Trapped by His Lies, was Peoples cover story headline, wrapping up the melodrama. When her husband Bruce came home from work one day in June 1986 complaining of a headache, thrill-seeking bored housewife Stella Nickell fed him four Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules shed laced with cyanide. Investigators eventually discovered his wife in a shallow grave on property of Anadarko Petroleum, where Watts worked. Published: February 24, 2020 3.44pm EST. Local shopkeepers confirmed that she purchased large quantities of arsenic to kill rats, and police also discovered that she had taken out sizable insurance policies on her husband. He was arrested Wednesday and is charged with first-degree murder. On February 25, 1922, 52-year-old Landru was executed by guillotine in Versailles, France. He eventually left her and she took up another man, David Saunders. It was the second husband shed fatally poisoned with antifreeze, and she buried David in a cemetery plot right next to her first husband. 2010 The Thought & Expression Company, Inc. How Embracing Life With Eczema Led To My Own Online Platform AndAdvocacy, 50 True Stories Of People Who Escaped A Murderer By DumbLuck, 17 People Who Accidentally Killed Someone Go Into Haunting Detail About How Its Impacted TheirLife, 10 Of The Most Notorious Murders To Ever Happen During The Month OfNovember, Heres The Most Notorious Murder From EveryState. Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt are the only two women on here who killed men who werent their lovers, yet still their rancid and calculated attacks on LAs homeless men were dubbed the Black Widow Murders. Their modus operandi was to befriend elderly homeless men with offers of help, have them sign multiple insurance policies, kill them in hit-and-run accidents, and then collect on the policies. She fell in with British gangsters and raked in an estimated one million British pounds helping them pull off armed robberies. 8 Movie Husbands Who Supposedly Killed Their Wives - Vulture The Kiss Of The 'Black Widow': 17 Women Who Murdered Their Husbands When investigators examined her devices, they found shed Googled, "Did people hate Amber Frey?". You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! According to Peng, he killed the young woman because she had threatened his wife and children, and she had insulted him after he refused to purchase a home for her brother. For 50 years in the mid-1600s, she helped wives kill their husbands. Inreference to Charles Perrault's French folktale about a wealthy man who murdered several of his wives, the term "bluebeard" is often used by the media to refer to men who killed their spouses. DiGirolamo was convicted of the young woman's murder, and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. And Petersons wife Laci was everybodys sister, as Grace put it. Wilson was poised to become the last woman hanged in England, however her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. They were the epitome of the picture-perfect social media family. In August 1983, after Beets reported her fifth husband, retired Dallas firefighter Jimmy Don Beets, missing, police found his boat floating in a nearby lake and presumed he drowned. Over the next few years, Southward married four more times, and three of her husbands - and another one of her young children - passed away, causing a relative of her first spouse,Robert Dooley,to suspect foul play. She was his neighbor, and the wife of a Marine herself. Melodramatic appeals on behalf of missing white women initially galvanize the public and tabloids, becoming a kind of moral cover for why these stories are newsworthy yet the stories largely revolve around the husbands. To help repair their failing marriage, her husbandunaware that Kimberly had already started fucking around with a younger maninvited her to a Valentines weekend in 1998 at a nearby hotel that featured a Mafia-themed murder mystery play involving the audience where the groom dies from drinking poisoned champagne. After all, many of her boarders were elderly and ailing. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. She inherited their money with every funeral she attended. Castor buried him next to the body of her first husband in the same upstate New York cemetery. But these married men who killed their mistresses did just that, all to avoid getting caught in a lie. Police soon caught wise to her actions. In 2007, former WWE superstar, Chris Benoit, killed his wife and their son in a murder-suicidewhich took place at their home in Georgia. If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can find information and support on the BBC Action Line website. This house is not complete without anybody here.. Betty Lou Beets shot and wounded her second husband, but she didnt kill him. In many cases, these bluebeards committed murder simply for the profit - collecting small fortunes in insurance payouts and inheritances - while others were motivated by emotion, not money, to end the lives of their spouses. Neumars son also committed suicide in 1985, and Neumar was named as the beneficiary on his $10,000 life insurance policy. Her violent spurts were so frequent and extreme, she earned a reputation as the town psycho.. In October of 2001, Knight, brutally stabbed her new live-in boyfriend, John Price, 37 times while he tried to escape. Black Widows: The Psychology Behind Women Who Kill Their Husbands In some cases killer husbands were dating other women, who eventually helped investigators solve the cases. Neither was her fifth. These outlets address themselves to the white minivan majority suburban middle-class moms, or moms-to-be and it is their fears and expectations that these narratives speak to. He was charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, tampering with physical evidence and attempt to influence a public servant, according to authorities. Even as Watts awaits his sentencing on Monday, the other woman in the case is still making headlines with her revelations about his lies. Killer Wives: 8 Most Infamous Black Widow Murderers Is climate change killing Australian wine? After murdering his victims, Landru, who was called the "Bluebeard of Gambais" for his crimes, dismembered the women's bodies and burned their remains in his oven, eliminating any traces of their corpses. When her first husband was shot in the head in 1970, almost two decades after their divorce, it was ruled a homicide but she wasn't charged. BARRY MORPHEW CHARGED WITH MURDER NEARLY ONE YEAR AFTER WIFE'S DISAPPEARANCE. By the time she was 38, Klimek's first husband had passed away, and she went on to marry three more times, with her second and third spouses dying under mysterious circumstances. She finds him, fucks him, kills him, and then treats herself to his bank account and insurance