Faye Della Copeland, Missouri (1921 – 2003)

Serial killer and Robber, who from October 1986 to May 1989, killed 5 men by shooting them with a .22 caliber Marlin bolt-action rifle, in Mooresville, Missouri, USA.

Faye was sentenced to death on April 27, 1991,   along with her husband Ray Copeland. Together they were found guilty of murdering four men, in four separate incidents, during the late 1980s. Ray Copeland escaped the executioner – as he died of natural causes in October 1993. But her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999.  She died in prison on December 30, 2003

The victims:

Paul Jason Cowart, 21

John W. Freeman, 27

Jimmie Dale Harvey, 27

Wayne Warner, age unknown

Dennis Murphy, 27

Ray (1914 - 1993) and Faye Della Copeland (1921 - 30 December 2003) were convicted of killing five drifters (and likely killed at least seven more, though no bodies were recovered), and ultimately became the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States— Faye was 69 and Ray was 76 at the time of sentencing. Faye was the oldest woman on death row until her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999.

Prior to the murder convictions, Ray Copeland, had a long history of crimes, ranging from petty theft to grand larceny. He was convicted of writing bad checks on a number of occasions. The Copelands were caught and charged with murder after a drifter spotted human remains on their land. Evidently, Ray had hit upon the scheme of hiring drifters, having them pay for cattle at auction with bad checks (which Ray by then was loath to do personally, given his prior convictions), then killing the drifters once they were no longer of any use, with a single bullet to the back of the head. It is unclear if Faye had any knowledge of this scheme, and her lawyers argued that she suffered from battered woman syndrome.

On November 1, 1990, 69-year-old Faye Copeland went to trial. According to articles in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, Faye claimed she did not know her husband was a murderer. Although her marriage to Ray was fraught with abuse, the jury convicted her of four counts of murder and one of manslaughter. Faye had written a list of names that included the murdered drifters, each of whom had an X next to his name (as did 7 others, who remain missing).

As Faye was sentenced to death by lethal injection, she sobbed uncontrollably. When Ray Copeland was told about the verdict on his wife his reply reportedly was, "Well, those things happen to some you know"; he apparently never asked about Faye again. Ray is rumored to have been a spoiled child, often demanding things. Although he came from a poor family, if Ray wanted something, it was said to have been soon acquired for him by any means possible. He was strongly disliked by neighbors, who believed he beat Faye and their four children.

On August 10, 2002, Faye Copeland suffered a stroke, which left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. Weeks later, in September 2002, Governor Holden authorized a medical parole for Faye, fulfilling her one wish that she not die in prison. She was paroled to a nursing home in her hometown. The following year, on December 30, 2003, 82-year-old Faye Della Copeland died at the Morningside Center nursing home in Chillicothe, Missouri, from what Livingston County coroner Scott Lindley described as natural causes (disease). She left behind five children, seventeen grandchildren, and (at last count) twenty-five great-grandchildren. Ray had died (1993) previously of natural causes while awaiting execution.

In other media:

Their story has been fictionalized in a comic book, Family Bones, written by Faye Copeland's nephew, Shawn Granger. The case was also documented in a Forensic Files episode and more recently in an episode of Wicked Attraction titled "Murder at Twilight." The play "Temporary Help" by David Wiltse, which appeared off Broadway in 2004, was also based on this story.

References

    Book, The Copeland Killings, by Tom Miller

    Book, Family Bones, by Shawn Granger

  

***

Serial Killers Couple Ray and Faye Copeland

Ray and Faye Copeland - Their Retirement Years:

Serial killers share similar backgrounds and often begin their killing spree when they are young adults. However, for Ray and Faye Copeland, their lust for killing came with their retirement years. Why this couple, both in their 70s, went from being loving grandparents to serial killers, who used the clothing of their victims to make a warm winter quilt to snuggle under, is both morbid and perplexing. Here is their story.

The Copeland Investigation:

In October 1989, Missouri police received a tip that a human skull and bones could be found on farmland owned by an elderly couple, Ray and Faye Copeland. Ray Copeland's last known stint with the law involved a livestock scam, so as police questioned Ray inside his farmhouse about the scam, authorities searched the property. It did not take them long to find five decomposing bodies buried in shallow graves around the farm.

The Mystery 'X' Mark:

The autopsy report determined that each man had been shot in the back of the head at close range. A register with names of the transient farmhands who had worked for the Copelands helped police identify the bodies. Twelve of the names, including the five victims found, had a crude 'X' in Faye's handwriting, marked by the name.

More Disturbing Evidence:

Authorities found a .22-calibre Marlin bolt-action rifle inside the Copeland home, which balistics tests proved to be the same weapon as the one used in the murders. The most disturbing piece of evidence, besides the scattered bones and rifle, was a handmade quilt Faye Copeland made out of the dead victim's clothing. The Copeland's were quickly charged with five murders, identified as Paul Jason Cowart, John W Freeman, Jimmie Dale Harvey, Wayne Warner and Dennis Murphy.

Faye Insisted Knowing Nothing About Murders:

Faye Copeland claimed to know nothing about the murders and stuck to her story even after being offered a deal to change her murder charges to conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for information about the remaining seven missing men listed in her register. Although a conspiracy charge would have meant her spending less than a year in prison, compared to the possibility of receiving the death sentence, Faye continued to insist she knew nothing about the murders.

Ray Attempts an Insanity Plea:

Ray first tried to plead insanity, but eventually gave up and tried to work out a plea agreement with authorities. The authorities were not willing to go along and the first-degree murder charges remained intact.

The Verdicts:

During Faye Copeland's trial, her attorney tried to prove that Faye was another one of Ray's victims and that she suffered from Battered Women Syndrome. There was little doubt that Faye had indeed been a battered wife, but that not was enough for the jury to excuse her cold murderous actions. The jury found Faye Copeland guilty of murder and she was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Soon after, Ray was also found guilty and sentenced to death.

The Oldest Couple Sentenced to Death:

The Copeland's made their mark in history for being the oldest couple to be sentenced to death, however, neither were executed. Ray died in 1993 on Death Row. Faye's sentence was commuted to life in prison. In 2002 Faye was released from prison because of her declining health and she died in a nursing home on December 2003, at age 83.

***

Now The Case of the Vanishing Vagrants:

There have always been men like this. Hobos, tramps, vagrants. When they wander into town, out of luck, money and booze, most people view them with suspicion, dread and occasionally sympathy. One man, Ray Copeland of Mooresville, Mo., saw something else in the never-ending procession of the down-and-out. He saw dollar signs. True, Copeland's scheme to make money off these men meant that he'd somehow have to silence them, but that didn't seem very difficult. These were people with no close ties. He never picked one with a family or anyone who would miss him if he suddenly disappeared.

He didn't count on one getting away:

At 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, 1989, Crime Stoppers toll-free hotline received a bizarre, anonymous tip. The caller accused Copeland of murdering farm hands. He told of seeing a skull and human bones buried on the land, then he hung up. Police were not surprised to hear Copeland's name connected to such a horrible allegation. The old farmer had been in the sights of the local authorities for at least three years. Folks around Mooresville, population 130, had always viewed him a menacing oddball. "Real bitey and snappy," recalled the owner of the local cafe. He yelled at waitresses. Others said that they had seen Copeland intentionally run over dogs. More disturbing was how he'd hang around places where transients could get a hot meal and a bed, talking about big money and making job offers.

Trouble at an early age:

In addition to his temper and his peculiar behavior, the farmer had a long history of crime, wrote Tom Miller in "The Copeland Killings." Born in Oklahoma in 1914, Copeland had a hard childhood. He dropped out of school and started stealing during the Depression, when he was around 20. First hogs from his father, then government checks from his brother. He was arrested two years later for forgery. Marriage and children did not stop him, and he was periodically arrested for stealing livestock or writing bum checks; that is, when he wasn't dragging his young family from one town to the next, fleeing the law. Copeland; his wife, Faye, and their six children settled in Mooresville in 1967. Faye took menial factory and motel jobs while her husband worked the farm, buying and selling livestock, forging checks and scheming.

Since the 1970s, Copeland had been known to pick up hitchhikers to work on his farm. Uneasy neighbors watched year after year as a parade of the scrappy, unsavory and unshaven came and went. No one ever knew what became of them, and no one cared. They weren't the kinds of characters who were likely to send postcards. It wasn't until late summer 1989, after the anonymous call to the Crime Stoppers hotline, that the residents of Mooresville had their worst suspicions confirmed. For three years, local police had been tracking a string of bad checks passed by transients who had been working for Copeland. He and his hired man would attend cattle auctions and bid exorbitant prices. The hired man would write a check, and together the pair would take off with the livestock.

