Carrie Bodie Sparling, Suspected Michigan Serial Killer - 1911

In the end, Mrs. Sparling went free. But Dr. Robert A. McGregor was convicted of murdering Cyril Sparling. She had received insurance payments after the deaths of her husband and two older sons. In 1914, after charges were dropped against her for playing a role in the murder of Cyril, Carrie Sparling submitted a claim for an insurance payment on a policy she had taken out on is life.

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 5): Ubly, Mich., Nov. 22.— Dr. R. A. McGregor, the family physician and Margaret Gibbs, a professional nurse, who has been staying at the Sparling home since the death of Cyril Sparling last August, were arrested and taken to jail, following the coroner's inquest, over the body of Albert Sparling today.

The verdict given out by the coroner's jury was that all three brothers, Peter, Albert and Cyril, met death by arsenic poisoning. Mrs. Carrie Boddy [sic] Sparling the mother, was not detained.

Sparling was the third of a family of four men who died within two years, under circumstances startlingly similar to the deaths of the relatives of Louise Vermilya, the Chicago poison suspect. He died last May.

The first death was that of John W. Sparling, husband and father, who died in July, 1909. Peter, the oldest boy, died just one year later. Then came Albert's death, and last August Cyril, the youngest son, died.

In each case, the disease of which the men died, it is alleged, baffled physicians in attendance, but the symptoms were similar in each instance. The suspicions of the authorities were aroused by the fourth death the mysterious chain of fatalities.

Mrs. Carrie Sparling, mother and wife, realized $4,000 from the four deaths it is said. The police claim this was motive for the crime.

[“Physician And Nurse Held Four Deaths,” The Day Book (Chicago, Il.), Nov. 22, 1911, p. 32]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 5): Bad Axe, Mich., Dec. 15 – The mother of Cyril Sparling, for whose death by poison Dr. Robert A. McGregor of Ubly, was held today to the circuit court on a charge of murder, will be served with a warrant tomorrow charging her with poisoning her son, it was announced by Sheriff Donald McAuley of Huron. A nurse charged with being an accessory after the fact was held at the conclusion of a preliminary examination made sensational by the testimony of Sheriff McAuley, the last witness for the prosecution.

McAuley, said that the inquest to determine the cause of Cyril Sparling’s death, Dr. McGregor asked him if the authorities were going to exhume the bodies of the other Sparlings. Four members of the family, three sons and the father, died of a suspicious element.

”’If you do,’ said Dr. McGregor to me,” continued Sheriff McAuley, “I know you will find poison. If you fellows will take up Albert Sparling and find arsenic in him. I know of a man who can make Mrs. Sparling confess.’

”McGregor answered I would have to look in the glass to find him.’”

Further Sheriff McAuley testified that McGregor said.

“Mrs. Sparling sent me word that you fellows were there and for me to stick to the same story that she told Professor Boomhower. That was the first time in my life I ever lost confidence in Mrs. Sparling.”

At the conclusion of the sheriff’s testimony, Dr. McGregor's attorney said:

“I ask to have Dr. McGregor bound over to the circuit where he can have a full and complete vindication before a jury.”

The circuit court for Huron county convenes her January 16.

[“Did Mrs. Sparling Poison Husband and Three Sons.” The Lewiston Daily Sun (Me.), Dec. 1911, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 5): Mich., Jan. 31.-- A coroner's jury today conducting inquests to the cause of death of Wesley Sparling, Sr.. and his son, Peter Sparling, decided that both men came to their death from poisoning Dean Vaughn of the University of Michigan reported be found traces of arsenic in both stomachs.

Some time ago University of Michigan chemists, who examined the viscera of Cyril and Albert Sparling, the other two sons, reported they found arsenic.

Mrs. John Wesley Sparling, Sr., the mother and Dr. Robert A. MacGregor at Ubly, the family physician, are now waiting trial in circuit court on charges of first degree murder.

Miss Margaret Glbbs, a nurse, who attended the Sparlings, was bound over for trial on a charge of being accessory after the fact. The Sparling home is at Ubly.

The little village of Ubly, Mich., with scarcely 500 population, has a poison case which bids fair to take its place among the sensational mysteries of recent times.

Four members of one family John Wesley Sparling, the father, and three sons within a period of two years died under peculiar circumstances, and it has been shown by examinations made by experts that the deaths were due to arsenic poisoning.

Dr. Robert A MacGregor is now in jail it at the county seat at Bad Ave, while the nurse is out on bail.

[“Poison Mystery Deepens - Wife, Doctor, Nurse Held - Four men of Sparling family believed to have been poisoned and the doctor and two women who are in custody on charges of murder. -  Four Deaths are Found to Have Resulted From Use of Arsenic.” The Salt Lake Tribune (Ut.), Feb. 1, 1912, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 5): Bad Axe, Mich., March 21 – The Sparling poisoning case is to come up at the circuit court session starting here next Monday, and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that every person in Huron County, and many beyond the county borders and even across the Canadian line, is awaiting the developments of the trial with eager interest. The case is regarded ns one of the most complex that has over come before the criminal courts in Michigan.

