tenants resented her stinginess and complained that she refused to give them their mail or money; others praised her for small acts of kindness or for her generous homemade meals. Her motives for killing tenants were financial, with police estimates of her ill-gotten income totaling more than $5,000 per month. The murders began shortly after Puente began renting out space in the home at 1426 F Street. In April 1982, 61-year-old friend and business partner Ruth Monroe began living with Puente in her upstairs apartment, but soon died from an overdose of codeine and acetaminophen. Puente told police that the woman was very depressed because her husband was terminally ill. They believed her and ruled the incident as a suicide.

A few weeks later, the police were back after a 74-year-old pensioner named Malcolm McKenzie (one of four elderly people Puente was accused of drugging) accused Puente of drugging and stealing from him. She was convicted of three charges of theft on August 18, 1982, and sentenced to five years in jail, where she began corresponding with a 77-year-old retiree living in Oregon, named Everson Gillmouth. A pen-pal friendship developed, and when Puente was released in 1985 after serving just three years of her sentence, he was waiting for her in a red 1980 Ford pickup. Their relationship developed quickly, and the couple was soon making wedding plans.

In November 1985, Puente hired handyman Ismael Florez to install some wood paneling in her apartment. For his labor and an additional $800, Puente gave him a red 1980 Ford pickup in good condition, which she stated belonged to her boyfriend in Los Angeles who no longer needed it. She asked Florez to build a box 6 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet to store “books and other items”. She then asked Florez to transport the filled and nailed-shut box to a storage depot. Florez agreed, and Puente joined him. On the way, however, she told him to stop while they were on Garden Highway in Sutter County and dump the box on the river bank in an unofficial household dumping site. Puente told him that the contents of the box were just junk. On January 1, 1986, a fisherman spotted the box sitting about three feet from the bank of the river and informed police. Investigators found a badly decomposed and unidentifiable body of an elderly man inside. Puente continued to collect Everson Gillmouth’s pension and wrote letters to his family, explaining that the reason he had not contacted them was because he was ill. She maintained a “room and board” business, taking in 40 new tenants. Gillmouth’s body remained unidentified for three years.

Puente continued to accept elderly tenants and was popular with local social workers because she accepted “tough cases”, including drug addicts and abusive tenants. She collected tenants’ monthly mail before they saw it and paid them stipends, pocketing the rest for “expenses”. During this period, parole agents went and visited Puente, who had been ordered to stay away from the elderly and refrain from handling government checks, a minimum of fifteen times at the residence. No violations were ever noted.

Suspicion was first aroused when neighbors noticed the odd activities of a homeless alcoholic known only as “Chief”, whom Puente stated she had “adopted” and made her personal handyman. Puente had Chief dig in the basement and cart soil and rubbish away in a wheelbarrow. At the time, the basement floor was covered with a concrete slab. Chief later took down a garage in the backyard and installed a fresh concrete slab there as well. Soon afterward, Chief disappeared.

~ Arrest and imprisonment ~

On November 11, 1988, police inquired after the disappearance of tenant Alberto Montoya, a developmentally disabled man with schizophrenia whose social worker had reported missing. After noticing disturbed soil on the property, they uncovered the body of tenant Leona Carpenter, 78. Seven bodies were eventually found on the property. Puente was charged with a total of nine murders: Puente’s boyfriend Everson Gillmouth, 77, and eight tenants who lived at the boarding house: Ruth Munroe, 61; Leona Carpenter, 78; Alvaro “Bert/Alberto” Gonzales Montoya, 51; Dorothy Miller, 64; Benjamin Fink, 55; James Gallop, 62; Vera Faye Martin, 64; and Betty Palmer, 78.

 She was convicted of three murders, and sentenced to two life sentences. Ever since 1988 to 2011 she served life without parole, and she passed away in 2011 of natural causes.

During the initial investigation, Puente was not immediately a suspect, and she was allowed to leave the property, ostensibly to buy a cup of coffee at a nearby hotel. Instead, after buying the coffee, she fled immediately to Los Angeles, where she befriended an elderly pensioner whom she had met in a bar. The pensioner, however, recognized her from police reports on television and called the authorities.

Her trial was moved to Monterey County, California, on a change of venue motion filed by her attorneys, Kevin Clymo and Peter Vlautin III. The trial began in October 1992 and ended a year later. The prosecutor, John O’Mara, was the homicide supervisor in the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office.