By the time the checks bounced, the cattle had been resold, and the man who signed thecheck had vanished. At least a dozen men had worked with Copeland from 1986 to the summer of 1989. Five vanished after stealing a total of $32,000 with phony bank accounts and bad paper.  Copeland said he knew nothing about what happened to his workers. In fact, he told police that they had bounced checks to him, too. Then, in September 1989, cops tracked down one of his former farm hands. At 56, boozy Jack McCormick had been drifting for years. When police snagged him in Oregon, and charged him with bouncing checks in Missouri, he offered details of how Copeland operated. He also boasted that he knew where bodies were buried. McCormick, who described himself as a "common gutter tramp and drunk," said he had been living at the Victory Mission in Springfield, Mo., when Copeland came sniffing around for workers.

With a promise of a $20,000-a-year job, the farmer lured the old drunk. He helped McCormick get a post-office box and a checking account. Together, the men attended cattle auctions, McCormick bidding on the animals Copeland wanted. Then McCormick would pay by check, fully aware that the sums were far beyond what was in his account. This went on for a short time, until McCormick fled after Copeland pointed a .22 at his head. "Icame close to being killed before I got out of there," McCormick told reporters. It was McCormick who had made the call to the hotline in August, shortly after he had made his escape. The old drunk's story was enough to arrest both Copelands on charges of swindling.

Soon, the 75-year-old farmer and his 68-year-old wife were in jail, and police were swarming all over their 40 acres. "You'll find nothing on my place," Copeland told police. The cops dug and dug and dug some more. But Copeland was right. They came up with nothing more than a handful of animal bones.

Looking further for more clues:

The police department's luck improved when the cops broadened their search, moving 12 miles away to a farm in Ludlow, Mo., where Copeland often took odd jobs. Three corpses were buried in the barn in shallow graves. All had been shot in the head with a .22. They were identified as Jimmie Dale Harvey, Paul Cowart and John Freeman, transients who had last been seen working for Copeland. They were also three of the men who had written bad checks. "He's dependable, a very hardworking guy," the farm owner told reporters. "Very surprising to me that he had time to get into mischief." Later, investigators uncovered another corpse in the barn, Wayne Warner, a drifter who had spent his last moments with Ray Copeland. The final body was Dennis Murphy, another one of Copeland's business associates, whose remains were found in a well on another farm.

The farmer denied having knowledge of any of the killings, except Murphy's. He told police that he had witnessed McCormick dumping a body into the well. There were questions from the start about the level of Faye's involvement in the cattle scam and the murders. Her husband was a brutal man, and there was the possibility that his wife was just another one of his victims, a battered wife too terrified of her husband to question or resist. But one item recovered from the house suggested she had full knowledge of what was going on. It was a list of names in Faye's handwriting. Next to the names Freeman, Cowart and Harvey, three of the murdered men, were big "X" marks. The Copelands were charged with five counts of first-degree murder. Faye was first to face a jury, on Nov. 1, 1990. It took 2-1/2 hours of deliberation to decide she was guilty, and three more hours to set the penalty at death.

When her husband went to trial the following year, the results were the same, giving them the unique distinction of being the oldest couple on Death Row. Ray didn't last long behind bars, dying in October 1993 in the prison infirmary. Faye's death sentence was overturned on appeal, but not her conviction. After suffering a stroke in 2002, the 82-year-old grandmother was paroled and sent to a nursing home, where she died the day before New Year's Eve 2003.

As always, stay safe !

Bird

***

"The Black Widow" Elfriede Blauensteiner

Of: Vienna, Austria

Status: Sentenced to life in prison in 1997 and 2001. Died on November 18, 2003

Elfriede Blauensteiner (22 January 1931 – 18 November 2003), dubbed the "Black Widow", was an Austrian serial killer who murdered at least three victims by poison. In each case, she inherited the victim's possessions. Blauensteiner died from a brain tumor on 18 November 2003 in a Vienna Hospital, who was a which found as a "black widow" into the Austrian crime film-alga-laminated introduction.

   

The 1931 in Vienna born woman poisoned its life companion, its neighbor as well as a further man, whom she became acquainted with by one of it given up contact announcement. It gave Euglucon to its victims to blood-sugar-lower a medicine, combined with an anti-depressive. Before it killed its victims, these had their "nurse" possession and real estate properties bequeaths. She was condemned first 1997 in Krems spoken for a murder case guiltily (lifelong), 2001 it for two further cases in Vienna because of murder. Their court appearances were legendary, with which it partly pointed any debt from itself. Admits became an appearance, with which it arose with a golden crucifix, it up stretched and said "I washes my hands in innocence". The OGH at that time president Johann Rzeszut at that time injustice dimension of one ", which is too large actually for a terrestrial Court of Justice", spoke. Their defense counsel was the Austrian Elmar Kresbach. Elfriede Blauensteiner sat some years in the woman Mrs. Schwarzau, before she died 2003 at the age of 72 years at the consequences of a brain tumor.

  

 Elfriede Blauensteiner (5+)

On January 11, 1996, this 64-year-old Austrian widow confessed to killing five people. Although she later recanted her confession authorities believe she is responsible for more deaths in a killing spree spanning over a decade. Dubbed the "Black Widow" by the local press, Elfriede confessed to murdering her husband, two former lovers and two other men because "They deserved to die." An obsessive gambler, authorities believe she killed them to fuel her expensive addiction.

She remembers her first victim was the janitor of her apartment building who, in 1981, she "helped commit suicide" because he was abusing his wife and children. Next came her second husband, Rudolf Blauensteiner, who died in August 1992 after being in a mysterious coma for 10 days. Four months later, a wealthy woman who was Blauensteiner's neighbour in Vienna died after being cared for by her. Coincidentally, she had just changed her will in favor of Frau Elle. In June 1995, a 65-year-old man whom she met through a newspaper personal add died after spending a year in her care. One octogenarian "companion" died of cancer before she could interfere with his healthcare. Ever the resourceful criminal, Frau Elle falsified his will to pocket a $15,000 inheritance. Another would-be-victim who survived her care said that although he had fought in World War II and had been a prisoner of war in Russia for five years, he never felt worse than he did after eating a meal cooked by his loving Elfriede.

Mrs. Blauensteiner's trial in Krems started on February 10, 1997. Because of a lack of physical evidence, Elle was only charged with the murder of Alois Pichler, a 77-year-old pensioner who died in November 1995, a few months after meeting Frau Elle through a newspaper ad. Friedrich Kutschera, the state prosecutor, accused Blauensteiner of putting at least 70 doses of euglucon in his milk, a drug to lower his blood sugar.

The day before the widower's death Frau Elle gave him 20 anti-depressant tablets, left him in a room with the windows open all night and then put him in a cold bath, causing his fatal heart attack. The prosecutor also accused Harald Schmidt, Blauensteiner's former attorney, of helping her put the pensioner in the tub and of falsifying his will so that she could collect an $100,000 inheritance. Frau Elle is said to have learned about drugs to lower blood sugar when she treated a diabetic male friend who died in 1986.

On her first day in court, Elle appeared in a beige suit and clutching a little golden crucifix. "My hands are clean. I've nothing to hide," she told the throng of reporters that crowded around the steps of the courthouse in Krems, a town 30 miles west of Vienna. Asked if she would plead guilty, she said: "I would never kill. I believe in my innocence." Then, in a strange existential moment, she proclaimed: "Death is only the beginning of eternal life." Meanwhile Elfi has released her memoirs in the Austrian weekly "News". In them she claims that she has done nothing evil, because she only wanted to help her husbands. Always the optimist, Elfriede still hopes to marry again once her legal troubles wash over.

Unfortunately for her, on March 7, 1997, she was found guilty of the first degree murder of Alois Pichlerand sentenced to life in prison. Schmidt -- her former lawyer -- got seven years for helping the frau with the crime and forging the victim's will.

   

The Shock of Vienna:  Elfriede Blauensteiner

 The trial of Austria's "Black Widow" started in the town of Krems. A sell-out event, the tumultuous crowd of journalist and cameramen gathered around the courthouse to get a glimpse of the lethal granny. Holding a little golden cross in her right hand, Frau Elle fielded questions from reporters as she repeated her claims of innocence.

  

A jury in Krems, found Austria's black widow, Elfriede Blauensteiner, guilty of the first degree murder of Alois Pichler. Elfi was sentenced to life in prison -- the maximum sentence possible -- for poisoning her geriatric lover. Harald Schmidt, her former lawyer, got seven years for helping the frau with the crime and forging the victim's will.

  

The publicity-seeking merry widow Elfriede "Sugar" Blauensteiner had 2 obsessions: Gambling and a vivid interest in pharmacy. Her last victim, retired and wealthy Alois Pichler (77) answered her personal ad in 1995 - and survived the Black Widow´s care just 5 weeks. With the helping hands of her attorney, Harald Schmidt, she faked Pichlers last will in her favor for a profit of appr. 190,000 EURO. The victim´s nephew - who meant to be heir - became suspicious and informed police. Elfriede Blauensteiner confessed immediately to 5 murders (including her first husband, Rudolf Blauensteiner) using the drug "Euglucon" (lowering blood sugar), but withdrew her confessions soon after. The autopsy of Alois Pichler proofed a fatal dose of "Anafranil" (an antidepressant). Furthermore there where traces of "Euglucon" found. Not enough, Elfriede Blauensteiner and Harald Schmidt had also dragged Alois Pichler into a bathing tub, showered the victim with cold water and opened the windows to winter temperatures. Then they had left him to his fate.

