Pearl LeCourt, Youthful Poisoner – Massachusetts, 1891

FULL TEXT: Miss Pearl Le Court was, yesterday, at the Chelsea Police Court. remanded to jail without bail, charged with attempted murder at Revere, on Feb. 11.

At the brief hearing she pleaded not guilty.

When seen by a GLOBE reporter. Miss Le Court insisted that she did not purchase the arsenic.

George Garrett denies the statement that he and Pearl are engaged to be married.

~ MRS. LE COURT DISCOURAGED. She Does Not See Anything Bright in the Future. ~

When a GLOBE reporter called at the Le Court homestead last evening he found the atmosphere of the household even more "Do you recommend it to women?" gloomy than usual.

Mrs. Le Court dragged herself wearily into the room and sank in an exhausted manner into a chair. When asked if she felt any better than she did in the morning she said "No, and I don't believe we ever shall advise women or anybody, for that matter any better here."

The woman's face looked just a little more haggard and worn if possible than at any of damp air from an open window, a ride in time during the family's trouble, and she appeared to have no ambition or hope.

Her face is of a strange, unnatural color, somewhat resembling that of the child as it lay dead in the little casket. While she suffers little actual pain, her system is growing gradually weaker and her flesh  becoming numb.

She appears to be waiting patiently and resignedly to learn her fate. In answer to doctor's wish that there would soon be a change for the better, she replied that she saw little prospect for it.

Mr. Le Court was worse last night. He seemed to be taken down again as he has been several times before. He was delirious, and wildly called out the names of his children, Pearl and Daisy, saying. "Don't let them lock her up.”

Dr. Weeks or Chelsea visits the patients daily. He said to a reporter last night that there is practically po improvement in either ease. With Mr. LeCourt there is in more paralysis at present than has been the case at any time previous.

The principal complaint of the wife, the doctor said, was numbness and weakness.

In a morning paper yesterday it was stated that Pearl had intimated that she was not really the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. LeCourt.

Mrs. LeCourt was asked about the matter last night, and she firmly declared that Pearl is the child of herself and her husband. Their only other living children, she said, were Daisy and the 4-year old girl who was in the room.

~ PEARL WAS ABDUCTED. She Made an Involuntary Trip from Hartford to Springfield. ~

HARTFORD, Conn.. Feb. 28. – An uncle of Pearl Lecourt, Ernest Lecourt, was sentenced some years ago to State prison for 15 years for an assault on a girl. After serving six years he escaped, and was never recaptured.

On the afternoon of Sept. 9. 1887, Pearl was crossing the park adjoining the Capitol grounds, when she was stopped by one George Wilson. 35 years old, and told she was wanted at the depot. She went with the man, who induced her to board the train, and she was taken to Springfield.

There she told the landlady of the matter, and, a police officer being notified. Wilson was arrested and brought back to this city, and afterward sentenced to three years and to pay a fine of $500. He died in prison, Feb. 1 last.

[“Pearl Pleads Not Guilty. – Miss Le Court Remanded to Jail Without Bail, Charged With Murder – Insists She Did Not Buy Arsenic.” The Boston Sunday Globe (Ma.), Mar. 1, 1891, P. 1]

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FULL TEXT: Boston, Oct. 15. – In the superior court Pearl I. LeCourt, who indicted in June on twelve counts charging her with attempting to poison her father and mother by mingling arsenic with their tea, pleaded guilty to the first count, charging an attempt on her father’s life. Her counsel and the district attorney agreed that the prisoner was not entirely of sound mind, but that it would be better that she should go to Sherborn reformatory than to an insane asylum. Accordingly Judge Bond sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment at Sherborn.

[“Pearl LeCourt Gets Five Years.” The Wilkes-Barre News (Pa.), Oct. 16, 1891, p. 1]

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More cases: Youthful Borgias: Girls Who Commit Murder 

 

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Agripina Gomez, 15-Year-Old Would-Be Murderess – 1917, California

FULL TEXT: BECAUSE of doubt as to whether or not Agripina Gomez, 15 years old, who yesterday put carbolic acid in the coffee of her employer, is subnormal, Police Sergeant Leo Marden of the juvenile bureau will call Dr. Grace Fernald, psychologist of the Los Angeles State Normal School, Monday, to pass upon the girl’s mentality.

