stella nicholls cyanidelynn borden cause of death
READ MORE: How Americans Became Convinced Their Halloween Candy was Poisoned, Woman convicted of killing two in Excedrin tampering, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/woman-convicted-for-tampering-with-excedrin. Federal prosecutors said they opposed her release. "She can sometimes be very, very skillfully evasive," says Farr. In 1985, Stella took out a life insurance policy on Bruce that included a substantial indemnity payment for accidental death. Olsen said that Nickell told her daughter, Cindy Hamilton, about the scheme, despite their fractious relationship, and how she was inspired by the Tylenol deaths. The detectives discovered an FBI memo that seems to support Rider's account. She failed and investigators narrowed their focus to her even further. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence were the first under federal product tampering laws instituted after the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders. When police arrived, Stella handed over two bottles of Excedrin. They had thought it was drug overdose, but she was not a known user, and had taken only a couple of Extra - Strength Excedrin. The Chicago Tylenol case had resulted not only in the 1983 Federal Anti-Tampering Law under which she was charged, but FDA requirements that products be packaged with tamper-resistant technology such as blister-packs, bottle mouth seal covers, shrink wrap bottle covers, visible seals that must be broken to open the bottle, and taped box ends. Stella Nicholls is the main protagonist of the 2019 film, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Johnson & Johnson warned the public not to buy its product, stopped making and advertising it, and recalled more than 30 million bottles worth more than 100 million dollars. Stella Nicholl. She originally called police and turned over two bottles of Excedrin. The clincher came when Stellas oldest daughter, Cindy Hamilton, contacted police. He was able to do this during his time as a hospital orderly.His spree took place between 1970 and 1987. Stella Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest. Farr and Ciolino believe that finding Hamilton is the key to their case. [7] On June 18, Bristol-Myers recalled all Excedrin capsules in the United States, pulling them from store shelves and warning consumers to not use any they may already have bought;[7] two days later the company announced a recall of all of their non-prescription capsule products. Olsen told Insider that Snow was a random victim who "paid for Stella's greed with her life." The detectives say they simply don't know who the killer is. In June 1986, two Auburn residents were killed by painkillers laced with cyanide. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Milford Haven, Dyfed, SA73. Noonan claimed she bought so much algae destroyer, he had to special order it just for her. Includes Age, Location, Address History for Stella Chen; Arrest, Criminal, & Driving Records . The company was incorporated in California eighteen years ago and is no longer active. She added that "as negative as it is, I have chosen to learn from it and not become bitter. Detective Mike Dunbar, who worked on the case, says she wanted insurance money. Stella's neighbor, Sandy Scott, became a spy for the FBI. Stella Nicholls is the daughter of Roy . Nickell poisoned Bruce so she could pocket his life insurance, and Snow died the same way in a foiled effort to cover her tracks, Olsen said. Sues husband also took two capsules from the bottle for his arthritis before leaving for work. This seemed unlikely, because out of thousands of bottles checked in the entire region, authorities found only five with tainted capsules, and Stella had two of them. He joined the army at the relatively advanced age of 33 in 1916 to fight in World War I. But, the author said, the poisoner has never cared about the attention. Snows suspicious death triggered an autopsy. To fill the now empty hours at home, she began keeping a home aquarium. In all the tainted capsules, the cyanide was flecked with small green crystals, determined to by an algae killer used to clean the water in aquariums. Stella was dirt poor, she lived in a small trailer with her husband, grown daughter Cynthia, and grandchild; Stella's her mother lived next door. One of the jurors had been a plaintiff in a case involving a pill baked into Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers. She became eligible in 2017 after serving 30 years of her 90-year sentence. Grant hoped to control the strategic read more, On May 8, 2010, 88-year-old actress Betty White, known for her former roles on The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, becomes the oldest person to host the long-running, late-night TV sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). FBI working to identify unknown victims of serial killer Stella claimed that her daughter, Cynthia Hamilton, lied about her involvement in the case in order to reap the $300,000 of reward money being offered. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. [6] She went on trial in April 1988 and was found guilty of all charges on May 9, after five days of jury deliberation. They say she was desperate to establish an accidental cause of death. Stella Nickell was convicted two years later. Gregg Olsen, Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters, and the Seattle Cyanide Murders (New York: Warner Books, 1993); "Update 2002" in St. Martin's Press Paperback edition, 2002. This time it was a bottle of Maximum Strength Anacin-3 at the Pay 'n Save store where Sue Snow was thought to have bought her fatal Excedrin. She claimed Stella admitted to researching poisons and told her of an unsuccessful attempt to poison Bruce with foxglove. One factor was strong objections from advertisers, including Johnson & Johnson, owner of the Tylenol brand of painkillers which had been affected by the 1982 Chicago case. A more recent but undated photo of Stella Nickell. Noonan claimed she bought so much algae destroyer, he had to special order it just for her. These included convictions for fraud and forgery and a charge of beating Cindy with a curtain rod. #inline-recirc-item--id-a607eb04-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { Find Nicholls's address, hospital affiliations and more. He died in the hospital, but doctors did not detect the cyanide and ascribed the death to emphysema. [6] Further FBI investigation showed that Bruce's purported signatures on at least two of the insurance policies in his name had been forged. Stella Nicholls : No, Sarah, now it's your turn to hear a story. or. A year later, Stella put cyanide in an Excedrin capsule that Bruce later took for a headache. She told the FBI that her mother had talked for years about killing her husband, and went to the library to research poisonous plants and cyanide. Written by Gregg Olsen, the book includes interviews with Klein and Nickell's daughter, Cindy Hamilton. He was taken by helicopter to a Seattle hospital. They were married two years later. [4], Stella met Bruce Nickell in 1974. Rider was never called to testify. [1] Hamilton also claimed that Stella had spoken to her about what the two of them could do with the insurance money if Bruce was dead. She said she had a bottle of Excedrin in her home with the same lot number as the bottle that had killed Sue Snow. Now, 13 years later, private detective Al Farr and his partner Paul Ciolino are on a mission to prove what they both firmly believe: Nickell is innocent. Officers broke open the capsules and found the powdered toxin inside. She maintains her innocence, claiming her daughter lied for the reward money. Stella Nicholas. Sue Snows husband, Paul Webking, agreed to undergo a polygraph examination and passed. Local and state authorities are not, however, prevented from also filing charges in such cases. She told authorities that her mother had done extensive research at the library. Nickell was convicted after police and FBI agents, following months of investigation, concluded she had laced her husbands Excedrin painkillers with cyanide to collect on his insurance, then planted poisoned pills in stores to throw off investigators. Stella had two of them. A year and half after Bruce Nickell died, Stella Nickell was arrested and stood trial in federal court. Stellas lawyer said nothing about the reward because a deal was made. They also recalled that Stella Nickell had several fish tanks in her trailer home. But in 1986, when two Seattle-area people died after ingesting Excedrin laced with cyanide, Stella Nickell was nabbed for the. Farr and Ciolino have been traveling the country without pay, interviewing witnesses and friends, talking to anyone who may help them. Snow's daughter, Hayley Klein, told Insider about her years of heartache following the crime. In 1986, the Nickells lived in Auburn, Washington, a suburb south of Seattle not far from SEA-TAC airport. After the war, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. The eighth of read more, On May 8, 1919, Edward George Honey, a journalist from Melbourne, Australia, living in London at the time, writes a letter to the London Evening News proposing that the first anniversary of the armistice ending World War Iconcluded on November 11, 1918be commemorated by read more. }, First published on June 4, 2001 / 12:09 PM. [2] The case was referenced in an episode of In Plain Sight titled "Kill Pill", which aired November 23, 2018 on the Investigation