O’Mara called over 130 witnesses. He argued to the jury that she had used sleeping pills to put her tenants to sleep, then suffocated them, and hired convicts to dig the holes in her yard. Clymo concluded his closing argument by showing a picture commonly used in psychology that can be viewed in different ways and saying “Keep in mind things are not always as they seem.” The jury deliberated over a month and found Puente guilty of three murders. The jury was deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction on all counts, and the lone holdout finally agreed to a conviction of two first degree murder counts including special circumstances, and one second degree murder count. The penalty phase of the prosecution was highlighted by her prior convictions introduced by O’Mara.

The defense called several witnesses that showed Puente had a generous and caring side to her. Witnesses, including her long-lost daughter, testified how Puente had helped them in their youth and guided them to successful careers. Mental health experts testified of Puente’s abusive upbringing and how it motivated her to help the less fortunate. At the same time, they agreed she had an evil side brought on by the stress of caring for her down-and-out tenants.

O’Mara’s closing argument focused on Puente’s acts of murder:

Does anyone become responsible for their conduct in this world? ...These people were human beings, they had a right to live-they did not have a lot of possessions-no houses-no cars-only their social security checks and their lives. She took it all... Death is the only appropriate penalty.

Kevin Clymo responded by evoking Dorothea the child and caregiver. Peter Vlautin addressed the jurors in confidential tones, contrasting with O’Mara’s shouting:

We are here today to determine one thing: What is the value of Dorothea Puente’s life? That is the question. Does she have to be killed?” Vlautin spoke gently about Puente’s childhood touching on the traumatic aspects that shaped her life and urged the jurors to see the world through her eyes. “You have heard of the despair which was the foundation of her life, the anger and resentment...If anyone in the jury room tells you it was not that bad, ask them would you want that to happen to yourself? Would you want that to happen to your children? ... I am led to believe if there is any reason for us to be living here on this earth, it is to somehow enhance one another’s humanity, to love, to touch each other with kindness, to know that you have made just one person breathe easier because you have lived. I submit to you ladies and gentlemen that is why these people came to testify for Dorothea Puente ... I think you can only truly understand why so many people testified and asked you to spare Dorothea’s life only if you have ever fallen down and stumbled on the road of life and had someone pick you up, give you comfort, give you love, show you the way. Then you will understand why these people believe Dorothea’s life is worth saving. That is mitigating. That is a human quality that deserves to be preserved. It is a flame of humanity that has burned inside Dorothea since she was young ... That is reason to give Dorothea Puente life without the possibility of parole.

One juror said “Executing Puente would be like executing mine or your Grandma.”

~ Conviction ~

She was convicted of three of the murders, though the jury could not agree on the other six. After several days of deliberations, the jury was deadlocked 7–5 for life. The judge, Michael J. Virga, declared a mistrial when the jury said further deliberations would not change their minds. Under the law, Puente received life without the possibility of parole. She was incarcerated at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, California. For the rest of her life, she maintained her innocence, insisting that all her tenants had died of “natural causes”.

~ Death ~

She died on March 27, 2011 in prison in Chowchilla at the age of 82 from natural causes.

Media

Puente has been featured on numerous true crime television shows including Crime Stories, Deadly Women, A Stranger In My Home and World’s Most Evil Killers.

In 1998, she began corresponding with Shane Bugbee. The result was Cooking with a Serial Killer (2004), which included a lengthy interview, almost 50 recipes, and various pieces of prison art sent to Bugbee by the convicted murderer. Jodi Picoult mentions Puente’s crimes and cookbook in her novel House Rules.

The house at 1426 F Street was included in the 2013 home tour held by the Sacramento Old City Association. It was then the subject of the 2015 documentary short The House Is Innocent and was again opened to tours for one day in conjunction with a local film festival’s showing of the film. A 2017 episode of the series Ghost Adventures also had Zak Bagans, his ghost hunting team, and a medium visit Puente’s home.

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Margaret “Maggie” MacDonald, Double Black Widow – Canada, 1960s

BOOK: Allan Gould & Maggie MacDonald, The Violent Years of Maggie MacDonald, 1987, Prentice-Hall Canada; 1988, paperback, Doubleday Canada.