Miss Gomez told Sergt. Marden, Policewoman Brigham and Officer Wehrley that she had been given a day of liberty by her employer, Mrs. Harry True of No. 460 West Thirtieth street, on Thursday, with instructions to be home by 5 o’clock. Instead of returning at that hour, Miss Gomez, in company with two or three other Mexican girls, visited three other Mexican girls, visited three moving-picture theaters, arriving home at midnight.

Yesterday morning, the girl said, Mrs. True scolded her and threatened to call the county probation officers and give her into their custody, she being out on probation. This threat angered her, and as a matter of revenge, she says, she emptied the contents of a two-ounce bottle of carbolic acid into her employer’s breakfast coffee.

Mrs. True detected the order of the deadly acid and asked the girl what had happened to the coffee. Miss Gomez replied that gas was leaking in the house. Mrs. True tasted the coffee and was immediately burned by the acid. She called the police and gave the girl into the custody of Officer Wehrley.

At the juvenile bureau yesterday afternoon Miss Gomez said she obtained the idea of poisoning her benefactress by acid from watching a Mexican woman, 21 years old, poison her seven-months-old baby in the same way. The girl added that she testified she saw the mother pour poison into the baby’s bottle.

[“Mentally Wrong? – Girl Pours Poison Into Benefactress’ Coffee.” Los Angeles Times (Ca.), Aug. 18, 1917, part 2, p. 3]

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More cases: Youthful Borgias: Girls Who Commit Murder 

 

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Mary Lou Llewelyn, “Allotment Annie” War Bride Fraudster – Pennsylvania, 1946

FULL TEXT: A 21-year-old girl arrested in Philadelphia for receiving servicemen’s allotment checks from two soldiers at the same time, is a former resident of this city, The Tribune has learned.

She is Mary Lou Llewelyn, a bank cashier who resides on 34^th St. Her lawyer said she originally was from Scranton, The Associated Press reported.

Mary Lou was taken into custody by FBI agents. They testified that she married a South Dakota soldier Feb. 4, 1944, and received an allotment from him until he was discharged in September, 1945.

On October, 1944, according to the FBI, she married a San Pedro, Calif., servicemen without obtaining a divorce from her first husband. She drew allotments from her second husband until he was discharged in November, 1945. She gave birth to a daughter in February, 1945, according, to testimony.

Mary Lou’s attorney, Maurice Marmon, explained to Magistrate John Morlock that the girl is a “victim of circumstances.”

He said Mary Lou received divorce papers in a suit instituted by her first husband before she married the second. Mary Lou thought the papers were final and that her first marriage was dissolved, the attorney claimed.

The second husband didn’t return to Mary Lou after he was discharged and the layer believes he also has filed suit for divorce.

Mary Lou was directed to refund $1,080 to the Government and was released under $300 bail for Court. She earns $35 weekly and when asked how she would make restitution, replied she did not know “but I guess I’ll find a way.”

The Tribune, though telephone calls to Philadelphia Saturday, endeavored to identify the girl further, but was unsuccessful.

[“Report Woman Who Weds GIs Former Resident,” The Scranton Tribune (Pa.), Aug. 26, 1946, p. 3]

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For more cases of this type see: “War-Marriage Vampires”& “Allotment Annies"

 

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Bette Lee Richards Bowman, “Allotment” Annie War Bride Fraudster – California, 1946

FULL TEXT: A three way matrimonial parlay with a Marine, a Coast Guardsman, and Navy sailor resulted yesterday in charges of fraud against Betty Lee Richards, 2.

Although she had three husbands, she failed to obtain a single divorce and was collecting Navy allotments from all three, claimed by the FBI.

Husband No. 1 was William Richards, Marine corporal, whom she married in August, 1942. (In discussing her dilemma, she said Richards filed divorce proceedings shortly after their marriage, and she thought the action was final.)

~ WED IN 1944 ~

Husband No. 2 was Coast Guard Lt. Richard Hofmaster, whom she wed in April, 1944. (She maintained she filed annulment proceedings against Hofmaster, and assumed the marriage invalid when she wed husband No. 3.)

Husband No. 3 is former Navy man, one time Baker 1/c Robert L. Bowman. They were married in September, 1944, and have been living at 735 San Jose Avenue.

Specifically, the FBI said that while “married” to husband No. 2, the Coast Guard lieutenant, she received $3,000 in outright cash from him and his family. No charges were filed in connection with this, however.

“It sure is a mess,” sighed husband No. 3 – Bowman, the ex-sailor. “We want to see it through, pay back any money that’s owed, and try and forget the whole thing.

“We’ll get married again and start all over.”