Elfriede Blauensteiner was sentenced 1997 to lifetime prison for murder and fraud - and had her media show throughout the trial, laughing and waving to the journalists... Her attorney got away with 7 years. In 2001 the second trial took place - after exhumation of two more suspected victims confirmed more traces of deadly caretaking - and Euglucon. There was a wide public discussion about the costs of a second trial - as Austrian law does not allow an additional verdict after the maximum penalty. The second trial was held anyway - "for psychological reasons".

After her neighbor, Franziska Koeberl (84) had handed her over a savings book with appr. 170,000 EURO and the password "heaven" in 1992, she soon passed by - diagnosed with "low blood sugar level". With 230 visits to casinos per year, the money did not last long enough... In 1994 Elfriede Blauensteiner met retired Friedrich Doecker (64) and married him. His honey moon lasted until he transferred his house over to his spouse. This had a fatal effect on his blood sugar level...  The death of her first husband, Rudolf, was not subject of the trial - she admitted anyway, that with him she just "experimented" with Euglucon "for him gaining weight. "

The merry widow showed up with some black humor in the second trial as well. When she was asked how the drugs could be found in the victims, she blamed it on the pathologist "at last he became professor just by my case - he found Euglucon always on Blauensteiner victims"... The jury had less a sense of humor and convicted her in two more cases of murder.

While Elfriede Blauensteiner was serving her life term in Austrian Prison "Schwarzau" she complained about the movie "Die Gottesanbeterin" (The Mantis) as it was based on her "story" – that at least she had deserved a Liz Taylor starring...

As Always, stay safe !

Bird

***

"Las Poquianchis" Delfina and María de Jesús Gonzalez

 Delfina and María de Jesús González (known as "Las Poquianchis") were two sisters from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, located 200 miles north of Mexico City. From the 1950s until the mid-1960s the sisters ran Rancho El Ángel, called the "bordello from hell" in San Francisco del Rincón. And murdered Women, men and fetuses (prostitutes, their babies, and male customers), during the 1950’ until their discovery in 1963.  The number of victims was in the order of 91+  The method of each murder is still a mystery today.

They were each sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1964. Delfina died in prison due to an accident on October 17, 1968. Maria de Jesus finished her sentence and dropped out of sight after her release. It is unknown why and when she was freed.

 The arrest and investigation:

The police picked up a woman named Josefina Gutiérrez, a procuress, on suspicion of kidnapping young girls in the Guanajuato area, and during questioning, she implicated the two sisters. Police officers searched the sisters' property and found the bodies of 11 men, 80 women and several fetuses, a total of over 91.

Investigations revealed the scheme was that they would recruit prostitutes through help-wanted ads; though the ads would state the girls would become maids for the two sisters. Many of the girls were force fed heroin or cocaine. The sisters killed the prostitutes when they became too ill, damaged by repeated sexual activity, lost their looks or stopped pleasing the customers. They would also kill customers who showed up with large amounts of cash. When asked for an explanation for the deaths, one of the sisters reportedly said, "The food didn't agree with them." Tried in 1964, the González sisters were each sentenced to 40 years in prison. In prison, Delfina died due to an accident, and Maria finished her sentence and dropped out of sight after her release.

Although they are often cited as the killers, there were two other sisters who helped in their crimes, Carmen and Maria Luisa. Carmen died in jail due to cancer; Maria Luisa went mad because she feared that she would be killed by angry protesters. The sisters were the subject of the 1977 book Las Muertas by Mexican author Jorge Ibargüengoitia.

 

  

The Full Story:

Las Poquianchis: The Macabre Case That Shocked Mexico

In the first weeks of January 1964, Catalina Ortega went to the Judicial Police office in Leon, Guanajuato and told a macabre tale. Visibly shaken, scared and showing signs of abuse and malnourishment, Ortega told the police officers that in nearby San Pancho, the Gonzalez sisters held a sort of concentration camp/ brothel. Thus began the most scandalous and sordid tale of prostitution and murder, the most shocking in annals of Mexican crime history. Delfina, Maria de Jesus, Carmen and Maria Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela were born in El Salto de Juanacatlan, Jalisco in poverty. Their father, Isidro Torres was an abusive and authoritarian man. He formed a part of the Rural police, during the Porfirio Diaz days, in charge of riding thru town and making sure everything was ok. A violent man, who often abused his power, he shot and killed a man during an argument. When his young daughters wore makeup or "risque" clothing not to his liking, he would lock them up in the town jail to teach them a lesson.  After shooting the man and gaining many enemies, Isidro Torres, his wife Bernardina Valenzuela and their daughters relocated to the small village of San Francisco del Rincon, Guanajuato, called San Pancho by the locals. As the Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters grew older, their constant fear of poverty made them open up some businesses in town. Together with some money they had they opened a saloon in San Pancho, and this bar, although it didnt bring in loads of money, it gave them enough to eat.

Later on they would venture into prostitution. The sisters would bribe local officials with money or the sisters would "bribe" them using their sexual skills. Nevertheless they opened up clandestine brothels in San Francisco del Rincon, Purisima del Rincon, and Leon in Guanajuato state other bordellos in El Salto and San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco and another one in San Juan del Rio, Queretaro state, near Mexico City. Carmen, Delfina and Maria de Jesus "Chuy", operated the whorehouses in Guanajuato and Jalisco while Maria Luisa "Eva the Leggy One" ran her bar/brothel near the Mexican border. The sisters bought a bar in Lagos, Jalisco from a gay man nicknamed "El Poquianchi" . The nickname was passed on to the sisters, who were now called Las Poquianchis, a nickname they both hated.  They would prowl the countryside, hitting the nearby ranches in Guanajuato or venture into rural Jalisco and Michoacan states and look for the prettiest young girls. They would offer them jobs in Guadalajara or Leon, as maids or waitresses. The poor young peasant girls, with dreams of life in the big city and money, would be happy to oblige. Other times the Gonzalez sisters, with the help of an Army Captain/Henchman and Delfina's lover, Hermengildo Zuniga, would simply snatch the young girls, never to be seen again. In the late 1950's Carmen had died due to cancer. At their "Guadalajara de Noche" and "Barca de Oro" Bars, the young girls would be put to work. The prettiest virgins were saved for later, awaiting patrons with fat wallets, who would pay top peso for an untouched girls. The others would be raped, intimidated and showered with ice water as initiation. The girls would have to buy their clothes and makeup strictly from the Gonzalez sisters. The girls, held against their will, never being allowed to go outside were controlled by the sisters and Zuniga "The Black Eagle". Delfina's son Ramon Torres "El Tepo" also served as muscle, keeping the girls in line. For years the sisters made tons of money selling booze and whores to soldiers, councilmen, cops and horny villagers. When one of the girls got pregnant, she would be beaten and forced to abort, the fetuses dumped in the back yards of the brothels or buried at the sisters main ranch that resembled a concentration camp, Loma del Angel.

If a girl got too sick, due to malnourishment or an STD or due to an impromptu abortion, she would be locked in a room, starved to death or the other girls would be forced to beat her to death with sticks and heavy logs. "The Black Eagle" and the sister's chauffeur handled the bodies, burning them to ashes or burying them in mass graves. Johns with a lot of cash would also be murdered and their bodies buried, and their cash stolen.

In 1963, Ramon Torres "El Tepo" got into an argument with Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco cops and was shot to death inside one of the Gonzalez' sisters brothel. The police closed down the place and its said that Delfina, Tepo's mother, in a fit of rage ordered Hermenegildo Zuniga to track down the cops who killed her son and kiledl them on the spot. And kill them he did.  In January 1964, one of the Gonzalez sisters "whores" managed to escape Loma del Angel through a small opening in the wall and fled. Zuniga and his cronies searched for Ortega to kill her but they could not find her throughout the countryside. Ortega managed to get ahold of her mother and together they went to the Leon, Guanajuato police to file a complaint.

She was in luck, the cops she talked to were not on the sinister sister's payroll. They soon got a search and arrest warrant against Chuy and Delfina Gonzalez and on January 14th, 1964 they raided Loma del Angel ranch. There the sisters, still dressed in black, mourning El Tepos death and wearing shawls were herded throughtout the ranch, while angry villagers gathered outside demanding to lynch the sisters. Police and reporters found a dozen emaciated and dirty women at the ranch, locked in a room. As police and reporters explored the ranch, some of the girls pointed to spots in the ground and told them thats where they would find "the bodies".