Publisher promo copy: The story of a remarkable woman who suffered years of poverty, hunger and violent abuse, until she couldn't take any more. It is also the story of a woman's 18yr. odyssey through the Canadian prison system, and of her courageous struggle to build a new life in the community after she was released. At the age of 33, Maggie MacDonald had been accused of murdering her common-law husband of 11yrs. with a butcher knife. Acquitted of the charge, she left the courtroom amid cheers and applause, only to murder again less than a year later. This time, she was sentenced to life in prison.

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EXCERPT: In the mid-sixties, Margaret MacDonald, a 33-year-old citizen of Toronto, stabbed her abusive common-law husband to death. Margaret claimed to be amnesic for the crime. She claimed to have no memory whatsoever of the act of killing, but remembered events immediately before and after the killing (Gould & MacDonald, 1987; Porter, Birt, Yuille & Herve, 2001). The case attracted enormous media attention, and it was revealed that Margaret had been abandoned and abused as a child, experienced life as a sex-slave, prostitute, alcoholic and drug addict, and had been exposed to violence throughout her life. Due to her history of longstanding abuse, Margaret herself and the women's movement in Canada regarded her as a victim rather than a perpetrator. Eventually, she was acquitted of murder and received a probation sentence. Less than a year later, she killed her second husband and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

[Sven Å. Christianson, Ingrid Freij & Eva Von Vogelsang, Offenders' Memories of Violent Crimes, John Wiley & Sons, 2006; ref.: Porter S¹, Birt AR, Yuille JC, Hervé HF. Memory for murder. A psychological perspective on dissociative amnesia in legal contexts. Int J Law Psychiatry. 2001 Jan-Feb;24(1):23-42.]

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[I]t is not known whether amnesia of this type can occur on successive occasions, although the case of Maggie MacDonald has some bearing here. She was a woman who stabbed two consecutive husbands to death in Ontario (the events were separated by a number of years). Ms. MacDonald reported amnesia for the core aspects of both homicidal events (Gould & MacDonald, 1987). She continued to claim amnesia even after she was no longer subject to any criminal action for these murders.

[Gayla Swihart, John Yuille, and Stephen Porter The Role of State-Dependent Memoryin “Red-Outs” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Vol. 22, Nos. 3–4, pp. 199–212, 1999]

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Book review comment: My name is Margueritte and I am the third daughter of Maggie MacDonald. I have just recently discovered that Maggie is my birth mother and have read the book.......I am sure I have a different opinion about the book and it's author than anyone else. I do not beleive that Maggie was a victim....she had choices and and continued to make the wrong ones....she beleives that she is the only one who has suffered...perhaps she should have asked her children the impact her life has had on theirs.....  [M. Adams, book review, Goodreads, Nov 29, 2009]

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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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Lynn Turner, Antifreeze Double Black Widow – Georgia, 2004

Wikipedia: Lynn Turner (July 13, 1968 – August 30, 2010), born Julia Lynn Womack, was an American convicted murderer. In 1995, her husband, Glenn Turner, died after allegedly being sick with the flu. In 2001, the death of what had been described as her common-law husband, Randy Thompson, under remarkably similar circumstances, aroused the suspicion of law enforcement. After investigation, it was determined by authorities that Lynn Turner had murdered both her husbands by poisoning them with ethylene glycol-based antifreeze. She was tried for Glenn Turner's murder in 2004. She was found guilty and went to trial again for murdering Randy Thompson in 2007, ultimately being convicted. Turner died in prison on August 30, 2010. The cause of death was an apparent suicide by toxic overdose of blood pressure medication.

~ Early life ~

Julia Lynn was adopted by the Womack family shortly after her birth mother gave her up. The Womacks divorced when Lynn was five, after which Helen Womack took custody of Lynn. Shortly afterwards, Helen Womack married again, and Lynn did not get on well with her new stepfather, D.L. Gregory. As a teenager, Lynn took to substance abuse and was admitted to a clinic in Atlanta for drug problems.

By the 1990s Lynn Womack was working as a 911 dispatcher for Cobb County, Georgia. Lynn attempted to become a police officer, but she failed the psychological exam.