[“Girl Held In Nuptial Fraud – Suspect Got Allotments From 3 Servicemen, FBI Says,” San Francisco Examiner (Ca.), Feb. 28, 1946, P. 3]

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For more cases of this type see: “War-Marriage Vampires”& “Allotment Annies"

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Martha Elizabeth Downey, “Allotment Annie” War Bride Fraudster – California, 1945

FULL TEXT: “I have four husbands and I want to give myself up,” a 22-year-old brunette said to Det. Lt. William C. Shurley early yesterday at Seventh and San Pedro Sts.

The woman, Martha Elizabeth Downey of Chattanooga, Tenn., said she is living now at 1016 E. Seventh St. and has been receiving government allotment checks because three of her husbands are servicemen.

Police booked her at Lincoln Heights Jail on suspicion of bigamy and turned the case over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation because government funds and Army and Navy personnel are involved.

“I’m tired of running away,” she told Det. Lt. Shurley, “I guess Uncle Sam always catches up with you.”

Husband No. 1, she told the officer, is Staff-Sgt. Horace Finney, to whom she was married in Chattanooga in 1940. No. 2 is Pvt. Edgar L. Downey, with a ceremony in Rossville, Tenn., dated Dec. 29, 1943.

~ Won’t Name No. 4 ~

No. 3 named as Will Cochran, Cincinnati traveling salesman, last June. No. 4 is a sailor to whom she was married in Santa Barbara three months ago. She would not tell his name.

Mrs. Downey realized the “jig was up” when Husbands No. 1 and 2 both were assigned to Camp Cooke. They apparently met and compared notes, she said, because allotment checks stopped coming from No. 1 about six months ago.

[“Woman Listing Four Husbands Gives Self Up,” Los Angeles Times (Ca.), Jan. 16, 1945, part 2, p. 2]

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For more cases of this type see: “War-Marriage Vampires”& “Allotment Annies"

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Alice Cheatwood, “Allotment Annie” War Bride Hoaxer – Pennsylvania, 1945

FULL TEXT: Philadelphia. Morris Segal, 34, a discharged Army veteran whose blonde wife Alice hailed him into court on a bigamy charge, turned the tables on her so fast that the furniture is still spinning.

Segal told the court that Alice has six undivorced husbands, which includes him and a sailor whom she married two months ago. Furthermore, said the comparatively righteous ex-soldier (he’s accused of committing bigamy only one). Alice has been collecting government allotment checks from three service men.

Alice, who calls herself Mrs. Alice Cheatwood, had accused Morris, who is back at his job of meat cutting, of having a wife, Sarah, and two children.

Segal asserted that Mrs. Cheatwood was married to John K. Smith, Carter County, Tenn., on April 24, 1925; Tom Buchanan, North Carolina, 1933; Robert Cheatwood, Trap Hill, N. C., 1938; Mike Casapi. Johnson City, Tenn., 1941; Avilie T. Baker, Baltimore, Md., May, 1945, and Segal, Philadelphia, November, 1943.

He said she has a 19-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son by her first two marriages.

By the time Segal got these facts and figures off his chest, he was really warming to the fray. He told the court how his wife had courted him”

~ “That’s All Right.” ~

“She suggested we get married, but I told her I was already married.”

“That’s all right,” Alice, who works at waitressing between marriages, answered. “All we need to get your allotment and insurance is a marriage license.”

They were married, but upon his discharge from the Army, Alice told Segal she no longer loved him. Two months ago, Segal testified, she told him she had married a sailor.

Mrs. Cheatwood was held in $1,000 bail for the grand jury. She is charged with bigamy and perjury. Segal is under $1,500 bail on charges of bigamy and assault and battery.

[“Seems to Be a Little Bigamy in This Family,” Sunday News (New York, N.Y.), Jul. 15, 1945, p. 4]

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For more cases of this type see: “War-Marriage Vampires”& “Allotment Annies"

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“Oxford Skeleton Black Widow,” Executed, Murdered 4 of Her 10 Husbands – England, Circa Early 1800s

Although this case was reported in newspapers in 1841 for its curiosity value we cannot assume that the execution was of recent date.

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FULL TEXT: In the anatomy school at Oxford, England, among other curiosities, they show the skeleton of a woman who had had ten husbands, and was hanged at the age of thirty-six, for the murder of four of them.

[The Morning Post (from Evening Paper), Sep. 11, 1841, p. 4]

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NOTE: The Murder Act passed in Great Britain in 1752, which meant that only corpses of executed murderers could be used for dissection.

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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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