Angry and shouting obcenities at their new accusers, the Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters could do nothing but watch as their chauffeur, also arrested, was forced to dig. There authorities found decomposed bodies and the bones of at least 91 women, men and fetuses. Under heavy military guard, the sisters were taken to a jail San Francisco del Rincon, but seeing as how the whole town wanted to lynch the women, a judge sent them to squalid Irapuato City Jail. A week later, Maria Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela went to a Mexico City police station and turned herself in, fearing being lynched. She thought she was immune, a judge had granted her immunity from the charges her sisters faced but upon arriving in Irapuato she too was arrested. There began the hectic interrogation and sensational trial of the century.

Dozens of ex prostitutes accused the sisters of rape, murder and extortion. The women accused "The Poquianchis" as the women were dubbed by the media, of dabbling in Satanism, forcing the women to practice sexual acts on animals, and killing and torturing dozens of young girls and johns. They accused Delfina, Maria Luisa and Maria de Jesus of corrupting and bribing local and state authorities, who were also regulars to the sisters bars and brothels. The chaotic trial, peppered with insults and yelling back and forth from the Gonzalez sisters and their accusers was short and a judge sentenced all 3 sisters to 40 years in prison. Delfina Gonzalez Valenzuela, the oldest "Poquianchi" went mad, fearing she would be murdered in jail. On October 17, 1968, while she screamed and ranted, workers doing reparations above her cell in Irapuato jail, looked down to catch a glimpse of the notorious woman and accidentaly dropped a bucket of cement on her head, killing her. Maria Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela "Eva the Leggy One" died alone in her cell at Irapuato jail on November 19, 1984. Her body, already being eaten by rats, was discovered a day later.

Maria de Jesus Gonzalez Valenzuela, the youngest of the "Poquianchis" was the only one to be freed. It is unknown why or when she was freed, but legend has it she met a 64 year old man in prison, and once both were outside, they married and lived their life in obscurity, finally dying of old age in the mid 1990's.

In 2002, workers clearing land for a new housing development in Purisima del Rincon, Guanajuato, down the road from the notorious Loma del Angel ranch, found the remains of about 20 skeletons in a pit. Authorities said the victims were probably buried there in the 1950's or 1960's, the could be more victims of Las Poquianchis.  If this is true, it raises the number of victims at 111.

As always, stay safe !

Bird

*** 

Ecperez.blogspot.com

Constance M. Fisher (1929 – 1973)

On March 8, 1954 in Waterville, Kennebeck County, Maine, USA, Constance drowned her children Richard, 6, Daniel, 4, and Deborah, 1. Then again on  June 30, 1966;  Constance drowned her children Kathleen, 6, Michael, 4, and Nathalie, 9 months.  Bringing the number of her victims to a total of 6.

At her First Trial She was found innocent as a result of mental illness in 1954. Committed at the Augusta State Hospital. And released in 1959. At her Second Trial, in 1966, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was then recommitted to the State Hospital. Her diagnosis changed over the years from paranoid schizophrenic to postpartum psychosis to sociopathic to dissociative disorder.  On the night of Oct. 1, 1973,  she slipped off the hospital grounds and threw herself into the Kennebec River. Her body was found nearly a week later in South Gardiner.  Constance Fisher of Fairfield, Maine was twice committed to the Augusta Mental Health Institute in Augusta, Maine, each time after drowning three of her own children.

The first was in 1954, in Waterville when she drowned three of her children in the bathtub. After numerous appeals from her husband Carl Fisher and having been declared 'cured' and sent home, she repeated the performance with three more kids in 1967, in rural Fairfield Center, Maine and was recommitted. She was a troubled soul and deeply religious. She had been adopted and was afraid that her children would be doomed and not go to heaven once they grew up to be adults. Duck hunters found her body in 1973, in a stream near the hospital, where she had drowned.

  

Synopsis:

Constance Fisher:

In 1954, Fisher drowned her first three children in the bathtub. After five years at the hospital, Fisher was declared cured and returned home. In 1967, she drowned three more of her children.

On March 8, 1954, while battling post partum depression, a 24 year old Maine housewife drowned her three children in a bathtub before attempting suicide. After spending only 5 years at the Augusta State Hospital, Constance Fisher was released from the institution. Her release marked the beginnings of a new era in the treatment of the mentally ill in America, as the nation moved to phase out the large state run mental hospitals.

On June 30, 1966, Constance Fisher again drowned her three children in a bathtub in what has been called the most bizarre murder story in the history of New England. The incident was foretelling of another American tragedy; the plight of the acutely mentally ill with no facility left to properly care for them. Found innocent as a result of mental illness, Fisher was recommitted. In October 1973, duck hunters came across Fisher's drowned body about seven miles downriver from the hospital.

  

'The Tragedy of Constance Fisher’

On March 8, 1954, Constance Fisher drowned her three children in the bathtub of her family's second-floor apartment in Waterville. The 24-year-old Fisher, distraught and severely depressed, took the life of her 11-month old baby, then wrapped the child in a blanket in her crib. Daniel Fisher, 4, was the second child to die before being placed on the couch in a blanket. When the oldest child, Richard, 6, arrived home from school anxious to see his mother, she offered to run a warm bath for him on the chilly afternoon. After playing with him for a few minutes in the tub, she put her hand around his neck and submerged his head under water. He struggled so hard that Constance had to climb into the tub with him to force him under. Then she drank part of a bottle of poisonous shampoo and crawled under the bed in an electric blanket. The deaths became a state and national scandal as people reacted with emotions ranging from outrage to sympathy.

But why did she do it?

Constance Fisher was found by the court to be not guilty by reason of insanity in the deaths of her three children. She was sent to the state hospital where she was both a curiosity among other patients and a patient much in demand by doctors because of her highly-publicized actions.  

Constance's diagnosis changed over the years from paranoid schizophrenic to postpartum psychosis to sociopathic to dissociative disorder, whereby she stood outside herself and watched as she killed her children. One thing bothered her doctors. She never showed remorse for what she'd done. Instead, she said the children were better off because she couldn't care for them properly and now they were in heaven. A voice, a presence, kept telling her that, she said.

Her depression and nervous spells began the winter before she took her children's lives, right after she stopped breast-feeding her baby. She made visits to her family doctor and to a psychiatrist. Both told the family to move from a two-room cabin where they were living on a pond with no running water and no toilet. In the winter, they chipped ice to draw water.

The family moved to Waterville where they would be closer to relatives and a downtown.

Constance's moods went up and down. Some days she couldn't get out of bed; other days she functioned through confusion, sadness and extreme anxiety. And there were days when she was on a high, unable to sit still. Five years after entering the state hospital, she was released, despite some misgivings from her medical team. There was no real follow-up plan for her, and no real regimen for continued sanity.

She was the poster child for the good work at the state hospital and its methods, which included insulin shock therapy that nearly killed Constance at one point. That therapy was later abandoned by the hospital because it was ineffective. It was recommended by at least one doctor that Constance be sterilized, a common procedure in those years. Instead, Constance went to the new home in Fairfield her husband had built for her and immediately became pregnant. Two years later she gave birth to a second baby, and within three years, a third child. They were named Kathleen, Michael and Natalie.

When those children were 6 years old, 4 years old, and 9 months, their mother again filled the bathtub and drowned all three. Her husband Carl came home and saw his beautiful older daughter face down in the tub. He ran out of the house, never to return again. It was Father Joseph Brannigan who went in and found not only the three children, but Constance in a coma from an overdose of pills. The house was a shambles of rotting food, toys and clutter.

Brannigan later left the priesthood and started a halfway house for the mentally ill in Portland. He later became a legislator and state senator.

This time, Constance knew she was in the state hospital for good. Her condition worsened and she spent most of her time watching television and mumbling to herself. She didn't mingle with other patients as she had before, and visitors  - including Carl  -came less and less frequently, until he finally stopped coming altogether.

On the night of Oct. 1, 1973, she slipped off the hospital grounds and threw herself into the Kennebec River. Her body was found nearly a week later in South Gardiner.

Carl became even more reclusive, although he continued to work. He eventually died from cardiac problems — or, as nurses said, a broken heart.

As always, stay safe !

Bird

***

Countess Catherine DeShayes

Convicted of witchcraft was burned at the stakein public on the Place de Grève in Paris on February 22, 1680

 Catherine Deshayes, sometimes known as Catherine Monvoisin, or simply La Voisin was a French serial killer. She was born around 1640, and executed as a witch on 16 February 1680, in Paris; together with several others. She played an important role in the so-called Affair of the Poisons. She lived from charging high fees to make horoscopes. She celebrated black masses, practiced abortions, sold love potions and poisons. She is said to have sacrificed infants. Catherine Monvoisin, or Montvoisin, née Deshayes, known as "La Voisin" (c. 1640 – February 22, 1680), was a French fortune teller, poisoner and an alleged sorceress, one of the chief personages in the affaire des poisons, during the reign of Louis XIV.