~ Marriage to Glenn Turner ~

In 1991 she met a Cobb County police officer named Maurice Glenn Turner and began to pursue him. She married Glenn Turner in August 1992. Glenn began to work a job at a gas station to support himself and Lynn after she left her job. Shortly after they married, Glenn and Lynn began to have problems in their marriage due to Lynn spending more money than Glenn could

make and soon were sleeping in different bedrooms.

Around the same time Lynn began an affair with Forsyth County firefighter, Randy Thompson. Glenn was unaware of his wife's affair and by 1995 he began plans to move out and file for divorce. However, before he could go through with it, he fell ill and went to the emergency room on March 2, 1995, complaining of flu-like symptoms. He was treated there, and when he felt better he went home. The next day, he was found dead when Lynn came home. Glenn's cause of death was ruled natural causes due to an irregular heartbeat. After Glenn's death she moved in with Randy Thompson and collected $153,000 from her husband's death and his pension.

~ Life with Randy Thompson ~

Lynn and Randy bought a house together and had a son and daughter. By 2000 Randy and Lynn were having problems in their relationship, causing Randy to move out. On January 22, 2001, Randy Thompson, age 32, was found dead in his apartment. Thompson had reported feeling ill with flu symptoms and had gone to the emergency room complaining of a stomach ache and constant vomiting. He was treated and released on January 21. Lynn made him some Jell-O and by the next day he was dead. She only collected $36,000 in her boyfriend's death due to his $200,000 insurance policy lapsing. Thompson's reported cause of death was an irregular heartbeat, the same cause of death as Lynn's previous husband.

~ Investigation and convictions ~

Shortly after Randy Thompson's death, police reopened the case of Glenn Turner's death after finding that both men died under nearly the same circumstances. Randy Thompson's mother had gotten a sympathy card from Glenn Turner's mother saying she lost her son very mysteriously as well and offered her condolences to Mrs. Thompson, not knowing at the time that both of their sons had a common connection to Lynn Turner. Blood tests later found that ethylene glycol–based antifreeze was found in Thompson's system. Police discovered that Lynn had visited an animal shelter, asking about how to put down a stray animal and what poison to use. Glenn Turner's body was exhumed and ethylene glycol was also found in his kidneys. Crime scene photos from Glenn Turner's death contained a photograph of the garage where antifreeze was visible.

Ten months after Randy Thompson's death, Lynn was arrested for Glenn's murder. She was tried for Glenn Turner's murder in 2004. She was found guilty and went to trial again for murdering Randy Thompson in 2007, ultimately being convicted. It was stated by the state that she poisoned both men by placing the antifreeze in their food as it is odorless with a sweet taste. She faced the death penalty for the murder of Randy Thompson, but was instead sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections website, Turner was serving her sentences at Metro State Prison.

Death

Turner was found dead in prison on August 30, 2010. Her death was ruled a suicide. An episode of Murder She Solved on the Oprah Winfrey Network claimed that she intentionally accumulated enough prescription medication to cause an overdose.

Media

Turner's case has been profiled on many different television programs. Her case first aired on Forensic Files in 2007 in an episode entitled Cold Hearted. Her case aired on season six of Snapped on the Oxygen Network that year, and three programs on the Investigation Discovery network: Deadly Women, Main Street Mysteries, and Motives and Murders. On July 18, 2012, the ABC show Final Witness told the story from the perspective of her first husband, in an episode entitled Vixen's Elixir.

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CHRONOLOGY

Jul. 13, 1968 – born, Julia Lynn Womack, Marietta, Georgia.

Aug. 21, 1993 – Cobb County police Officer Maurice Glenn Turner marries Julia Lynn Womack.

Mar. 3, 1995 – Glenn Turner, 31, is discovered dead in bed by his wife. A Cobb medical examiner rules he died from an irregular heartbeat.

Jan. 30, 1996 – Lynn Turner gives birth to a daughter. She has lived with the father, firefighter Randy Thompson, beginning four days after her husband's death.

Jan. 22, 2001 – Randy Thompson, 32, is found dead in his Cumming apartment. A GBI medical examiner later rules he died from an irregular heartbeat.

Jun. 22, 2001 – Cobb police begin investigating Glenn Turner's death as a possible homicide. Cumming police begin a probe into Thompson's death and call in the GBI for assistance.