The defendants in the case are Mrs. Carrie Bodie Sparling, the wife and mother of the alleged victims of a wholesale poisoning plot, and Dr. Robert Macgregor, the Sparling family physician. Dr. Macgregor formerly lived in London, Ont., but for several years has resided in the village of Ubly, a short distance south of this city, and the home of the Sparling family.

John Wesley Sparling, head of the family, was the first one to die. He was stricken in July, 1908. Two years later the eldest son, Peter Sparling, was similarly stricken. Albert Sparling was the next to die, and the last was Cyril Sparling, 20 years old, who died last August. In two of the cases a verdict of arsenic poisoning was, returned by the coroner’s jury.

Each of the victims was attended by Dr. Macgregor and later removed for treatment to a hospital in London, Ont., where the deaths occurred. In this hospital Miss Marguerite Gibbs, said to be a friend of Dr. Macgregor, was employed as a nurse. Following the coroner's verdict in the case of Albert Sparling, Miss Gibbs was arrested and bound over on a charge of accessory after the fact in the cases of Mrs. Sparling and Dr. Macgregor Indictments charging first degree murder were returned.

It is understood that Mrs. Sparling and Dr. Macgregor are to be tried first for the alleged murder of Cyril Sparling, the fourth and last of the family to die under mysterious circumstances. Little has been made public concerning the evidence upon which the indictments were based. Even the probable motive that may have resulted in the alleged slaying or the father and three sons can only be guessed at by outsiders, though there is a general disposition to connect it with the fact that the victim carried life insurance and the policies were written by the father of Dr. Macgregor, a retired life insurance agent living in London, Ont.

Attorney Boomhower has secured, the services of a prominent criminal lawyer to assist him in unraveling the mystery. He declare he has unearthed additional facts in the case which, when presented at the trial, will greatly strengthen the prosecution.

Nearly one hundred witnesses already have been subpoenaed to testify at the trial.

[“Wholesale - Case To Come Up In Circuit Court,” The Democratic Banner (Mt. Vernon, Oh.), Mar. 22, 1912, p. 8]

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FULL TEXT (Article 5 of 5): Feb. 19. – Another feature of the Sparling murder mystery, for which Dr. MacGregor is now serving a life sentence at Jackson prison, have developed in connection with the proposed suit which is to be instituted by Paul Woodworth of Bad Axe, attorney for Mrs. Carrie Sparling, against the Gleaner organization.

Suit is to be brought, it is said to collect the $1,000 insurance policy on the life of Cyril Sparling. It was for the murder of young Sparling by poison that Dr. MacGregor was sent to prison for life. Mrs. Carrie Sparling, mother of the dead boy, is named as the beneficiary in the policy. It is alleged that a demand was made on the Gleaners for the amount that payment was refused because of the circumstances under which young Sparling died and because Mrs. Sparling was charged with complicity. A short time ago the charge against Mrs. Sparling was dismissed.

At the recent biennial meeting of the Gleaners at Toledo, the Sparling claim was turned down. It is understood that a petition is being circulated among the members of the Gleaners’ lodgers at Ulby and Bad Axe to have the order pay the claim. The papers in the suit have been drawn up. Mrs. Sparling is visiting friends at Ulby.

Mrs. Sparling says the young man requires constant care to keep him from collapsing and dying as his brothers did.

[“Want Pay For Sparling‘s Life,” Escanaba Morning Press (Mi.), Feb. 20, 1914, p. 5]

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DEATHS

John Wesley Sparling, husband – Jul. 1909 (“1908”) (in London, Ontario)

Peter Sparling, eldest son – Jul. 1910

Albert Sparling, second son – May 1911

Cyril Sparling, son, 20 – Aug. 1911

SUSPECTS

Margueret Gibbs, nurse

Dr. Robert A. MacGregor

Mrs. Carrie Bodie Sparling

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Mrs. Wahle, Illinois Serial Killer - 1869

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 4): Jacksonville, Ill., Jun. 15 – Another dark affair is creating a good deal of excitement in our city. Some time since three of the children of a Mrs. Wahle, residing in this city, suddenly died, and at periods not far apart. Mrs. W. has since taken a trip to Europe, and during her absence suspicion was aroused, and the body of one of the children was taken up, and the contents of the stomach chemically examined. There was found in it a large quantity of poison. Mrs. Wahle has lately returned from Europe, and on yesterday she was arrested, to be held until the affair can be investigated.

[Untitled, Chicago Tribune (Il.), Jun. 17, 1869, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): A horrible case of child-murder is about being developed in Jacksonville, Mass. It appears that about one year ago a child of one Wahle, 11 months old, was suddenly taken sick and died. It was buried, no suspicious circumstances being at that time discovered. Since, however, the parents of the child have separated, in consequence of the alleged intimacy of the wife with the family physician, who attended the child. Recently a letter directed to the wife from her sister in Germany, fell into the hands of Wahle, and from that letter he gets the startling information that the child came to his death by poison administered by the mother. The sister speaks of the poison which the mother used to kill her last child, and from this comes another inference that four other children, the fruits of their marriage, who suddenly died before, may have been poisoned. Wahle had the child exhumed, and its stomach subjected to a chemical analysis, which revealed the fact that arsenic had caused the death of the child. Suspicion points strongly to the complicity of the physician with the mother.

