Life is like a box of chocolates: You never know if you're going to bite into one that has been laced with deadly poison. Cordelia Adelaide Brown Botkin Fourteen-year-old Harry Penington returned from the Dover, Delaware, post office on August 9, 1898, with a registered package for his young and pretty aunt, Elizabeth Dunning, the daughter of ex-Congressman John Penington. She unwrapped the package and found a shiny pink box wrapped with a pink ribbon. "Look, Papa, I've recei

Unlike so many murderers who have been forgotten by history, Isaac Sawtelle earned his fifteen minutes of infamy for having the peculiar distinction of being sentenced to death in a state where the crime hadn't even happened. Isaac Sawtelle, Jr Christmas Day of 1889 had a special meaning for one Boston family. Isaac Sawtelle, Jr., would be reunited with the family he hadn't seen in sixteen years. Isaac's long absence from home was neither the result of his seeking fortune out

Murder often defies logic, as Ebba's killer was the last one anyone would have suspected. In a small farmhouse near Bandon, Oregon, there once lived a family named Covell. The head of the household was Dr. Fred Covell, a chiropractor with an office in town. He shared this farmhouse with Ebba, his fourth wife, their three infant children, and two older children from Dr. Covell's third wife, 16-year-old Alton and 14-year-old Lucille. Also living under the same roof was Arthur C

How justice was served, thanks to Jennie Becker's undigested party snacks and a less-than-reputable auto mechanic. Abe Becker On Saturday, April 8, 1922, Abraham Becker walked into a Bronx police station and reported that his wife, Jennie, was missing. She had left home the day before, but it wasn't like Jennie to just disappear. Abe Becker was worried. Becker's report was referred to the Missing Persons Bureau, where it landed on the desk of Detective John Waterhouse. The de

Is it possible for a person's hair color to drive someone to murder? Meet Joseph Medley, a career criminal who just couldn't help falling in love with red-haired women-- before killing them. Joseph Medley Chief Detective Robert J. Barrett of the Washington DC homicide squad arrived at the crime scene and observed that the door to Nancy Boyer's ninth-floor apartment had a peephole. The red-haired, 45-year-old hairdresser must've known the person she let into the apartment on 1

The Archer Home for Elderly People was a highly specialized business. That is, it specialized in the quick and speedy extermination of its residents. In the historic town of Windsor, Connecticut, there once stood a majestic Colonial house. Known as the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids, this house on Prospect Street was owned by a small, middle-aged woman named Amy Archer Gilligan. Mrs. Gilligan was something of a pariah in Windsor-- a town whose residents