July 30, 2001 – The GBI announces it has changed Thompson's cause of death to antifreeze poisoning. It is later ruled a homicide. Cobb officials exhume Turner's body to test for poisons.

Oct. 17, 2001 – The Cobb medical examiner announces a second autopsy shows Turner died of ethylene glycol poisoning.

June 27, 2002 – Cobb medical examiner Dr. Brian Frist rules Glenn Turner's death a homicide.

Nov. 1, 2002 – Lynn Turner is arrested and charged with the murder of Glenn Turner.

Feb. 2, 2004 – Jury selection begins in Marietta in Lynn Turner's first trial.

Feb. 4, 2004 – Unable to seat an impartial jury in Marietta, a judge orders Turner's trial moved. The case is moved to Houston County.

May 14, 2004 – A Houston County jury returns a guilty verdict against Turner in the murder of Glenn Turner.

Jan. 8, 2007 – Jury selection begins in Forsyth County in Turner's second murder trial.

Jan. 16, 2007 – Judge Jeffrey S. Bagley orders the trial moved out of Forsyth County because of difficulty seating an impartial jury. The trial is ordered moved to Dalton, in northwest Georgia's Whitfield County, but the location is kept a secret until Feb. 14, when the AJC publishes its location.

March 24, 2007 – A jury in Whitfield County finds Turner guilty of murdering Randy Thompson.

March 27, 2007 – Jurors give Turner life in prison with no chance of parole.

Aug. 30, 2010 – Turner is found unresponsive in her cell at Metro State Prison in Atlanta at 6–55 a.m. Prison medical staff are unable to revive her and she is pronounced dead 40 minutes later.

Chronology source – [Marcus K. Garner, Dan Raley, “Lynn Turner's death still leaves questions, scars,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 30, 2010]

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Good long-form treatment: [Alanna Nash, “The Black Widow Killer: Two men. Two murders. Too many questions.” Reader's Digest, Nov. 2005]

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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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Maria Kramer, Suspected Serial Killer – Austria, 1905

Jan. 17, 1868 – Maria Kramer born.

Aug. 17, 1900 – Johann Kramer, husband, dies.

April 23, 1901 – Ursula Fahringer (73), dies. Waidach, near Kössen.

Mar. 18, 1902 – Katharina Kramer, mother, dies.

Mar. 8, 1905 – Maria Kramer convicted, sentenced to 6 years in prison.

Accomplices – Maria Hartl born Jul. 30, 1853), Josef Dengg (born 1858).

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FULL TEXT (translated from German): Innsbruck, March 10. –A poison murder trial took place the day before yesterday [Mar. 8, 1905] in front a bank of jurors. Maria Kramer from Kössen, most recently in Rauris, Maria Hartl, shopkeeper in Maria Plain and Josef Dengg from Kirchdorf, most recently landlord in Rauris, were charged with murder, participation in the same plus embezzlement. The facts are briefly as follows: Until the end of 1900, 73-year-old Ursula Fahringer lived in the so-called poor house at Kössen. At the urgent encouragement of Maria Hartl, old Fahringer moved in with Maria Kramer in Waidach near Kössen, where she only lived until April 23, 1901, when she allegedly died of a stroke. Her estate amounted to 4,845 Kroner, including a deposit book from the Kössen Loan Association with an original balance of 1,228 K, but now only 300 K. Kramer allegedly raised the 928 K on behalf of Fahringer on April 7. At the treatise on the estate, Kramer then explained that Fahringer had given her this money, which, however, seemed very unlikely because of her miserliness. Incidentally, one of the heirs knew that the deceased had two savings bank books from Sparkasse Innsbruck, but these could not be found now. In 1903 the heirs were informed that the savings bank books they were looking for had already been collected by a certain Josef Dengg in April 1901.

An investigation was initiated which revealed the result that Dengg – on behalf of the Kramer – had already collected the money, 3000 K, in three installments, before Fahringer died. Kramer justified herself with the statement that Fahringer had given her 1400 K; adding that what the deceased did with the rest of the money she didn't know. The search of Maria Kramer’s home revealed a small box with the Latin inscription “Atropin sulfuri,” a sulfuric acid salt of atropine, the highly toxic component of Belladonna. As a result, the rumor that had long been widespread in Kössen that Fahringer had not died of natural causes gained new intensity of suspicion. After a few excuses, Kramer then explained that she had received this powder from Maria Hartl, with the order to give Fahringer some of it in other that the old woman would lose senses and then leave the savings bank booklet to them. They could then share the money together. She then gave the poison twice to Fahringer, once mixed into in wine, the other time in coffee. The second time this happened on April 21; on the 23rd the Fahringer was suddenly changed. Maria Hartl denies having sent the poison along with instructions from the Kramer.