Background

Catherine Deshayes was married to Antoine Monvoisin, a jeweler with a shop at Pont-Marie in Paris. After her husband was ruined, La Voisin started her career by practicing chiromancy and face-reading to support her family. She practiced medicine, especially midwifery, and performed abortions. As for her practice in fortune telling, she was to say that she developed the talent God had given her. She was to have been taught the art of fortune telling at the age of nine, and after her husband became ruined, she decided to profit by it. She studied the modern methods of physiology and reading the client's future by reading their faces and hands. She also spend a lot of money to provide an atmosphere which could make the clients more inclined to believe in the prophecies. For example, she acquired a special robe of crimson red velvet embroidered with eagles in gold for a price of 1500 livres to perform in. In 1665-1666, her fortune telling was questioned by the priests of Saint Vincent de Paul's order, the Congregation of the Mission, but La Voisin defended herself successfully before the professors at the Sorbonne.

Activity

During her work as a fortune teller, she noticed the similarities between her customers wishes about their future: almost all wanted to have someone fall in love with them, that someone would die so that they might inherit, or that their spouses would die, so that they might marry someone else. Initially, she told her clients that their will would be true if it was also the will of God. Then, she started to recommend to her clients some action that would make their dreams come true. These actions were initially to visit the church of some particular saint; eventually, she started to sell amulets and recommend magical practices of various kinds. The bones of toads, teeth of moles, Spanish flies, iron filings, human blood and mummy, or the dust of human remains, were among the alleged ingredients of the love powders concocted by La Voisin. Finally, she started to sell aphrodisiacs to those who wished for people to fall in love with them, and poison to those who wished for someone to die. Her knowledge of poisons was not apparently so thorough as that of less well-known sorcerers, or it would be difficult to account for Louise de La Vallière's immunity. The art of poisoning had become a regular science at the time, having been perfected, in part, by Giulia Tofana, a professional female poisoner in Italy, only a few decades before La Voisin. She arranged black masses, where the clients could pray to the Devil to make their wishes come true. During at least some of these masses, a woman performed as an altar, upon which a bowl was placed: a baby was held above the bowl, and the blood from it was poured in to the bowl. She had a large network of colleagues and assistants, among them Adam Lesage, who performed allegedly magical tasks; the priests Étienne Guibourg and abbé Mariotte, who officiated at the black masses; and poisoners like Catherine Trianon.

La Voisin had many clients among the aristocracy and made a fortune from her business. Among her noted clients were countess de Soissons, duchess de Bouillon; Comtesse de Gramont ("la belle Hamilton"), François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, princess Marie Louise Charlotte de Tingry, marchioness Benigne d'Alluye, countess Claude Marie du Roure, count de Clermont-Lodéve, countess Jacqueline de Polignac, duchess Antoinette de Vivonne, Marquis Louis de Cessac, Marquis Antoine de Feuquieres and Marechal de la Ferthe. La Voisin resided at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, where she received her clients. She tended to her clients all day, and entertained at parties with violin music in her gardens at night, attended by Parisian upper class society. The house also included a furnace for the bodies of dead babies, who were then buried in the garden. She regularly attended at the services at the church of the Jansenist abbé de Sant-Amour, principal at the Paris University, and godmother of her daughter was the noblewoman de la Roche-Guyon. She supported a family of six, including her mother, and among her lovers were the executioner Andre Guillaume, Latour, vicomte de Cousserans, count de Labatie, the alchemist Blessis, the architect Fauchet and the magician Adam Lesage. At one point, Adam Lesage tried to induce her to kill her husband, but she regretted the plan and aborted the process. La Voisin was interested in science and alchemy and financed several private projects and enterprises, some of them made by con artists who tried to fool money out of her. Privately, she suffered from alcoholism, was apparently abused by Latour, and engaged in severe conflicts with her rival, poisoner Marie Bosse.

Connection to Madame de Montespan

The most important client of La Voisin Madame de Montespan, official royal mistress to King Louis XIV of France. Their contact were often performed through the companion of Montespan, Claude de Vin des Œillets. In 1667, Montespan hired La Voisin to arrange a black mass. This mass was celebrated in a house in Rue de la Tannerie. Adam Lesage and abbé Mariotte officiated, while Montespan prayed to win the love of the king. The same year, Montespan became the official mistress of the king, and after this, she employed La Voisin whenever a problem occurred in her relationship with the king. In 1673, when the king's interest in Montespan seemed to deteriorate, Montespan again employed La Voisin, who provided a series of black masses officiated by Etienne Guibourg. On a least one occasion, Montespan herself acted as the human altar during the mass. La Voisin also provided Montespan with aphrodisiac, with which Montespan drugged the King. During the king's affair with Soubise, Montespan used aphrodisiac provided by Voisin's colleague Francoise Filastre and made by Louis Galet in Normandy. In 1677, Montespan made clear that if the king should abandon her, she would have him killed. When the King entered in to a relationship with Angélique de Fontanges in 1679, Montespan called for La Voisin and asked her to have both the king and Fontages killed. La Voisin hesitated, but was eventually convinced to agree. At the house of her colleague, Catherine Trianon, La Voisin constructed a plan to kill the king together with the poisoners Trianon, Bertrand and Romani, the last being also the fiancé of her daughter. Trianon was unwilling to participate and tried to make her change her mind by constructing an ill-fated fortune for her, but Voisin refused to change her mind. The group decided to murder the king by poisoning a petition, to be delivered to his own hands.

The 5 March 1679, La Voisin visited the royal court in Saint-Germain to deliver the petition. At that day, however, there were too many petitioners and the king did not take them in his hands, which made her return without having delivered it. Upon her return to her home in Paris, she was castigated by a group of monks. She handed the petition to her daughter and asked her to burn it, which she also did. The next day, she made plans to visit Catherine Trianon after mass, to plan the next murder attempt upon Louis XIV.

Investigation and execution

The death of the king's sister-in-law, the Duchesse d'Orléans, had been falsely attributed to poison, and the crimes of Madame de Brinvilliers (executed in 1676) and her accomplices were still fresh in the public mind. In parallel, a riot took place where people accused witches of abducting children for the black masses, and priests reported that a growing number of people were confessing to poisoning in their confessions. In 1677, the fortune teller Magdelaine de La Grange was arrested for poisoning, and claimed that she had information about crimes of high importance. The arrest of the successful fortune teller and poisoner Marie Bosse and Marie Vigoreux in January 1679, made the police aware that there existed a network of fortune tellers in Paris who dealt with the distribution of poison. The 12 March 1679, La Voisin was arrested outside Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle after having heard mass, just before her appointed meeting at Catherine Trianon. In April 1679, a commission appointed to inquire into the subject and to prosecute the offenders met for the first time. Its proceedings, including some suppressed in the official records, are preserved in the notes of one of the official court reporters, Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie.

At the arrest of La Voisin, her maid Margot stated that the arrest would mean the end of a number of people of all positions of society. The arrest of La Voisin was followed by the arrest of her daughter Marguerite Monvoisin, Guibourg, Lesage, Bertrand, Romain and the rest of her network of her associates. La Voisin was imprisoned at Vincennes, were she was subjected to questioning. On 27 December 1679, Louis XIV issued an order that the whole network should be exterminated by all methods regardless of the rank, gender or age of those involved. La Voisin confessed to the crimes she was accused of and described the development of her career. She was never subjected to torture: a formal order was issued giving permission to the use of torture, but it was made clear that the order was not to be put in effect, and consequently it was never made use of. The reason it suggested to be the fear that she might give away the names of influential people if she was questioned under torture. La Voisin never mentioned the names of any of her clients during the interviews. She once mentioned to the guards, that the question she feared most was that they should ask her about her visits at the royal court. It is likely that she was referring to Montespan as her client and her attempt of murdering the king, and that she feared that such a confession should result in her execution for regicide. Her list of clients, the arranging of the black masses, her connection to Montespan and the murder attempt on the king was not to be revealed until after her death, when it was stated by her daughter and confirmed by the uncontaminated testimonies of the other accused. La Voisin was convicted of witchcraft and was burned in public on the Place de Grève in Paris the 22 February 1680. In July, her daughter Marguerite Monvoisin revealed her connection to Montespan, which was confirmed by the statements of the other accused. This caused the monarch to eventually close the investigation, seal the testimonies and place the remaining accused outside of the public justice system by imprisoning them under a lettre de cachet.