payouts. However, Landru's murders were finally uncovered when the sister of Clestine Buisson, one of his victims, tracked him down and convinced the police to investigate the suspected killer. She shot and killed her fifth husband, Doyle Wayne Barker, in 1981. Women Serve Longer Prison Sentences After Killing Abusers And Gabriel Ferris, of Saginaw, Mich., strangled his ex-girlfriend Cheryl Miller shortly before taking off for a honeymoon with his new wife, who told detectives 20 years later shed seen him suspiciously re-entering their lodging the morning the victims body had been discovered. Malonerefused to abort their baby, and she threatened to tell Jones's wife about their affair. She buried both men in her own backyard. Alice Ruggles was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2016, Dr Monckton Smith said she believes her homicide timeline model can prevent killings. The following month on August 13, 1915, 42-year-old Smith was executed by hanging in Maidstone, England. A new report suggests that over half (61%) of women killed by men in the UK in 2018 were killed by a current or ex partner. In 1923, Klimek was convicted of killing her third husband, Frank Kupczyk, and she died behind bars on November 20, 1936, while serving a life sentence. Laci Peterson's parents look on as President George W. Bush signs the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004. Debbie Noda/Modesto Bee / MCT via Getty Images, Lewis Geyer / Digital First Media / Getty Images, first interviews with a local news anchor, discovered his daughters bodies submerged in oil tanks. The act he was accused of was seemingly so incomprehensible that people were willing to entertain outlandish theories, like the defense attorneys suggestion that a satanic cult had kidnapped Laci to steal her baby, despite the simple statistical reality that more than half the time the person likely to have murdered any given woman was her male partner. They broke down the door and found David Castor dead with a bottle of antifreeze at his side. The law finally caught up with her in 1985 and she spent 20 years in prison, only to return to her Colombian homeland. Still, what really happened remains unclear, since Watts only confessed to strangling his wife in a rage because he claimed he had seen her strangling their daughters on a baby monitor. Castor then busied herself writing a murder confession wherein Ashley confessed to the crime. 15,000 women killed by husbands - The Independent Her fourth husband, Harold Gentry, was gunned down in their home in 1986. Though she was acquitted on a technicality, her father was convicted of being an accessory after the fact in the murder of John Dick, specifically for dismembering his corpse in the basement of his home and burning the body parts in the furnace. In September, the media uncovered two alleged affairs that extended the storys shelf life. Its safe to say that the police dont believe her. She was also charged with trying to kill daughter Ashley Wallace in a plot to blame . She was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 1958 after serving only 11 years. (but some are like, "Yeah, I totally believe that guy did it"). VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? Stacey Castor of upstate New York intentionally force-fed her husband David a lethal dose of antifreeze via a turkey baster one day in 2005. The daughter of poor tobacco farmers, Betty Lou Beets led a hard, brutal life. The fact that she murdered her son casts reasonable suspicion on Evelynfor her husbands brutal dismemberment. When Dhillon began stalking Miss Ruggles, she and her family "did not realise how much danger she was in", Mr Ruggles said. Law enforcement investigated theleadand on July 1, 1975, Smith - who was dubbed the "Bluebeard of the Bath" - was convicted of three counts of murder and given the death penalty for his crimes. Chris Watts, Scott Peterson, And The Obsession With Men Who Kill Their "Given their advanced age, we have to proceed carefully to judge whether their deaths were actually the result of foul play or not," an investigator told the AFP new service. While living in Idaho in 1915, Southard's young daughter, husband, and brother-in-law all died suddenly, allowing her to collect thousands of dollars from their life insurance policies. For others, cold-blooded murder was their twisted solution to the problem of living a double life. In 1947 she was tried and convicted of murdering her infant sonafter his mummified body was found encased in cement in a suitcase found in her attic. Her husband appears on television declaring his love and pleading for her return. February 10, 2009, 6:32 PM. Her story lives on in the form of two books, films and a musical, How Could You, Mrs. Dick? Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Men who kill their wives often have this in common | Fox News She lost her hearing at age three after getting the measles. Photo: Unknown author / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain He collapsed in a parking lot, but didnt die until two years later. Before she could be tried or answer any questions about her past or the fate of her many husbands Neumar died of complications from cancer in 2011. A new report shows that in the UK a woman is killed by a man every three days. Knight was promptly arrested. Peterson had been the familys golden boy, as a sister put it. Massachusetts man Brian Walshe appeared in court this week on charges he allegedly killed and dismembered his missing wife, Ana Walshe. In November 2016, Lee was convicted of the murderand was sentenced to life in prison. And in fact, theres nothing inherently noteworthy about murderous husbands, because, as we now know, more than half of women murdered are killed by a current or former intimate partner. For months, Maryland surgical technician Kimberly Hricko had complained to coworkers that she wanted her husband dead. She killed Beets for his insurance money and pension benefits. In fact the spousal sex ratio of killing (SROK) is more than twice that in the other Western countries. This list of married serial killers includes some of the most notorious criminals in history. By ABC News. She killed Barker so she could gain ownership of his trailer home in Gun Barrel City, TX. Story tips can be sent to michael.ruiz@fox.com and on Twitter: @mikerreports, Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. While he confessed to killing several women, he was only convicted of a single murder. Shed taken out sizeable insurance policies on all five husbands before murdering them. The story quickly became a national talking point, making the cover of People magazine three times in one month; the case was debated on morning shows and, in a sign of the times, dissected by entire networks of social media sleuths.