Male and Female Serial Killers

Part 6

The fourth and final case began in 1830 in Burlington, New Jersey. Lydia Struck Sherman is known as "the most infamous female poisoner in the 19th century"(Nash). She was a charming housewife who lived in the Tenderloin district of New York. She killed her victims for profit, as she would collect her victim's insurance money from their families. She was married to a New York police officer, Edward Struck, and the pair had six children together. Unfortunately, he became an alcoholic after being let go by the New York task force. After getting fed up with working to pay for all of her family's expenses, she bought ten cents worth of arsenic. When the seller of the poison asked if she was going to use it for rats she responded with: "Rats? My goodness, yes, we're alive with rats!"(Nash). After buying the poison she went on to kill her husband and children. Even though arsenic was the definitive reason for the deaths, New York doctors thought they were from various illnesses. She then got the insurance money of her newly deceased family. She did not kill all of her family at once, as the murders took place between the years 1864 and 1866. The ages of her children ranged from the youngest at six months and possibly the eldest at fourteen years. Dr. Bearsley, the family physician, was not so sure about what New York doctors had proclaimed about the deaths. After growing suspicious of Sherman he brought in other doctors to perform autopsies on the bodies.

Once they found the poison they contacted the police, only to discover that Sherman had fled back to New York. She was found by detectives and brought back to Connecticut to stand trial for the murders. She confessed to eleven murders even though it is believed that she took up to fifteen victims. She was found guilty of second-degree murder because all of the evidence was circumstantial. She was sentenced to serve life in prison in Wethersfield Prison. Wethersfield Prison opened on October 21, 1827, in Wethersfield, Connecticut and closed its doors in the November of 1963. She did not show remorse for killing her victims, which mostly consisted of her family. When talking about why she killed her husband, Edward Struck, she simply said: "I gave him the arsenic because I was discouraged I know that that is not much of an excuse, but I felt so much trouble that I did not think about it"(Nash). She later died in prison on May 16, 1878(Nash).