 

Another Article on the Subject:

Catherine Monvoisin, known as “La Voisin” (d. 1680), French sorceress, whose maiden name was Catherine Deshayes, was one of the chief personages in the famous affaire des poisons, which disgraced the reign of Louis XIV. Her husband, Monvoisin, was an unsuccessful jeweler, and she practiced chiromancy and face-reading to retrieve their fortunes. She gradually added the practice of witchcraft, in which she had the help of a renegade priest, Étienne Guibourg, whose part was the celebration of the “black mass,” an abominable parody in which the host was compounded of the blood of a little child mixed with horrible ingredients. She practiced medicine, especially midwifery, procured abortion and provided love powders and poisons. Her chief accomplice was one of her lovers, the magician Lesage, whose real name was Adam Cœuret. The great ladies of Paris flocked to La Voisin, who accumulated enormous wealth. Among her clients were Olympe Mancini, comtesse de Soissons, who sought the death of the king's mistress, Louise de la Vallière; Mme de Montespan, Mme de Gramont (la belle Hamilton) and others. The bones of toads, the teeth of moles, cantharides, iron filings, human blood and human dust were among the ingredients of the love powders concocted by La Voisin. Her knowledge of poisons was not apparently so thorough as that of less well-known sorcerers, or it would be difficult to account for La Vallière's immunity. The art of poisoning had become a regular science. The death of Henrietta, duchess of Orleans, was attributed, falsely it is true, to poison, and the crimes of Marie Madeleine de Brinvilliers (executed in 1676) and her accomplices were still fresh in the public mind.

In April 1679 a commission appointed to inquire into the subject and to prosecute the offenders met for the first time. Its proceedings, including some suppressed in the official records, are preserved in the notes of one of the official rapporteurs, Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie. The revelation of the treacherous intention of Mme de Montespan to poison Louis XIV. and of other crimes, planned by personages who could not be attacked without scandal which touched the throne, caused Louis XIV. to close the chamber ardent, as the court was called, on the 1st of October 1680. It was reopened on the 19th of May 1681 and sat until the 21st of July 1682. Many of the culprits escaped through private influence. Among these were Marie Anne Mancini, duchesse de Bouillon, who had sought to get rid of her husband in order to marry the duke of Vendôme, though Louis XIV. banished her to Nérac. Mme de Montespan was not openly disgraced, because the preservation of Louis's own dignity was essential, and some hundred prisoners, among them the infamous Guibourg and Lesage, escaped the scaffold through the suppression of evidence insisted on by Louis XIV. and Louvois. Some of these were imprisoned in various fortresses, with instructions from Louvois to the respective commandants to flog them if they sought to impart what they knew. Some innocent persons were imprisoned for life because they had knowledge of the facts. La Voisin herself was executed at an early stage of the proceedings, on the 20th of February 1680, after a perfunctory application of torture. The authorities had every reason to avoid further revelations. Thirty-five other prisoners were executed; five were sent to the galleys and twenty-three were banished. Their crimes had furnished one of the most extraordinary trials known to history.  Accord: Encyclopedia Britannica

 

The Affair of the Poisons (L'affaire des poisons) was a major murder scandal in France which took place in 1677–1682, during the reign of King Louis XIV. During it, a number of prominent members of the aristocracy were implicated and sentenced on charges of poisoning and witchcraft. The scandal reached into the inner circle of the King. It led to the execution of 36 people.

Context and origin

The origin of the case began in 1675 after the trial of Madame de Brinvilliers, who had conspired with her lover, army captain Godin de Sainte-Croix, to poison her father Antonine Dreux d'Aubray in 1666 and two of her brothers, Antoine d'Aubray and François d'Aubray, in 1670, in order to inherit their estates. There were also rumors that she had poisoned poor people during her visits in hospitals. She fled, but was arrested in Liège. She was forced to confess, sentenced to death and on 17 July was tortured with the water cure (forced to drink sixteen pints of water), beheaded and burned at the stake. Her accomplice Sainte-Croix had died of natural causes in 1672.  The sensational trial drew attention to a number of other mysterious deaths, starting a number of rumors. Prominent people, including Louis XIV, became alarmed that they also might be poisoned. The King forced some of his servants to become his food tasters.

Implications and investigation

The affair proper opened in February 1677 after the arrest of Magdelaine de La Grange on charges of forgery and murder. La Grange appealed to François Michel le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois, claiming that she had information about other crimes of high importance. Louvois reported to the King, who told Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie, who, among other things, was the chief of the Paris police, to root out the poisoners. La Reynie sought to calm the King. The subsequent investigation of potential poisoners was to lead to accusations of witchcraft, murder and more. Authorities rounded up a number of fortune tellers and alchemists that were suspected of selling not only divinations, séances and aphrodisiacs, but also "inheritance powders" (a euphemism for poison). Some of them under torture confessed and gave the authorities lists of their clients, who had allegedly bought poison to either get rid of their spouses or rivals in the royal court. The most famous case was of the midwife Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin or La Voisin, who was arrested in 1679 after she was pointed out by the poisoner Marie Bosse. La Voisin implicated a number of important individuals in the French court. These included Olympia Mancini, the Comtesse de Soissons, her sister Marie Anne Mancini Duchesse de Bouillon, François Henri de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg and, most importantly, the King's mistress, Athénaïs de Montespan.

Questioned while she was kept intoxicated, La Voisin claimed that de Montespan had bought aphrodisiacs and performed Black Masses with her in order to gain and keep the King's favor over rival lovers. She had worked with a priest named Étienne Guibourg. There was no evidence beyond her confessions, but bad reputations followed these people afterwards. Eleanor Herman, on page 113 in her book Sex With Kings, records "Given" claimed the remains of 2,500 infants were found in La Voisin's garden. But Anne Somerset disputes this in her book The Affair of the Poisons and states there is no mention of the garden being searched for human remains. Also involved in the scandal was Eustache Dauger de Cavoye, the eldest living scion of a prominent noble family. De Cavoye was disinherited by his family when, in an act of debauchery he chose to celebrate Good Friday with a Black Mass. Upon his disinheritance, he opened a lucrative trade in "inheritance powders" and aphrodisiacs. He mysteriously disappeared after the abrupt ending to Louis' official investigation in 1678. Because of this and his name, he was once suspected of being the Man in the Iron Mask. However, this theory has fallen out of favor because it is known that he was imprisoned by his family in 1679 in the Prison Saint-Lazare.

The end of the trial

La Voisin was sentenced to death for witchcraft and poisoning, and burned at the stake on 22 February 1680. Marshal Montmorency-Bouteville was briefly jailed in 1680, but was later released and became a captain of the guard. Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert helped to hush things up. De La Reynie re-established the special court, the Chamber Ardent ("burning court") to judge cases of poisoning and witchcraft. It investigated a number of cases, including many connected to nobles and courtiers in the King's court. Over the years, the court sentenced 34 people to death for poisoning or witchcraft. Two died under torture and several courtiers were exiled. The court was abolished in 1682, because the King could not risk publicity of such scandal. To this, Police Chief Reynie said, "the enormity of their crimes proved their safeguard."

Aftermath

Perhaps the most important effect of the scandal and subsequent persecutions was the expulsion from France of the Comtesse de Soissons. Her son remained in France, only to find that his mother's high-profile disgrace prevented him from realizing his personal ambitions, as he was effectively barred from pursuing a military career. He would eventually leave France, nurturing a profound grudge against Louis XIV, and enter the service of France's sworn enemies the Habsburgs. Prince Eugene of Savoy, or Prinz Eugen, would, in time, come to be known as one of the greatest generals of the age and one of the factors behind the failure of Louis' bid for hegemony in Europe.

Condemned in the Poison Affair

The Poison Affair implicated 442 suspects: 367 orders of arrests were issued, of which 218 were carried out. Of the condemned, 36 were executed; five were sentenced to the galleys; and 23 to exile. This excludes those who died in custody by torture or suicide. Additionally, many accused were never brought to trial, but placed outside of the justice system and imprisoned for life by a lettre de cachet. Of the people who were condemned to perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet, six women were imprisoned at Château de Villefranche; 18 men at Château de Salces; 12 women at Belle-Île-en-Mer; ten men at Château de Besançon; 14 women at St Andre de Salins; and five women at Fort de Bains.

Professionals

This lists people involved in the Poison Affair by being professionally involved in criminal activity.

Their punishment is mentioned after their name and role.

    Roger, Siegneur de Bachimont, alchemist, associate of Louis de Vanens; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at St Andre de Salins.

    Marie de Bachimont, alchemist, associate of Louis de Vanens and spouse of Roger de Bachimont; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at St Andre de Salins.

    Mathurin Barenton, poisoner; executed in September 1681.

    La Belliére, fortune teller; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet

    François Belot, associate of La Voisin; executed in June 1679.

    Martine Bergerot, fortune teller.

    Betrand, poisoner, associate of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Château de Salces.

    Denis Poculot, Sieur de Blessis, alchemist, lover of La Voisin; condemned to the galleys.

    Marie Bosse, fortune teller and poisoner; burned at the stake 8 May 1679.

    Marie Bouffet, abortionist, associate of Marguerite Joly; hanged in December 1681.