[“A Mother Suspected Of Poisoning Five Children.” The Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), Jun. 22, 1869, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 4): A telegram from Jacksonville, Illinois, says our city has been treated to another sensation, and another murder trial is possible. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the wife of W. W. Wahle, dyer and scourer, of this city. She is suspected of having poisoned one, if not more of her children. The body of the last one of the five who are buried his been disinterred and examined by an analytical chemist of St. Louis, who reports the finding of metallic poison in the entrails, and says it is obvious that the child came to its death by the administration of arsenic. A letter from Germany, intercepted by Mr. Wahle, and the finding of three parcels of poison in the house aroused his suspicion, and caused him to have the warrant issued, though no arrest has yet been made. The child died last July, and during the next month Mrs. Wahle went to Germany. She returned in March, and has not lived with her husband since, and, it is said, has sued tor a divorce.

[“Terrible Crime.” Cambria Freeman (Ebensburg, Pa.), Jun. 24, 1869, p. 2]

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FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 4): The coroner’s jury at Jacksonville, Ill., who have been investigating the Wahle poisoning case for two or three days, on Saturday returned the following verdict: That the child Benny Wahle, who died July 12, 1868, came to “his death, we believe, by arsenic administered by some person or persons to the jury unknown.” It seems that three or four of Mrs. Wahle’s children have died mysteriously, but investigation has been held only in regard to one. No steps have yet been taken to arraign Mrs. Wahle. [Untitled (from “Chicago” column), Louisville Evening Express (Ky.), Jun. 28, 1869, p. 4]

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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

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For more cases of this category, see: Female Serial Killers of 19th Century America

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Sigurd Hoeberth Clip Art

These images are posted here for the use of others.

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The history of this important figure has, in the early versions of posts on this site, plagued with errors that were repeated from imperfect sources in US newspapers. Yet recent discoveries of German-language sources have allowed a fuller and more accurate account to be related.

For the history of Sigurd Hoeberth (Sigurd Höberth von Schwarzthal, 1880-1938), founder of the world's first men's rights organization with a comprehensive men's issues platform, see:

"The World's First Men's Rights Organization - 1926"

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Sonia Marcella, Later the Countess Gitano, Vamp Extraordinaire -1915

FULL TEXT: A few years ago there was no more beautiful, or, to all appearance, enviable woman in all Austria than the Countess Gitano. As she drove on the Vienna boulevards lolling luxuriously in her carriage behind her powdered coachman and footman in gorgeous liveries, all eyes were drawn to the radiant vision of loveliness, with the proud, daintily-poised head, the glorious dark hair, large eyes blue as violets, and the sweet red lips parted in a smile which revealed the gleam of pearly teeth.

If ever a face bore the impress of purity and innocence it was that of the Countess Gitano. And yet, as she pressed on her sumptuous equipage, there were those who looked at her with eyes of scorn, and who whispered curious words to each other for among the few in Vienna who knew her story, strange tales were told of the Countess whose angel’s face, it was said, masked an evil heart.

Never, it was whispered, had the great gift of beauty been so fatally exploited. Under its spell she had drawn lovers to her as a flame draws moths, and each in turn had paid a terrible price for the infatuation against which he was powerless. More than one victim of her witchery had been driven to suicide; others she had deserted after wrecking their lives and homes; and between two of them she had so inflamed mutual jealousy that one had slain the other in a duel.

~ SCORES OF MEN AT HER FEET. ~

And while she had thus left behind her a wake of ruin, she continued her smiling way to new conquests. The woman with the deep, soulful eyes and the angel face was, in fact, a heartless siren who used her dower of beauty and her rare gifts of fascination to lure men to destruction, revelling in her powers of conquest, and recking nothing of the fate of her victims.

A dozen years earlier, Sonia Marvella had already, as a girl of eighteen, become famous for her loveliness and her charms, which were a heritage from her Irish ancestry. Almost before she emerged from short frocks she had a legion of lovers at her feet; but to one and all she turned a cold, if dainty shoulder, until a Count of long lineage and vast estates joined the ranks of her slaves, and to him she at last gave her hand.

For a few years she lived fairly happily with her husband, until, wearied of him, she sought distraction and relief in a lover. Tiring of him in turn — for she could not long be constant to any man — she conceived the expedient of denouncing him to the Count in an anonymous letter, and had the satisfaction of seeing him killed by her husband in a duel.

One lover the less was a matter of indifference to the Countess, for she had many eager to take his place; and it was not long before the Count and more than one formidable rival in her affections. He was, however, in no mind to issue more challenges. It was abundantly clear that there was no possibility of happiness for him with a wife whose affections were so inconstant and volatile. It was better that they should part; and, appealing to the law, he had no difficulty in securing a divorce — which was precisely what his errant spouse desired above all.

~ RUINING A RICH LAWYER. ~

Thus free from matrimonial fetters, the Countess was quick to ensnare another man in her toils — this time a lawyer of good repute, with a largo and lucrative practice and a loving; wife and family So powerless was the attorney to resist her allurements that, within a short time, he was as effectually ensnared as any of his predecessors, and was the most abject of slaves to her whims and caprices. Such, indeed, was his infatuation that his neglected practice had soon gone to pieces and his wife had secured a divorce.

