Bertha Boozer Took An Ax ....

Bertha Boozer took an ax and gave her husband several whacks.

Okay, so technically her name was no longer Boozer at the time of the crime but the surname "Still" was one syllable too short for the rhyme to work.

What would make Bertha Still, a 34-year-old devoted mother of seven children, kill her husband in such a brutal way?

When Vineland, NJ police responded to the call on the morning of January 5, 1971 (a Tuesday), Bertha told them that there had been a domestic dispute and prior to going to bed her husband Richard, aged 38, announced that when he woke up someone was going to die.

Not wanting to be a victim, Bertha grabbed a hatchet, entered a bedroom on the second floor of their home, delivered several deadly blows to Richard's head and groin then threw hot water on him. The water was hot enough to cause 2nd degree burns. FYI, that would mean the water was between 110 and 150 degrees.

Bertha finally called the police but nothing could be done to save Richard. He was DOA when the ambulance pulled up to Newcomb Hospital. Bertha's defense was that she beat him to the punch. One of their children was home on the first floor of the house at the time of the attack but the newspapers don't indicate which of them it was.

 photo from
The Daily Journal,
Nov 23, 1951

 As I researched this case, I became confused.

 By all accounts both Bertha and Richard came from good families. They were  active in the community and the church. Richard was gainfully employed and supporting his family. He had been a High School football star and served in the Air Force. Bertha's father was a minister and her mother was a well-respected, hard-working woman.

reprinted from
The Daily Journal,
Jan 5, 1972

Bertha's family was there in the courtroom to support her throughout the legal proceedings.

I'd found a loving tribute printed in the Vineland, NJ Daily Tribune one year after Richard's death from a family that still mourned him.

He certainly didn't seem like someone who needed killing and she didn't seem like an unstable individual.

Newspapers reporting on the murder could provide no more motive than "a domestic quarrel."

I dug deeper. There had to be more to this story.

Clearly nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors.

Bertha Still was born Bertha Mallory in 1936. She'd made a poor choice for husband number one - Charles Boozer. I couldn't find the exact wedding day but Social Security records indicate a name change in August 1954.

Charles Boozer was a year or two younger than Bertha and a career criminal with convictions for (but not restricted to) being a lookout for a dice game, petty theft, passing bad checks, reckless driving, breaking and entering, larceny, non-support and atrocious assault. Police took a good look at Charles back in 1955 when he'd run over and killed his uncle, Thomas White.

Charles was also cheating on Bertha and fathered three children with another woman, Nettie Ruth Gingham. I'm thinking, Bertha's parents couldn't have been more disappointed with their daughter's husband but they stood by her.

Nettie and Charles seem better suited to one another anyway as they were both arrested together on numerous occasions (in 1959 for disorderly conduct and withholding information from the police, in 1960 for disorderly conduct and again in 1963 for property damage). The 1960 arrest stemmed from a complaint filed by Bertha and her mother, Bertha Mallory. In 1964, Nettie also ended up suing Charles for non-support.

In September 1960, Bertha Boozer admitted to stealing $13 from her employer's home to pay for babysitters. The victims of this theft, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Hoskins, asked the judge to be merciful so Bertha received a suspended $100 fine and was placed on 6 months probation.

On March 14, 1966, Bertha charged Charles Boozer with desertion and in June 1966 she obtained a divorce. The divorce was just so much paperwork though because it seems Bertha had moved on in her life. By the time she was legally separated from Charles Boozer, Bertha had started a family with Richard Still; they had three daughters, all born before 1966 (no judgment, just fact) and the relationship seemed solid. With her first marriage behind her, Bertha and Richard were free to marry. The next Social Security name change for Bertha is September 1966. Things were looking better all the time.

But wait - what's this? A 1968 arrest for a Richard Still involving carnal abuse and sodomy? And the victim is his 13-year-old stepdaughter? I won't be naming the victim but court documents sent to me by the NJ Superior Court leave no doubt that it is in fact the very same Richard F. Still, husband of Bertha. Now we have sufficient motive.

On December 2, 1968, Richard entered a plea of not guilty and waited a little over three months for his day in court. The trial lasted 4 days. On March 13, 1969, the verdict was read. Guilty on both counts.

I'll transcribe the sentencing directly from the paperwork: "1st count (rape), defendant committed to county jail for 6 months, suspended providing a fine of $500 is paid to Probation Dept. within 30 days. 2nd count (sodomy), defendant committed to County Jail for 6 months, suspended. This sentence to run concurrently with sentence of the 1st count of this indictment."

You may recall, Bertha had once received a 6 month suspended sentence ... for stealing $13.

My husband has theorized, perhaps correctly, that the reason Richard served no jail time is he might have been the major source of income for the family. Richard certainly didn't lose his job as a result of the conviction because when he was killed in 1971, Richard was still employed by Shieldalloy Corp as a forklift operator; a job, according to his obituary, he had held for the last 10 years.