The exhumation and forensic examination of the body corpse showed with certainty that Fahringer had not died of stroke, revealing the presence of a large amount of atropine in the organs.

The fact that the deceased had expressed the intention of returning to her former apartment in Kössen, whereby the absence of the Innsbruck savings bank books, that had already been taken, and the withdrawal of deposits from the Kössener loan fund would have come from daylight the Kramer and her accomplices moved to act quickly and to poison the Fahringer woman.

Maria Kramer, who enjoys a very bad reputation, is subsequently accused of having poisoned her husband Johann Kramer, who died in August 1900, as well as having poisoned mother Katharina, who died in March 1902. In fact, atropine was found in all parts of the body of the deceased mother. But the fact that during her illness she was rubbed with henbane oil, which is chemically and physiologically similar to atropine, saves the accused from a new charge of poisoning. Poison could not be detected in Johann Kramer's corpse.

After a lengthy summary presentation, the jury was given the questions that now withdrew to the consultation room. The jury's verdict is: The poisoned murder accused of Kramer is affirmed with 5 votes, with 5 votes against; homicide and embezzlement unanimously affirmed. Hartl is also acquitted of accomplice to murder; the questions relating to homicide assistance and participation and incitement to embezzlement are answered unanimously. Dengg was unanimously found guilty of inciting embezzlement.

The sentence was as follows: Kramer was sentenced to 6 years in prison, augmented with a fast day every quarter and close confinement on April 23; Hartl to 7 years in prison, augmented with a fast day every quarter and close confinement arrest April 23; Dengg to 4 years in prison, a fast day every quarter.

[“A Poison-murder Trial,” (“Ein Giftmordproceß”), Salzburger Chronik (Salzburg, Austria), 11. März 1905, p. 5]

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FULL TEXT: Innsbruck, 10. März.(Ein Giftmord Prozeß) spielte sich vorgestern vor den Schranken des Schwurgerichtes ab. Angeklagt waren Maria Kramer aus Kössen, zuletzt in Rauris, Maria Hartl, Krämerin in Maria Plain und Josef Dengg aus Kirchdorf, zuletzt Platzwirt in Rauris, wegen Meuchelmord, Teilnahme an demselben und Veruntreuung. Der Tatbestand ist kurz folgender: Im sogenannten Schlechterhäuschen zu Kössen lebte bis Ende des Jahres 1900 die 73 Jahre alte Ursula Fahringer. Auf eindringliches Zureden der Maria Hartl übersiedelte nun die alte Fahringer zu Maria Kramer nach Waidach bei Kössen, wo sie aber nur mehr bis zum 23. April 1901 lebte und dann angeblich an Gehirnschlag verschied. Als reinen Nachloß hinterließ sie 4845 K, darunter ein Einlagsbüchel des Darlehenskoffenvereines von Kössen mit ursprünglich 1228 K, lautend aber nur mehr auf 300 K, die 928 K hatte die Kramer angeblich im Aufträge der Fahringer am 7. April erhoben. Bei der Verlassenschaftsabhandlung erklärte dann die Kramer, daß ihr die Fahringer dieses Geld geschenkt habe, was aber beider an Geiz grenzenden Sparsamkeit derselben sehr unwahrscheinlich schien. Ein Erbe hatte übrigens Kenntnis, daß die Verstorbene zwei Sparkassebücher der Sparkasse Innsbruck besessen habe, die aber jetzt nicht aufzufinden waren. Im Jahre 1903 erhielten nun die Erben Kunde, daß die gesuchten Sparkassebücher von einem gewissen Josef Dengg schon im April des Jahres 1901 behoben worden seien.