Still more desperately in love than ever with his enslaver, the lawyer fled, taking with him several thousands of pounds left in his care by one of his clients — only to find himself, deserted by the Countess, for whom he had laid his life and home in ruins, and who now set out on a grand, amorous tour of Europe, seeking fresh victims with long purses to feed her extravagance. In her wake followed her disconsolate and abject lover, happy to get an occasional smile or kind word from her, and compelled to look helplessly cm while she coquetted with his successful rivals. So desperate did he at last become that he tried to take his life by poison, and was only saved from the death he longed for by the opportune arrival of a doctor with a stomach pump.

~ COUNT MAXINIA HER HOPELESS SLAVE. ~

It was about the time of this narrowly-averted tragedy that the Countess spread her net to trap a young Prince, of some wealth, whom she quickly had at her mercy — following at the “wheels of her chariot” through Europe, grateful for any crumbs of favour she threw to him. In a few months he squandered thousands—ail his available ready money — on her, and his wife had secured a divorce.

Having thus served her purpose, the Countess now began to look out for a successor to her Prince of the empty purse; and she soon found him, in an old acquaintance, one of her early and unsuccessful wooers, Count Maxima, a man of considerable riches.

That the Count was happily married was an obstacle to smile at; no man had ever yet been able to resist her spell, and he should not prove an exception. Nor did he. Within a few months he was her hopeless slave; and his wife dying before the divorce proceedings she had started could be consummated, the Count and Countess became formally engaged.

Then followed a few months of paradise — a fool’s paradise, it is true — for the infatuated Count. He squandered his gold upon her. Together they went to Vienna and to Nice, where he entertained her regally at his villa, and where her gowns and her costly, jewels and equipages created a great sensation. But she had no intention whatever of becoming his wife; it was his wealth, not himself, she coveted and set to work to procure.

~ THREATS OF A JEALOUS PRINCE ~

With the assistance of her discarded but still devoted lover, the attorney, she persuaded the Count to insure his life for an enormous sum, making sure that in case he was. killed there could be no question of disputing the payment. This step taken, the Countess had little difficulty in inducing her lover to execute a will, leaving the whole of his fortune to her. All that now remained was to ensure his early departure from the world, thus making a rich woman of her; and to ensure this desirable event, she enlisted the services of the attorney, who gladly gave them in return for her promise that she would marry him and share the spoil with him.

The lawyer’s plan of getting rid of the Count was simplicity itself. He would travel from Venice to Vienna by the same train as his victim, get into the same compartment by some pretext, offer him a drugged cigar, and shoot him after the cigar had rendered him unconscious. The scheme was simple, if risky; but when the time came to put it into execution the would-be murderer’s nerve failed him; and to the Countess’ s intense utmost and disappointment, the Count reached Vienna in perfect safety.

But although her scheme had thus ignominiously failed, she was not the woman to abandon an enterprise on which her heart was set; and before long she had found another tool in a youthful Prince, who was so madly in love with her that he was ready to take his own or anyone else’s life at her biding. Playing on his hot-blooded jealousy, and promising to marry him if he succeeded, she found an eager tool ready to her hand.

The Prince, it was arranged, was to journey to Venice and kill the Count, in his villa there. As he had already sent the Count a letter threatening to kill him if he married the Countess, the murder would seem a natural sequence to the threat. In order to remove all suspicion from herself and the attorney, who again was her accomplice, she arranged to send him, too, to Venice, ostensibly to ensure the Count’s safety, because she had heard the jealous Prince utter threats against his life.”

Such was the diabolically clever scheme by which the Countess designed to secure her own safety, while ensuring that one lover should clay another in order to make herself rich But the best-laid schemes of men are apt to fail, and this proved to be among them. The lawyer and the two detectives he took with him were actually in front of the Counts villa when the Prince entered on his murderous mission, of which, however, the detectives had not been warned. Their instructions were to seize any man who rushed from the villa; and the man they pounced upon was not the assassin, but the Count’s butler, who ran out to give the alarm after the foul deed was done.

Suspicion, however, had been roused against both the Countess and her accomplice, who were arrested in Vienna just after they had collected the insurance money on the Count’s life; and the Prince’s arrest followed quickly. In the trial that ensued, the cunningly devised plan of murder was revealed in all its hideous snakedness; and the Countess and her two a were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, after one of the most sensational trials ever witnessed in any Court of Law.

[“A Beautiful Fiend. The Countess Who Lured Her Lovers To Destruction.” (From Tit Bits.), Wanganui Chronicle (New Zealand), Dec. 8, 1915, p. 3]

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For more cases like this one, see: Vamps – Femmes Fatales – Predatory Women

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Jennie Guild, Was She A Serial Killer? – Massachusetts 1902

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Wrentham, Mass.. Oct. 13.— The case of Jane Toppan, the Massachusetts nurse who recently confessed to over 30 murders, by administering poison, may find a parallel here when the investigations into the trail of mysterious deaths that have, followed another woman, are complete.