Bertha Still was arrested on January 5, 1971 and held in prison until February 12, 1971 when she was freed on $10,000 bail. She had initially entered a plea of not guilty but changed that to "no defense" on May 28, 1971. The sentence that was handed down on June 18, 1971 was 12 to 13 months in Clinton Reformatory.

I'm not sure when Bertha was released but she was already applying for parole 2 months into her sentence and it was predicted she would not serve the entire 13 months. I see by August 10, 1973, Bertha was out of prison and working as the Committee Secretary for the Vineland Citizens Club.

photo from Lisa's
obituary in
The Daily Journal,
June 15, 1974 

More sadness awaited Bertha and her family though.

On June 13, 1974, Bertha and Richard's youngest daughter Lisa was killed by a passing automobile as she stepped off the school bus. She was only 11-years-old.

Lincoln Memorial Park,
Mays Landing, NJ -
photo uploaded to FindaGrave.com
by Dennis Kolb, Jr

Bertha Still died on April 5, 1995. She was not buried beside her husband.

The Pig Woman

If you took the time to watch the "To Tell The Truth" video clip that was the subject of this blog's previous post you will have heard Kitty Carlisle ask contestant #2 and then #1 "Who was the Pig Woman?"

Clearly they were confused and so might you have been. Personally, I was as delighted.

Shawnee Smith in "Saw"

Since all of the other women mentioned during that segment were murderesses, perhaps you were thinking this Pig Woman was the inspiration for the character in the "Saw" franchise.

Not at all. Jane Gibson aka The Pig Woman was the star witness for the prosecution in the media circus that was the Hall-Mills Murders.

St Louis Dispatch photo

There is no shortage of books and web pages devoted to this celebrated and scandalous double homicide so I won't go too deep in covering it and as I describe it you may realize you've heard of it before.

It's not that the crime isn't interesting, because it is, but my focus here is on Jane Gibson. Absolutely seek out the details of the crime, the other witnesses, the accused and the victims if you want to know more. There's plenty of drama and intrigue to go around.

In Somerset, NJ on September 16, 1922, the bodies of a man and a woman were found in a lover's lane. The man had been shot once in the head. The woman had also been shot in the head but three times, her throat had been slit and her tongue cut out. The bodies were arranged side by side with their feet pointing towards a crap apple tree. Torn up love letters were left between the bodies and by the man's shoes was a calling card...his calling card.

He was Edward Wheeler Hall, an Episcopal Minister and she was Eleanor R. Mills, a member of the church's choir. They were married but not to each other and their affair was an open secret. Suspicion quickly fell on the respective spouses.

photo courtesy of The Courier News

credit: P&A Photos

Curious on-lookers immediately invaded the crime scene and began removing souvenirs (they stripped the bark from the crab apple tree and carved their initials in the trunk) and handling evidence (passing the calling card around). The press made this their top story and rightly so - the public couldn't get enough.

Jane Gibson entered into this drama 6 weeks after the crime when she came forth as an eyewitness. The press dubbed her The Pig Woman because she operated a farm nearby raising pigs and chickens.

According to Jane, she was content to mind her own business until an innocent young man, Clifford Hayes, had been arrested and accused. She could no longer keep silent about what she'd seen and heard that night and how she happened to be there.

Someone had recently robbed Jane of 20 rows of corn and she meant to discover who it was and see that it didn't happen again. When Jane's dog started barking on the night of September 14th, she got on her trusty mule Jenny and started after a rickety cart that was traveling down a road through her field. Despite the late hour (10 PM), there was plenty of moonlight. Worried the mule's braying would alert the thieves to her presence, Jane hopped off at some point and continued on foot. However, a passing automobile, an overheard argument, raised voices, screams and the sound of gunfire and some muzzle flash sent Jane racing back home but not before she'd gotten a look at the people involved. She definitely saw a white-haired lady who she later identified as Frances Hall and by the time of the trial she even more sure of who was there that night.

It would be 4 years before Edward Hall's wife Frances, her brothers Henry and William Stevens, and their cousin Henry de la Bruyere Carpender were formally accused of the crime and brought to trial.
Carpender managed to get himself a separate trial so, although present in the courtroom throughout the 1926 proceedings, his destiny was on hold. The charges against him were later dropped.

In the meanwhile, attorneys for the defense, hoping to shake Jane's credibility, and intrepid reporters, looking for a scoop, started to take a good look at Jane Gibson and neither faction was disappointed with what they saw.

In an article printed on October 22, 1922, Willene Taylor (an INS correspondent) played it safe by describing Mrs.Gibson as someone who "gave every appearance of being a person whose word is reliable."

Another early newspaper article written by Marguerite Mooers Marshall (special staff correspondent of The Evening World) and published on October 27, 1922, cast Jane in a favorable, heroic light. Jane was compared to Abraham Lincoln's mother and the headline announced she was a "Brave, Bible-Reading Farmer Woman."