    Pierre Cadelan (d. September 1684), associate of Vanens; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet.

    Jeanne Chanfrain, lover of Guibourg.

    Magdelaine Chapelain (1658- June 1724), fortune teller and associate of Filastre; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Belle-Île-en-Mer; the last condemned to die (of those whose date of death is known).

    Anne Cheron, fruit seller and provider of objects for magic rituals; executed in June 1679.

    Jacques Cotton, officiate at the black masses, associate of La Voisin; executed by burning in 1680.

    P. Dalmas, associate of La Chaboissiere; sent to a workhouse.

    Giles Davot, officiate at the black masses, associate of La Voisin; executed in 1681.

    Etienne Debray, associate of Deschault; executed in September 1681.

    Marguerite Delaporte, poisoner, associate of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Belle-Île-en-Mer.

    Jacques Deschault, shepherd and magician; executed in 1681.

    Louison Desloges, associate of Marguerite Joly; hanged in December 1681.

    La Dodée, poisoner, committed suicide in prison.

    Louise Duscoulcye, lover of Dalmas, poisoner

    Françoise Filastre, poisoner; executed in 1680.

    Louis Galet, poisoner; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Château de Besançon.

    Mme Guesdon (1640 – August 1717), poisoner; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet.

    Étienne Guibourg, officiate at the black masses, associate of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Château de Besançon.

    Marguerite Joly, fortune teller and poisoner; executed by burning in December 1681.

    Latour, stonemason and associate of la Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Château de Salces.

    Catherine Lepère, abortionist; executed in June 1679.

    Adam Lesage, magician and officiate at black masses, associate of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Château de Besançon.

    Catherine Leroy, associate of La Voisin and la Chaboissiere; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Belle-Île-en-Mer.

    Jeanne Leroux, associate of la Voisin; executed in April 1680.

    Margot, servant of la Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at St Andre de Salins.

    François Mariotte, abbe, associate of la Voisin and Lesage; died in prison in 1682.

    Anne Meline, posioner, associate of Marguerite Joly; hanged in December 1681.

    François Boucher, Vitomte de Montmayor, astrologer of Luxembourg; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Château de Salces.

    Marguerite Monvoisin, daughter of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Belle-Île-en-Mer.

    Christophe Moreau, shepherd, magician and poisoner; executed in September 1681.

    Romani, poisoner, associate of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Château de Besançon.

    La Pelletière, fortune teller, provider of children for Black Masses, associate of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Belle-Île-en-Mer.

    Maitre Pierre, poisoner; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet.

    Anne Poligny, poisoner; executed in July 1681.

    La Poignard, participated in arranging Black Masses; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet.

    La Poulain, associate of La Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at Belle-Île-en-Mer.

    Catherine Trianon, posioner, associate of La Voisin; committed suicide in prison in early 1681.

    La Salomond, poisoner; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet.

    Denise Sandosme, poisoner; executed by hanging in July 1681.

    Louis de Vanens (d. December 1691), alchemist; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet at St Andre de Salins.

    Vautier, poisoner and associate of la Voisin; perpetual imprisonment by lettre de cachet.

    Marie Vigoreaux, associate of La Bosse; died under torture in May 1679.

    La Voisin, fortune teller and poisoner; burned at the stake 22 February 1680

Clients

This lists people involved in the Poison Affair by being clients of the professionals above. Their punishment is mentioned after their name and role.

    Benigne, Marquise de Alluye, client of la Voisin; left country to avoid trial and was later allowed to return.

    Pierre Bonnard, secretary of duc de Luxembourg, client of Lesage; condemned to the galleys in May 1680.

    Marie Brissart, client of La Voisin and Lesage; fined and exiled.

    Marie de Broglio, Marquise de Canilhac, client of la Voisin; never bought to trial.

    Anne Carada, client of Deschault and Debray; executed 25 June 1681.

    La Chaboissiere, Jean Bartholominat, valet of Louis de Vanens; the last executed in the Affair of the Poisons 16 July 1682.

    Louis de Guilhem de Castelnau, marguis de Cessac, client of Lesage; left country to avoid trial. Returned in 1691.

    Mme Cottard, client of Lesage; admonished and fined.

    Mme Desmaretz, client of Lesage; fined.

    Françoise de Dreux, client of La Voisin; exiled from the capital, but the exile was never enforced.

    Madeleine de la Ferte, Marechale (d. 1720), client of la Voisin; discharged.

    Antoine de Pas, Marquis de Feuquieres (d. 1711), client of la Voisin; never brought to trial.

    Madame Ferry, client of La Voisin; executed in May 1679.

    Marguerite Leféron, client of La Voisin; exiled from the capital and fined.

    Mme Lescalopier, client of Poligny and Sandosme; left country to avoid trial.

    Jean Maillard, client of Moreau; executed in February 1682.

    Olympe Mancini, Comtesse de Soissons, client of La Voisin; exiled.

    Marie Anne Mancini, Duchesse de Bouillon, client of La Voisin; banishment to the provinces.

    François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, client of La Voisin; freed.

    Marquise de Montespan, client of La Voisin; never trialed.

    Madame Philbert, earlier Brunet (wife of Philippe Rebille Philbert), client of La Voisin; executed by hanging.

    Jaqqueline du Roure, vicomtesse de Polignac (d. 1720), client of la Voisin and Lesage; left country to avoid trial. Returned 1686 but banished from the capital.

    Marguerite de Poulaillon, client of Marie Bosse; imprisoned in a convent.

    Claude Marie du Roure, client of la Voisin and Lesage; discharged in March 1680, but despite of this banished from the capital.

    Marie Louise Charlotte, Princesse de Tingry, client of Voisin; discharged.

    Marie Vertemart, client of la Voisin; sentenced to a workhouse.

    Antoinette, Duchess de Vivonne, client of La Voisin and Filastre; never brought to trial.

As always, stay safe !

Bird

***

Dealt Out Death in the Guise of an Angel of Mercy – Kindly Mrs. Bertha Gifford (1872-1951)

Between 1909 and 1928, Gifford poisoned with arsenic 3 to 17 people in Catawissa, Missouri, USA, she was arrested on 25 August, 1928, she was charged with the poisoning deaths of three victims, Elmer and Lloyd Schamel and Edward Brinley, at her trial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to the Missouri State Hospital where she remained until her death on August 20, 1951.

Bertha Gifford (April 3, 1872 to  August 20, 1951) was a farmwife in rural Catawissa, Missouri during the early 1900s who was accused of murdering 17 members of the local community.  And while some consider her to be America's first female serial killer, that dubious honor was earned 100 years previously by Lavinia Fisher near Charleston, South Carolina. (Another Later Article in this Series).

Her personal life:

Bertha Alice Williams Graham Gifford was born in Grubville, Missouri, the daughter of William Poindexter Williams and his wife Matilda, née Lee. She was one of 10 children. She was married to Henry Graham and this union produced one daughter, Lila. Following Graham's death, she married Eugene Gifford and they had one child, James.

The Crimes:

In 1928, Gifford  - known in her community for her cooking skills and caring for sick neighbors and relatives  -  was arrested at Eureka, Missouri and charged with the murders of three people. Following the exhumation and post mortem exams of Edward Brinley and Elmer and Lloyd Schamel whose bodies were found to contain large amounts of arsenic, Gifford was put on trial in Union, Missouri.  Following the three-day trial, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to the Missouri State Hospital #4 (a mental institution) where she remained until her death in 1951.

Although counts vary, most historians and family members agree that Gifford actually killed at least 17 people over a period of 21 years. Most of her victims were children.

 

More details of Mrs. Bertha Gifford:

She was the daughter of William and Matilda Williams. Married Henry Graham (December 1894)in Hillsboro, Jefferson County, Missouri. After his death she married Eugene Gifford (1907) Hillsboro, Jefferson County, Missouri. Alleged to be one of the most beautiful women of Jefferson County with dark hair and a dark complexion.

Gene and Bertha moved to Catawissa (Morse Mill area), Franklin County, Missouri. Neighbors reported she was an extraordinary cook. She was also reported to be a friendly, caring woman and would don a white dress and carry her satchel to ailing neighbors. Reportedly, many of her patients died violently of what was called "gastritis." But she was also reported to have bought considerable amounts of arsenic for rat infestation in her barn.  Eventually, an investigation on the numerous deaths of her patients, caused her arrest and conviction of three counts of murder due to arsenic poisoning. She claimed to have used the arsenic to alieve their suffering.

She was found to be criminally insane and was sent to State Hospital in Farmington, Missouri where it was said she was a cook.