A central figure of this latest case is Mrs. Jennie Guild, who is serving prison term for forging the name of her dead husband to a note payable to Sydney Withington, a hired man in the Guild home. Mr. Guild was 72 years old when he married his last wife, then Mrs. Jennie Wilbur, aged 30. Forty-four days after the wedding he died, after an illness of several days. The doctor's certificate gave inflammation of the intestines as the cause of death. Guild's children by former wives succeeded in having H. E. Ruggles appointed administrator.

A note for $275, in favor of Withington, appeared, but under suspicious circumstances. Withington and Mrs. Guild finally confessed it a forgery. In February, 1900, the woman first appeared here from Connecticut with Richard Lloyd. They passed as husband and wife, and purchased a farm. The couple quarreled.

Lloyd disappeared and has not been seen since. She dropped the name of Lloyd and took the name of Wilbur. Wilbur died in Windsor, Conn., in 1895. His death was sudden and accompanied by vomiting.

The couple's two children died soon afterward, it is said, of diphtheria. Guild's body will probably be exhumed.

[“May Be ‘Jane Toppan’ No. 2 – A Bunch of Mysterious Deaths of Wrentham.” The Indianapolis Sun (In.), Oct. 13, 1902, p. 10]

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FULL TEXT: Sheldonville Mass, Oct. 24. – The digging up in the light of the full moon of the body of Mr. Benjamin H. Guild, from its grave in the Sheldonville Cemetery, where it was buried three months ago, and carting away the remains at 1 o’clock at night, on October 15, in an open wagon, disguised as a load of vegetables, with pumpkins, cabbages and potatoes thrown over the coffin, was the first step toward unraveling the mystery surrounding the death of a prominent citizen of this town.

This seemingly ghoulish proceeding was all the more remarkable from the fact that it was done by the orders of a court and coroner.

But the secrecy in which it was hoped to conduct the whole affair was of no avail.

By daylight the next morning all the surrounding towns were agog with what had been done.

Old Mr. Guild’s body had been dug up, and the liver, intestines and other viscera put in a jar and sent to the Harvard Medical College doctors to test for indications of poisoning.

That was enough to confirm the suspicions that had been current in the town ever since “Old Ben Guild” died, July 18.

Whispered gossip broke out into the open accusation that his comely widow gave her aged husband poison to get rid of him, secure his property and marry her young lover, Sydney Withington.

It was the most startling thing that had ever occurred in the quiet, sleepy little hamlet of Sheldonville, nestling among the hills, on the outskirts of the historic old town of Wrentham.

Wise heads were nodded and shoulders shrugged.

“No more than I expected, when old Ben Guild went courtin’ that gay young widow down in Franklin,” said a neighbor.

The woman against whom these dark suspicions are directed, Mrs. Jennie A. Guild, once a nurse, is now in the Massachusetts prison for women in Sherborn, 25 miles away from here, and the man who many believe was in league with her is in the reformatory at Concord.

Mrs. Guild is serving a 15-month’s sentence for forging a note on her dead husband’s estate, and Wilmington is under an indeterminate sentence for complicity in the same affair.

It was this forged note, in fact, which aroused the suspicion of Associate Judge Henry E. Ruggles, of the Western District of Norfolk county, and led him to take steps against the dashing young widow Guild and Sydney Withington.

Securing their conviction on this charge was the first move in getting the suspected persons in the clutches of the law, so that they might not escape – and thus gain time for the State to prepare its evidence on the poisoning charge.

A matter of this sort is always slow. The chemical experts usually require from two to six weeks to make their analysis of the body to find out whether poison actually has been administered, and if so, what kind.

Then a search has to be made to find out if poison of this sort has been sold to any of the suspected persons and their accomplices.

While the mills of justice are thus at work to determine the fate of Jennie O. Guild, the blue-eyed, flaxen-haired widow, almost girlish-looking, is prostrated in her cell at Sheraton, and her 65-year-old father, Elisha D. Lewis, the venerable and respected sexton of the Congressional church at Hebron, Conn., bowed with grief.

It was not so many years ago that Jennie Lewis was an attendant at the Sunday-school, later a member of the Hebron Congregational Church, and a leading worker in the King’s Daughters’ religious society.

Then came her marriage in 1881 under the same church roof, when she was only 18 years old, to Nathan G. Wilbur, a respected young farmer. They went to live in the nearby Connecticut town of Windsor.

It was on November 4, 1892, that a series of tragic events began to be woven about Jennie Lewis Wilbur’s life. They have been sick about 10 days with a stomach complaint. They were pretty boys, 3 and 9 years old, Leroy and Tracy. They were buried quickly the day after their death, both in the same grave.

No breath of suspicion was attached at the time to the circumstances of their death. The mother’s grief excited the sympathy of the whole community and she wrote three touching verses about her lost children that appeared in the village paper.

Three years later, on August 27, 1895, her young husband suddenly passed away. He had been sick only a few days with violent vomiting. Dr. Bell, who attended the patient, in the death certificate which is issued stated cancer of the stomach as the cause of death. Mrs. Wilbur again wrote some poetry.

A member of the Wilbur household at that time was Richard A. Lloyd. He had done some carpenter work for the Wilburs, building a small addition to their cottage. After Mr. Wilbur’s death he helped the young widow to settle up the estate. It was small, to be sure, a village home amounting to about $2,500, but enough for the young widow to but a farm and be independent.