Eingeleitete Unter suchung enhatten dann das Ergebnis, daß Dengg schon vor dem Tode der Fahringerim Auftrage der Kramer das Geld in drei Raten, zusammen 3000 K behoben habe. Kramer rechtfertigte sich mit der Angabe, die Fahringer habe ihr 1400 K geschenkt; was die Verstorbene mit dem restlichen Gelde getan, das wise sie nicht. Gelegentlich der Haus durch suchung bei der Maria Kramer fand man auch ein Schächtelchen mit der lateinischen Aufschrift Atropin sulfuri, ein schwefelsaures Salz von Atropin, dem höchst giftigen Bestandteil der Tollkirsche. Dadurch fand das in Kössen schon längst verbreitete Gerücht, Fahringer sei nicht eines natürlichen Todes gestorben, neue Verdächtigungsgrüade. Nach einigen Ausreden er klärte nun die Kramer, dieses Pulver von der Maria Hartl erhalten zu haben, mit dem Aufträge, der Fahringer etwas davon zu geben; dann werde die selbe ganz von Sinnen kommen und ihnen dann das Sparkassebüchel überlassen. Das Geld können sie dann gemeinsam teilen. Sie habe dann von dem Gifte zwei mal der Fahringer gegeben, das eine mal in Wein, das andere mal in Kaffee gemischt. Das zweite mal sei dies am 21. April geschehen; am 23. sei die Fahringer plötzlich verschieden. Die Maria Hartl leugnet nun, das Gift nebst Anweisung der Kramer geschickt zu haben.

Die Exhumierung und gerichtsärztliche Untersuchungder Leicheergabnun mit Bestimmtheit, daß Fahringer nicht an Gehirttschlag gestorben sei, sowie auch das Vorhanvensein einer größeren Menge Atropin in den Leichenteilen.

Dadurch, daß die Verstorben ein den letzten Tagen wie der holt die Absicht geäußert hatte, in die frühere Wohnung nach Kössen zurückzukehren, wobei dann der Abgang der bereits behobenen Innsbrucker Sparkassebücher und die Entnahme der Einlage aus der Kössener Darlehenskasse aus Tageslicht gekommen wäre, wurde offenbar die Kramer bewogen, schnell zu handeln und die alle Person zu vergiften.

Maria Kramer, die einen sehr schlimmen Leumund genießt, wird nachträglich noch beschuldigt, ihren am17. August 1900 verstorbenen Ehemann Johann Kramer, sowie ihre am18. März 1902 verstorbene Mutter Katharina ebenfalls vergiftet zu haben. Tatsächlich wurde in sämtlichen Leichenteilen der verstorbenen Mutter Atropin nachgewiesen. Der Umstand aber, daß dieselbe in ihrer Krankheit mit Bilsenkrautöl eingerieben wurde, das in seiner chemischen und physiologischen Wirkung dem Atropin ähnlich ist, rettet die Beschuldigte von einer neuen Anklage wegen Giftmord. In der Leiche des Johann Kramer konnte Gift nicht nachgewiesen werden.

Nach einer längeren Replik und Duplik und dem Resümee wurden den Geschworenen die Fragen übergeben, die sich nun in das Beratungszimmer zurück zogen. Der Wahlspruch der Geschworenen lautet: Der der Kramer zur Last gelegte Giftmord wird mit 5 Stimmen bejaht, mit 5 Stimmen verneint; der Totschlag und die Veruntreuung einhellig bejaht. Hartl wird also von der Beihilfe zum Morde ebenfalls freigesprochen; die Fragen, lautend auf Beihilfe zum Totschlag und Teilnahme und Anstiftung zur Veruntreuung, werden einstimmig bejaht. Dengg wurde einstimmig schuldig befunden der Anstiftung zur Veruntreuung.

Das Straf aus maß war folgendes: Kramer wurde verurteilt zu 6 Jahren schweren Kerker, verschärft mit einem Fasttage jedes Vierteljahr und Dunkel arrest am 23. April; Hartl zu 7 Jahren schweren Kerker, verschärft mit einem Fasttage alle Vierteljahr und Dunkelarrest jeden 23. April; Dengg zu 4 Jahren schweren Kerker, einem Fasttag alle Vierteljahr.

[“Ein Giftmordproceß,” Salzburger Chronik (Salzburg, Austria), 11. März 1905, p. 5]

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A 3 page article on the case: Innsbrucker Nachrichten, 8. März 1905, pp. 5-7.

 

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