 

The following was written in 1928:

Bertha Gifford, Missouri Serial Killer, Who Murdered Sick Children:

Mrs. Bertha Gifford, the tireless “Good Samaritan” and death-bed watcher of Meramec River, Missouri, is in jail, suspected of 17 murders, most of them of children, of which, the police say, she has confessed three and admitted that there “may have been more.” For the last 16 years, in her old farmhouse, known as the “Catawissa House of Mystery,” this strange character has held herself ready to dash for the bedside of every dying neighbor within 20 miles. Uncomplainingly,  in fact, and eagerly she would jump out of her warm bed-in the middle of the night, put on her nurse’s while uniform, which was always hanging on the chair, and drive her old car, or before that the horse and buggy, through any sort of weather. Even in blizzards, when no wheel could turn, she would plough her way on foot along cow paths between ten-foot drifts. Nothing could slop this determined woman, who usually managed to get there ahead of the country doctor.

And “good old Bertha,” now 50 years old but once the belle of Meramec Valley, really was a Good Samaritan, provided her patients actually went through with the program of dying as expected. In that case, with prayers, tears and tender ministrations, she eased their last moments, and she never asked money for her services. The only trouble with Bertha, the police say, was that when her patients rallied and gave promise of recovery, she resented such attempts to cheat the grave and fed them rat poison.

Mrs. Gifford had a passion for death-beds and funerals of which she missed only one in 18 years. But just as youths sometimes become so overenthusiastic about running to fires that they finally get to setting some themselves, this death-bed fan, it is charged, could not resist the temptation, when anyone started to withdraw from the edge of the grave to just push him in with a little arsenic. She took command of the funerals too and liked to see everything done right, even going so far as to pay for the embalming of one of her victims. Mrs. Gifford, though not n trained nurse, was a very competent volunteer one as the doctors well knew. She could keep temperature and nourishment chart, understood symptoms and drugs and therefore might be allowed discretion in administering medicines.

Bertha seems to have preferred children for her patients whenever she could get them. The police say this was because they would trustfully swallow anything she gave them as long as it did not taste too nasty, and they never presumed to correct any misstatement she might make to the doctor. When Bertha took charge of a case she took command of the household, ordering this in and that out of the sick-room and impressing the family in countless ways with her superior knowledge and experience. Early in the evening, in her kindly but firm professional manner, she would turn to the mother and say:

“Now, my dear, I want you to go to bed and get a good night’s rest, so you can take my place tomorrow. Don’t worry As I am here.”

This was really a command, and a reasonable one. The mother, relieved to know that her child was in more competent hands than her own, would always obey. Thus Mrs. Gifford had a whole night, free from witnesses, alone with the helpless child. Shortly before the rising hour next morning, when she roused the family and telephoned for the doctor, the little patient would be too far gone to dispute the nurse’s statement that the turn for the worse had just come in. And the parents would comfort themselves with the thought, that their baby had had the best of care in its last hours. And Bertha wept harder than any of them. As might be expected, it was the women who first suspected Bertha, thinking it strange that whenever that ministering angel “plunks herself down in a sick-room, the patient never gets well.”

The men scoffed, but the women kept right on putting two and two together, and when Ed Brinley died, the ninth in the house of mystery itself and the seventeenth under Bertha’s care, all with the same symptoms, they demanded an investigation of this “bedside saint” who had consecrated her life to good works. The authorities look notice and questioned the impressively indignant Bertha. Mrs. Gifford explained each one of the deaths plausibly. They were from acute gastritis caused by the rural habit of eating a heavy dinner at noon and then laboring on a full stomach instead of having the main meal at night after the day’s work is over, as the city man has learned to. The physicians must have been satisfied because they had issued death certificates. Could a lot of ignorant gossips know more than the doctors?

Dr. James Stewart, State Health Commissioner, must have thought they could because he had the records of drug stores in the neighboring towns examined and learned that Mrs. Gifford had been a steady customer of arsenic rat poison which produces symptoms quite similar to gastritis. Also she had made her purchases in some cases just before the deaths in question. Bertha, a picture of outraged innocence, and threatening slander suits, was brought over before the grand jury. The chain of coincidences went back to 1909, when nobody thought it strange that Mr. Graham, the public benefactor’s last husband died of cramps in the night before the doctor arrived. The next to succumb of “ptomaine poisoning,” in 1913, was her new mother-in-law, Mrs. Emilie Gifford, in spite of Bertha’s seemingly heroic efforts. Here Bertha’s grief was not so great but was considered adequate for a mother-in-law. A year later her thirteen-year-old brother-in-law, James Gifford passed out in Mrs. Gifford’s arms with those same symptoms of stomach cramps and vomiting.

George Stuhlfelder told the Grand Jury how this “ministering angel” for whom he felt nothing but gratitude at the time, had nursed his three children, Bernard, 15-months old, Margaret, two years and Irene, seven for small ailments which promptly turned into acute gastritis and ended in the death of all of them. George L. Shamel, a hired man who had worked at the Gifford place testified to the deaths of his two boys:

“I worked off and on for the Giffords about 18 years. I went to the Gifford place once in 1925, on a Saturday night. On the very next day, the Sabbath, my boy, Lloyd, nine years old. had stomach cramps. Two days later he died after being sick at his stomach all the time. The doctor said it was acute gastritis but didn’t know what caused it. There was no post mortem. Five weeks later my other boy Elmer, he was seven years old, got sick, with stomach cramps. He lived two days too. They said it was the same gastritis. There was no post mortem. I always trusted the Giffords and thought it was just my luck when the boys died.” Hardly a month after Elmer’s funeral, Mrs. Gilford learned that Mrs. Leona Slocum, Shamel’s sister, a tuberculosis sufferer was “sinking.” Bertha put on her nurse’s uniform of white, rushed to the bedside and took charge. Sure enough Mrs. Slocum rallied so strongly that they were just telling the ‘Good Samaritan” that there was no longer any need of taking advantage of her kindness when the patient suddenly developed alarming stomach pains, nausea and died.

“Before I lay down she asked ‘Where’s Eva’ meaning Mary’s mother. She seemed satisfied. I then dozed off. After that the survivors of the Shamel family, while not exactly suspicious, decided that Mrs. Gifford was unlucky. But the Sluhlfelders took a chance once more on Mrs. Mary Sluhlfelder, aged 74, with the invariable result, death from gastritis. Quite similar were the last moments of James Ogle, a hired man of the Giffords who had incidentally complained that he could not collect the money they owed him. Bertha however, paid the money in time for it to be spent on the funeral.

S. Herman Pounds, one of the strongest physical specimens in the neighborhood indulged a bit too much in his own hard cider and went to sleep in the Gifford pasture. Bertha had him brought into the house and gave him something to sober up. “Acute gastritis, superinduced by alcoholism,” she told the doctor who arrived too late. There was the sudden onset of this same stomach trouble, carrying off “Grandma” Birdie Unnerstall just as Bertha dropped in for a visit while everyone was away. Mrs. Laura Brown, of East St. Louis, aunt of little seven-year-old Mary Brown, one of Mrs. Gifford’s alleged poison victims, tells a sample of Mrs. Gifford’s nursing.

“One afternoon about two and n half months before Mary died,” Mrs. Brown said, “she was lying ill in the bedroom. I entered. Mrs. Gifford was sitting by the bedside- She seemed annoyed by my presence. “I had come all the way from East St. Louis to Catawissa to visit the sick child and mentioned that I was tired. “Mrs. Gifford urged ‘Why don’t you lie down and take a little nap.’ The last of the list was Ed. Brinley, a neighbor and another cider victim who rested for a fatal moment against the mailbox post, outside the Gifford house. Bertha’s watchful eye spotted him there and she ordered her husband to carry him in. When two hours later he also had met his death from the same old symptoms, even the men admitted that it was queer.

The Grand Jury thought so too and indicted Bertha for murder but she still persisted in her denials until Andrew McConnell, chief of police of Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, took a hand. He noticed that the prisoner seemed specially annoyed at the suggestion that, she had poisoned Beulah Mounds, three-year-old daughter of S. Herman Pounds. He harped on that case until, according to McConnell, she finally snapped at him:

Well, anyway, I did not give any arsenic to that Pounds child.”

“To whom did you give it?” the chief asked quietly. Her answer, he says, was a confession that she had poisoned Brinley, the Shamel boys and perhaps some others. Her excuse was that she wanted to put them out of their misery. Brinley’s body was exhumed and its stomach showed traces of arsenical poisoning, according to the police. Since the confession, Bertha’s chief ambition has been to avoid being photographed. She sits in her cell with a blanket, ready to throw over her head whenever she hears a footfall in the corridor. She exhibits remorse, too, and says she does not care to live.

If she is guilty of the crimes charged against her, there seems no reason why she should live.

[“Dealt Out Death in the Guise of an Angel of Mercy – Kindly Mrs. Gifford Was Always Glad to Nurse a Sick Neighbor for Nothing, but So Loved to See Them Die, the Missouri Police Charge, That She Fed Them Rat Poison if They Showed Signs of Getting Better,” The American Weekly, San Antonio Light (TX.), Magazine section, Oct. 13, 1928, p. 7]

As always, stay safe !

Bird

***