Then the first cloud came over her fair name. she and Richard Lloyd left the town together.

It was on February 20, 1900, that a man and woman calling themselves Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd went to the law office of Judge Henry E. Ruggles, in Franklin, Mass., and asked him to make out a deed to a farm which they intended to purchase in the adjoining town of West Wrentham, in the Sheldonville district.

From questioning the two people Judge Ruggles made up his mind that they were not man and wife, but had nothing to prove it and so made out the deed in the name of Jennie A. Lloyd. She said she had previously lived in Bridgeport, Conn. The farm was soon after conveyed to her from the Benjamin Follet estate.

Jennie and Richard went to live on their farm that spring, and brought their vegetables during the summer to Franklin to sell.

People on the streets admired the farmer’s wife, who sat so demurely by his side on the wagon. She was not a beauty, to be sure, for her features were irregular, but her complexion was fresh and clear, her hair a light, natural blonde, and her eyes were blue.

Then it began to be called about that the blue-eyed, little country woman wasn’t leading a happy life with her husband – that he drank and treated her badly.

That fall she was observed going into Judge Ruggles’ law office again, and it became known that she was trying to get a separation from Richard Lloyd and to gain dole possession of the farm which her money had brought. This she succeeded in doing.

Last October she went into Franklin and got a position as nurse and housekeeper in the handsome home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Young through a serious illness. While there she was known as Miss Wilbur.

In March she gave up her position and took a room in the Fletcher Building, on Main street. She put up a sign as dressmaker. Business was slow in coming to her, but she was not discouraged. She had many friends.

One of her most frequent callers was Benjamin H. Guild, of Sheldonville, “Uncle Ben,” as he was called, was known to everybody in town, as he had been born there 72 years ago. He was once a wealthy hat manufacturer. He lost most of his money at one time, but recovered from it and went into the wood business on his Sheldonville farm.

Ben Guild had been married twice. His last wife died seven years ago. After this things began to look dilapidated around the Guild farm. The buildings needed painting and a careless old housekeeper had allowed confusion and dirt to prevail inside the house.

But after old Mr. Guild began to pay attention to the blue-eyed “Miss” Wilbur last spring things took on a new air at the old farm. The house got a coat of white paint, and a lot of new furniture was moved in.

The upshot of it was that old Mrs. Guild household. The aged husband declined to sign the papers. He was suspicious of his wife and Sydney Withington, his hired man. Jealously had changed his fondly anticipated honeymoon into a season of bitterness.

The friendly relations of the young wife and Sydney Withington were the gossip of the neighbors. They were seen out riding together behind a pair of handsome black horses that Withington was anxious to buy from a nearby farmer, George A. Allen, who asked $275 for the team.

On July Benjamin Guild was taken sick with vomiting. After the first day this symptom ceased, but the old man gradually sank.

Dr. Solon Abbott, of Franklin, was summoned. He was puzzled by the case. He had never attended Mr. Guild before. In fact, it was a great many years since Mr. Guild had had any doctor. He was generally in the best of health, and when he did feel ailing he doctored himself with old-fashioned remedies of rum and quinine.

One day, as Mr. Guild lay sick, his young wife dashed off to Franklin in her buggy. She went to the law office of Judge Henry E. Ruggles and consulted him about her rights in the Guild property.

She returned that night. She and Withington sat up with Mr. Guild, who was apparently growing worse. Dr. Abbott again called and did what he could for his patient.

At 1 o’clock the next morning Benjamin Guild died. Only his young wife and Withington were with him.

Dr. Abbott issued a certificate stating that death resulted from entero-colitis. This is an inflammatory bowel trouble. An irritant poison like arsenic might produce similar symptoms and effects.

Even then there were ugly rumors that Ben Guild had been poisoned. Richard A. Lloyd, with whom Mrs. Guild had formerly lived, had declared that she had poisoned her first husband, Nathan G. Wilbur.

But this was at first discredited as the story of a jealous man who had a quarrel with her and took a dastardly revenge in this way.

Mrs. Guild summoned  Undertaker Farrington, of Franklin, to embalm Mrs. Guild’s body the day he died. Two days later the remains were buried in the Sheldonville Cemetery.

That very afternoon Mrs. Guild applied to the court to be appointed as administrator. This was supposed by the three other heirs. Mrs. Henry Ward, on the streets of Franklin.

The following day Mrs. Guild applied to the court to be appointed by the three other heirs, Mrs. Lyman B. Hancock, of Plainville, Mass., Benjamin Guild’s daughter, and Elmer B. Guild and Frederick A. Guild, of South Farmingham, the old man’s grandsons by a deceased son.

All the heirs finally agreed on the appointment of Judge Henry E. Ruggles as administrator.

The say following Judge Ruggles drove over to the Guild farm to take possession and look over the property.

Mrs. Guild then spoke to the Judge about a note that Sydney Withington held against the estate. The next time Judge Ruggles went to the farm, July 27, Withington himself spoke about a note, showed it and demanded payment.

Judge Ruggles had heard rumors of poisoning and of Mrs. Guild’s flagrant conduct with Withington.

When the note was shown him his suspicions were heightened and he made up his mind it was a forgery. He got the note in his possession for a few hours and submitted it to experts from Boston, who pronounced it a forgery.