Discovery channel. Nickell was convicted and sentenced to 90 years in jail. Estella May McILMOYLE (born NICHOLLS) was born on month day 1898, to Joseph NICHOLLS and Elizabeth Ann NICHOLLS (born McILMOYL). Olsen said that Nickell's crimes have been the focus of a number of TV documentaries and books, including his own. She is portrayed by Zoe Colletti . On June 5, Bruce came home from work with a headache. All Rights Reserved. She deserves no compassion. Her fate was sealed when Hamilton told the FBI that her mother had repeatedly talked about killing Bruce in different ways. [5], In response to the publicity, Stella came forward on June 19. Stella Nickell Fast forward to 1986. "I couldn't take it in," she said. Stella Nicholls : I can't leave my dad. Nickell is the subject of a new book, "American Mother: The True Story of a Troubled Family, Motherhood and the Cyanide Murders That Shook the World." They were married two years later. Prosecutors said Stella Nickell put cyanide in capsules of Extra-Strength Excedrin and gave them to her husband. Police arrested her the same day, and she went on trial in April 1988. You have permission to edit this article. But this time, it happened on the West Coast of the United States in a suburb of Seattle, Washington. ER . She bought nine more bottles of Excedrin and cut through the protective film with a razor blade. You have to go to the city. Another $300,000 was shared by nine people who helped police arrest a Florida man in 1986. Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. For 19 months, Farr and Ciolino have been traveling the country without pay, interviewing witnesses and friends, talking to anyone who may help them re-open this case. But he took a polygraph, passed, and was eliminated as a suspect. He was taken by helicopter to a Seattle hospital. [9], Examination of the contaminated bottles by the FBI Crime Lab found that, in addition to containing cyanide powder, the poisoned capsules also contained flecks of an unknown green substance. The Bureau of Prisons could ask for Nickells release, the judge said, but has not done so. They have a history of helping people they feel have been unfairly convicted. With Snow dead, Stella could step forward and notify police. They exhumed her husband's body and determined that he too, had been poisoned. Never-before-seen photos and details about accused Idaho killer Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Rushed to Harborview Medical Center, Bruce did not respond to doctors efforts to revive him. The records tended to confirm at least that part of Hamiltons story. She lived with the Nickells months before Bruce died. Sue Snow collapsed in her bathroom of her home in the Seattle, Washington, suburb of Auburn. She told them that she thought that he'd been poisoned, too. ER 2002-12, 2014-16 Milford Haven, Dyfed, SA73. She also planted other bottles of cyanide-tainted Excedrin in local stores to. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. win all terms to run concurrently. But he took a polygraph, passed, and was eliminated as a suspect. Klein was 15 when she found her 40-year-old mother lying on the bathroom floor in June 1986. She discovers that the stories are coming back to life. It's a notorious case out of Auburn a woman convicted of lacing Excedrin painkillers with cyanide that killed two people in 1986, including her husband. May 08, 2013 12:00 AM. Stella appealed her conviction but none of her appeals succeeded. FBI detectives knew that it was an unlikely coincidence that Nickell had purchased two of four known contaminated bottles purely by chance. 48 Hours reports on the search. As of April 2019, Stella Nickell is housed at female-only low security/minimum security Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin in California, just east of San Francisco. Stella Nickell used Cyanide to kill her victims. "All she wanted was a tropical-fish store.". Six days later, on June 11, just after 6:30 a.m., 15-year-old Hayley Snow found her mother, bank manager Sue Snow, 40, collapsed in the bathroom with a faint pulse. "She didn't want notoriety," Olsen said. Stella Nickell laced painkillers with cyanide, murdering her husband and a random woman, Sue Snow. [5], During an autopsy on Snow, Assistant Medical Examiner Janet Miller detected the scent of bitter almonds, an odor distinctive to cyanide. The teen called 911. "48 Hours": Brooke Skylar Richardson case An additional $50,000 will be shared by eight others who helped convict Stella Nickell of Auburn, Wash., in the deaths of her husband and another woman, the spokesman said. A few years later, though, she had a change of heart. At age 16, following the birth of her first daughter, Cynthia Hamilton, Stella moved to Southern California, where she married and had another daughter. Her first lawyer also asked to see it, and never did. [7] His death initially was ruled to be by natural causes, with attending physicians citing emphysema. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. Stella says she researched cyanide after her husband died. Her bar-hopping drastically reduced, Stella began to request more night shifts at her baggage-screener job at SEA-TAC airport. Stella Nickell by Michael Thomas Barry O n May 8, 1988, Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. She wanted to stay home. Trending News At 6:30 a.m., Snows 15-year-old daughter, Hayley, found her lying on the bathroom floor, unresponsive and with only a faint pulse. Elizabeth was born on July 31 1868. She even searched Stella's home for algae destroyer. [31], The 2000 TV film Who Killed Sue Snow? Manufacturer Bristol-Myers initiated a nationwide recall of Extra Strength Excedrin capsules, and immediately stopped making the product. He said that the companies were extra sensitive because the police had found no leads on the Tylenol murders in Illinois. The doctors said it was emphysema, but Stella says that never made sense, because he didnt have that disease. It was found among a thousand pages never turned over to the defense. View more. Bruces heavy drinking suited Stella just fine. Snow died a few days later, after also taking Excedrin pills laced with cyanide. Prosecutors: Security video discredits cosplay model's story of self-defense Some cite $71,000, some $75,000, and some $76,000. Stella Nickell about the time of the poisonings. [5] According to Stella, he took four extra-strength Excedrin capsules from a bottle in their home for his headache and collapsed minutes later. After an autopsy, the cause of death was declared to be emphysema. Police initially focused on Snows husband Paul Webking. Stella Nicholls : They locked her away because she was different. Sign Up. She had taken out a total of about $76,000[11][note 2] in insurance coverage on her husband's life, with an additional payout of $100,000 if his death was accidental. Bruce's insurance paid an extra hundred thousand dollars if he died by accident, including poisoning. "I am not guilty," says Nickell. In return, the prosecution agreed not to reveal that Cindy said she came forward when she heard her mother failed a polygraph. As any songwriter would, Sebastian first tried working that title into his read more, On May 8, 1963, with the release of Dr. No, North American moviegoers get their first lookdown the barrel of a gunat the super-spy James Bond (codename: 007), the immortal character created by Ian Fleming in his now-famous series of novels and portrayed onscreen by the read more, Claiming that its athletes will not be safe from protests and possible physical attacks, the Soviet Union announces that it will not compete in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. [1] By the summer of 1987, even Stella's attorneys acknowledged that she was the prime suspect in the case. "It's entirely possible that the real killer is walking around somewhere out there," says Farr. The Seattle cyanide poisonings are the subject of several true-crime television episodes and at least one book Gregg Olsens Bitter Almonds, published in 2013. In the next 12 years, there would be a failed marriage and a second daughter. Trusted by millions of genealogists since 2003 Trusted information source for millions of people worldwide Check Writing Quality. Dont miss out! [24] Under this law, Stella Nickell's crime was prosecutable as a federal product tampering case as well as a state murder case, and she was not convicted of murder, but of product tampering that caused death. Your email address will not be published. They asked the family if Snow had any enemies. Four years later, the scenario seemed to be playing itself out again in King County Washington. But the plot backfired. Bruce's insurance paid an extra $100,000 if he died by accident, including poisoning. They also posted a $100,000 reward. As the investigation continued, the FBI lab found an important clue: green crystals mixed in with the cyanide. An appeal based on jury tampering and judicial misconduct issues was rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in August 1989. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Her lawyers have also petitioned, unsuccessfully, for a new trial. In 1988 in Washington state, Stella Nickell was convicted of killing her husband Bruce, and Sue Snow, a bank manager, by putting cyanide in Excedrin capsules. Paramedics rushed her to Harborview, but she died without regaining consciousness. Stella Nickell was sentenced to. DARLING (born NICHOLLS) and 3 other siblings. Cindy said that her mother had talked of killing Bruce Nickell, at one point discussing hiring a hit man. But U.S.. display: none; [2] She was also known to have, even before Snow's death, repeatedly disputed doctors' ruling that her husband had died of natural causes. .component--type-recirculation .item:nth-child(5) { Two more insurance policies on Bruce's life now came to light. SEATTLE -- A federal jury convicted Stella Nickell Monday of lacing pain relief capsules with cyanide, killing her husband and a random victim, in the nation's first fatal . Hamilton testified. While it was deemed to be a manufacturing error, the defense thought that it involved product tampering and therefore should have been disclosed during jury selection. Stella also had more than her share of legal troubles. Following that failure, Stella had begun library research into other methods and hit upon cyanide. Records from the Auburn Public Library showed Stella had checked out numerous books on poisoning. Prosecutors said Stella Nickell put cyanide in capsules of Extra-Strength Excedrin and gave them to her husband. Now 27, Hamilton had been in and out of Stella's life for years. Cindy told the FBI that her mother had wanted to kill recovering alcoholic Bruce because after he had gone through rehab and sobered up, he had become a bore. Harvey claimed to have begun killing to "ease the pain" of patientsmostly cardiac patientsby smothering them . [3] At 6:30 am, their 15-year-old daughter Hayley found Snow collapsed on the floor of her bathroom, unresponsive and with a faint pulse. This information would spread across the town she lived and cause her to start getting bullied because . The FBI found Stella's fingerprints on several books. } She found none, something the jury never heard. She'd told the staff that she needed it to kill ants. Now some top sleuths are trying to prove her innocence. One of the bottles happened to be purchased by Snow. They turned out to be algae destroyer, a product used to kill algae in fish tanks. But police investigators and the federal government still firmly believe she is guilty. A federal judge has denied a plea for compassionate release from prison by an Auburn woman whos serving 90 years for planting poisoned pills that killed two and prompted national recalls of over-the-counter painkillers. Investigators concluded they were dealing with product tampering. Investigators found it remarkable that of only five tainted bottles out of the 15,000 that had been screened, Stella Nickell had turned in two of them, saying she had purchased them two weeks apart at separate locations. Find your friends on Facebook. Stella Maudine Stephenson was born in Colton, Oregon, to Alva Georgia "Jo" (ne Duncan; later changed her name to Cora Lee) and George Stephenson. Under her husband's insurance policy, which paid out more for accidental death, she stood to receive an extra $100,000. At the end of the movie, she won the prize for the scariest story ever. This seemed unlikely, because out of thousands of bottles checked in the entire region, authorities found only five with tainted capsules, and Stella had two of them. "American Mother: The True Story of a Troubled Family, Motherhood and the Cyanide Murders That Shook the World.". Stella Nickell, then 75, had been sentenced to 90 years in prison in 1988, after she was found guilty of product tampering. Read. She also planted other bottles of cyanide-tainted Excedrin in local stores to divert suspicion, authorities said. She was the first person to be found guilty of violating the Federal Anti-Tampering Act after putting cyanide in Excedrin capsules in an effort to kill her husband. Another memo mentions that Stella's two Excedrin bottles came from one store, Albertsons. Seven people died in that case, which was never solved. The convicted killer stood before a parole board in 2017, while Klein watched the proceedings on closed-circuit TV. In early 1974, when she was 32, she met Bruce Nickell. Stella Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest. Stella, who stood to lose $100,000 if his death wasnt ruled an accident, decided to alter her plan. In 1986, her biggest one came true when her husband died during a seizure, making her the beneficiary of a $175,000-plus insurance payoff until authorities discovered Bruce Nickell's headache capsules had been laced with cyanide. Snow died a few days later, after also taking Excedrin pills laced with cyanide. But why would she bring the poisoning to police attention in the first place? Social Profiles. On June 24th, a fifth bottle of cyanide-laced pills appeared on retail shelves in South King County. [6] Bruce had taken them to no effect save for complaining of sudden drowsiness. When Cindy was 9, Stella was charged with hitting her with a curtain rod, bruising her legs.