State Detective George C. Pratt then set to work to get together all possible facts hearing of the forgery and possible poisoning.

Judge Ruggles and District Attorney Asa P. French placed this evidence before the grand jury on September 2. indictments were issued against Mrs. Jennie A. Guild and Sydney Withington for forging and uttering a note. The arrests were made September 6 by Deputy Sheriff Fitzpatrick.

Six days later both prisoners broke down and confessed. Withington had written the body of the note, they said, and Mrs. Guild had forged the signature of “B. H. Guild,” using an old check of Guild’s as a guide. This was done on the Saturday that Mr. Guild’s body lay in the house.

Sentences were imposed upon Mrs. Guild and Withington.

But instead of this ending the affair, it was only the beginning. Medical Examiner Gallison, District Attorney French, State Detective Pratt and Judge Ruggles then set to work to probe the poisoning mystery.

Among the first steps were the midnight exhuming of Guild’s body, the autopsy and sending the viscera to the Harvard Medical College for Professor Wood to make an analysis.

One of the difficulties in the matter which Medical Examiner Gallison points out is that if arsenic had been administered to Mr. Guild, it would be practically impossible to prove it, because the embalming fluid which was injected into his body has been embalmed with a solution of arsenic.

If, on the other hand, analkaloidal poison like strychnia, morphia or opium were used, its presence can be detected by a chemist even though the body has been embalmed with a solution of arsenic.

It is said be the neighbors around the Guild place that Mrs. Guild was absent from home a few days between June 20 and July 4, and it is believed she was in Connecticut.

Judge Henry E. Ruggles is anxious to know just where she was during that time. He is also tracing as far as able all sales of poison made about that time by druggists in the neighboring districts of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

After these facts are got together and the Harvard College chemists have made a report on the analysis of Benjamin Guild’s body, it is expected that the State authorities will be able to unravel the mystery that now surrounds the people who have played such a prominent part in this tragic affair.

[“Was She A Wholesale Poisoner? – Story Of A Young Woman Who Is Under Arrest, Suspected Of A Number Of Murders.” The Sun (Baltimore, Md.), Oct. 26, 1902, p. 12]

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SUSPECTED VICTIMS:

Benjamin H. Guild, died Jul. 18, 1902 (husband, married, Jun. 4, 1902)

Leroy Wilbur, 3, son, died Nov. 4, 1892

Tracy Wilbur, 9, son, died Nov. 4, 1892

Nathan G. Wilbur, died Aug. 27, 1894 (husband, married 1881)

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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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Sophie Safarin, Triple Black Widow and Instigator of Mass Husband-Killing – Russia 1927

German sources spell the name "Safarin," while English sources use "Safarine."

FULL TEXT (translated from German) (article 1 of 4): At Navoja Ladoga in Russia there is a village that eventually attracted the attention of the authorities because it is inhabited exclusively by widows. A government commission was sent to investigate and found the hideous fact that all the village’s married men had been murdered.

The instigator and leader of the women in these horrible crimes was laid to a farmwoman, Sophie Safarin, who is likely to be one of the most terrible women in the world. She has married three times and all three husbands perished. The commission found that two of the men, after their bodies had been exhumed, had been poisoned. Safarin’s third husband of was allegedly drowned, but here too it was revealed that he had first been drugged, whereupon he was dragged out of the house by the inhuman woman and thrown into the water. When the water brought him back to consciousness his wife struck him on the skull with a spade. 

After the murder of her last husband, Sophie Safarin instigated the women of village to murder their own husbands. Tea parties were organized and the result of these gatherings was the death of the men. Evening parties were held by the women to which the men were invited. When they were drunk, they were thrown through a trapdoor into the basement of Safarin’s house. In the basement they were murdered and robbed.

This beastly mass-murder campaign organized by village wives began just after the end of the war [World War 1]. Men who had served at the front returned to their village and now wanted to return to the rights and duties of household management which had been, during their absence, entirely in the hands of their wives. This did not suit their spouses, now accustomed to independence. 

Sophie Safarin, found guilty of multiple homicides killed herself, had stated that she had become the enemy of the male sex due to ill-treatment from her first husband. The widow Safarin did not find it difficult to persuade the other women that they too should chose to kill off their spouses. In those cases where the women gave consent, yet shied away from executing the murder themselves, it was Safarin who killed the victims. In total, 58 men were murdered. The women, nevertheless, let their sons live. Almost all the women in the village, except the war widows, were arrested and taken to criminal court.

[“A Russian Mass-murderess.” (Eine russische Massenmörderin.) Arbeiterville (Graz, Austria), 28. September 1927, p. 5] (translation revised 6/9/19)

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Novaja Ladoga (Russian: Но́вая Ла́дога) is a town in Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the point where the Volkhov River flows into Lake Ladoga, 140 kilometers (87 mi) east of St. Petersburg.

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Note: It appears that in this brief article the translator misinterpreted the German word "fest" from the source text, assuming there was a larghe festival, rather than multiple small parties over a long period of time."

FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): London, September. 28. – Russian authorities were surprised to discover that the village of Navoija is inhabited only by widows and children, says the Paris correspondent of "The Evening News." It was found that all the husbands to the number of 58 were murdered. The women confessed to having poisoned the men when they were intoxicated during a village festival after the war when the men had returned and disturbed the untroubled lives of the wives. Sophie Safarine, the ringleader, stated that she had committed 30 murders. She declared that she developed a hatred to men owing to the brutality of her first husband whom she killed. She dealt similarly with her second and third husbands.

[“Husbands Slain - Russian Women Confess - Fifty-eight Murders,” The News (Adelaide, Australia), Sep. 29, 1927, p. 7]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 4): Paris, September. 28. – The Russian authorities have been surprised to discover the village of Navoia is inhabited only by widows. After investigations they discovered that all the husbands in the village, numbering 58, had been murdered. The women confessed to poisoning them when they were intoxicated during a village festival, after the War, when the men returned and disturbed their wives’ untroubled lives.

The ring-leader, Sophie Safarine, stated that she committed thirty murders. She says she developed androphobia owing to the brutality of her first husband whom she killed in addition to the second and third husbands.

[“Women With A Grievance. - 58 Husbands Killed.” The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, Oct. 15, 1927, p. 6]

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EXCERPT (Article 4 of 4): Sophie Safarine – She was a killer with good knowledge of the poison who, in the first half of the twentieth century, killed her three husbands; then moved to the village of Novay Laloga, where she began to incite the local women to poison their husbands while they were drunk. After her arrest she confessed to having killed the men because of her hatred of men, having developed that hatred after because one of her three husbands, a violent man, had regularly beaten her. [translated from Italian Wikipedia, listing as its source: Vincenzo Maria Mastronardi, Ruben De Luca, I Serial killer, 2011, Newton Compton editori s.r.l., Roma, unpaginated]

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FULL TEXT: Bei Navoja Ladoga in Russland liegt ein Dorf, das schliesslich die Ausmehrksamkeit der Behörden erregen musste, weil es nur von Witwen bewohnt wird. Es wurde eine Regierungskommission zur Untersuchung hingefandt und diese stellte dieschauerliche Tatsache fest, dass sämtliche Männer des Dorfes ermordet wurden. Die Anstisterin und Leiterin der Frauen bei diesen grauenvollen Verbrechen vor die Bäuerin Sophie Safarin, die eine der schrecklichsten Frauen der Welt sein dürfte. Sie war dreimal verheiratet und alle drei Männer sind gestorben. Die Kommission stellte fest, dass zwei der Männer, deren Leichen man ausgegraben hatte, vergiftet worden sind. Der letzte Gatte der Safarin follte angeblich ertrunken sein, aber auch hier ergab sich, dass ihm zuerst ein Betäubungsmittel beigebracht worden war, worauf er von dem entmenschten Weibe aus dem Hause geschleppt und ins Wasser geworfen wurde. Als ihm im Wasser das Bewusstsein zurückhehrte schlug ihm seine Frau mit dem Spaten den Schädel ein. Nach der Ermordung ihres letzten Mannes stiftete die Sophie Safarin alle anderen Frauen zur Tötung ihrer Männer an. Es wurden Teevisiten veranstaltet und die jedesmalige Folge dieser Visiten war der Tod einiger Männer. Auch Nachtfeste wurden von den Frauen abgehalten und die Männer dazu eingeladen. Wenn diesedann betrunken waren, wurden sie durch eine Falltür in den Keller des der Safarin gehörigen Hauses gestürst. Im Keller wurden sie darun ermordet und beraubt. Dieses bestialische Massenmorderen der Frauen hat nach dem Kriege begonnen. Die Männer, die an der Front gestanden, kehrten in ihr Dorf zurück  und wollten nun wieder die Leitung des Haushaltes, ihre Rechte und Pflichten übernehmen, die während ihrer Abwesenheit ganz in den Händen der Frauen gelegen. Das passte aber den nun an Selbständigheit gewöhnten Frauen nicht. Sophie Safarin, die gegen dreiszig Menschenleben auf dem Gewissen hat, die sie selbständig ermordete, erklärte, sie sei durch Misshandlungen von seiten ihres ersten Mannes zur Männerseindin geworden. Es sei ihr aber nicht schwer geworden, die anderen Frauen dahin zu überreden, dass sie ebenfalls den Tod ihrer Ehegatten beschlossen. Wo die Frauen zwar ihre Zustimmung gegeben, aber vor der Ausführung des Mordes zurückschreckten, vollzog die Safarin die Tötung der Opfer. Im ganzen wurden 58 Männer ermordet. Dagegen liessen die Frauen ihre Söhneam Leben. Fast alle Frauen des Dorfes, ausser den Kriegswitwen, wurden verhaftet und dem Strafgericht zugeführt.

[Eine russische Massenmörderin. Arbeiterville (Graz, Austria), 28. September 1927, p. 5]

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La Nouvelle revue française, Volume 30, 1928, p. 280

Vincenzo Maria Mastronardi, ‎Ruben De Luca. I serial killer, Newton Compton, Rome, 2011

André Gide, Ne jugez pas , Gallimard, 1930, p. 162

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For more than two dozen similar cases, dating from 1658 to 2011, see the summary list with links see: The Husband-Killing Syndicates

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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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[877-1/9/21]

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