Marshall's article, with biographical information no doubt provided by the subject herself, described Jane as hailing from Kentucky; she was a woman who had run away with the circus at the age of 16 and worked as a bareback rider. Marriage to a good man took her away from that life but his death in 1906 left her virtually penniless and struggling to raise their young son William. She took quite naturally to the rigors of farm life and has worked the land ever since with her son at her side.

How much of that tale is true? None of it. Why, her name wasn't even Jane Gibson.

Public records and ultimately members of Jane's own family would tell a different story about Jane's background.

During the 1926 trial, Jane's mother Salome Cerenner sat right up front in the gallery and announced to anyone who would listen that her daughter was "a liar" and that she was "ashamed to be her mother."

The press ate it up and people couldn't get enough of The Pig Woman. Soon, reporters would no longer be welcome at her farm.



The Pig Woman
Central NJ Home
News photo



A 1925 silent film called "the Goose Woman" borrowed heavily from the story of Jane Gibson. It wasn't an entirely flattering portrait. Picture an alcoholic woman who is a cross between Ma Kettle and Norma Desmond. It's actually a very good movie on it's own but it can be appreciated on a whole other level when you know what inspired the writers.

Louise Dresser as "The Goose Woman"

 

There's no doubt that Jane reinvented herself and lied in open court about her personal history but does this mean she lied about what she saw the night of the murders? As the state's star witness, Jane's believability was key to the entire prosecution strategy.

Hers is definitely a confusing backstory, filled with lies and inconsistencies.

"Jane Gibson" was born Mary Jane Eisleitner in Hoboken, New Jersey not Kentucky. The year was 1873.

Jane had not always been a simple pig farmer either. Her work history included working at a pencil factory, running a rooming house, working at a dressmakers shop, owning and operating a second-hand furniture store and later she managed a poultry store. She was never a bareback rider with the circus.

State records show that Mary Jane Eisleitner married Frederick G. Kesseling on August 13, 1890. Together they had three children, two were stillborn and one died in infancy. On November 18, 1926, during the cross-examination from the defense team, Jane was confronted with the fact that she and her husband hadn't lived together as man and wife since February 16, 1892 and that Frederick had filed for divorce, with claims of adultery on Jane's part; the divorce was finalized on January 4, 1899. Jane's family responded to reports that Frederick hadn't been heard from since the separation by revealing he was living on Long Island.

However, in court Jane refused to admit she was married to anyone but William H. Easling. Pre-trial she told reporters she was a widow and that William was just a relative. Even William appeared confused as to his status.

On the very same day (October 21, 1922), the public heard two different truths. The Asbury Park Press has Jane denying William is her husband and that those are her children while the Central New Jersey Home News interviewed William at his work and quoted him as saying his wife Jane Gibson "has a brilliant mind."

In that same Central New Jersey Home News article (October 22, 1922), the state's Chief Investigator, James Mason, is quoted as believing "I knew there was something about her personal life that Mrs. Gibson was not telling, but I did not press her because I did not feel that her private affairs had anything to do with what she saw and heard that night."

And that's the crux of it. Can you believe her testimony with regards to the crime when she's clearly lying about her own life.

Jane Gibson told the press "I have told the truth as I saw it and my past had nothing to do with it."

The 1910 US Census shows William H. Easton and his wife of 17 years, Jesse M., to be the parents of 2 living children - William Jr and Alice Easton. Both children are recorded as being 8-years-old, which indicates twins. Jesse had given birth to 7 children total, only 2 were still living.

The 1920 US Census shows Jane Gibson as being a (business?) "partner" to William H. Easton Sr., aged 55. William Easton, Jr., aged 18, and William Whitaker, aged 32, are listed as a "boarders." Jane's status is now "single" and she's shaved 9 years off her age. She's suddenly 38 again. 

Depending on who she was talking to at the time, William and Alice Easton were either children that Jane adopted between the years 1906-1910, her own biological children or the children of her sister Jesse May Eisleitner Easton who was a trained nurse and away most of the time. So this would make William her brother-in-law? Only Jane didn't have any sisters named Jesse while the real Jesse Easton was born in Spain and emigrated to America in 1890.

By the time of the 1926 Hall-Mills murder trial there was now another person living at the farm - little 3-year-old June Gibson.

Jane would either tell people June was her own daughter or that she was the daughter of her "ward" Alice.

In a November 1926 newspaper article, Jane's mother Salome would announce that June was born on June 18, 1923 and that her name was "June Whitaker." Wait - where have we heard that surname before? Oh yes, William Whitaker was a farmhand in 1920. Hmmm.....

In court, Jane admitted she was born Eisleitner but later dropped the "Eis" and went by the name "Mary Leitner."  

Mrs. Gibson denied using either the name Anna King or Janet Hilton. Despite being shown a theatrical poster containing a photo of "Anna King," which the defense maintained Jane bore a healthy resemblance to, Jane denied she was ever that sweet-voiced, buxom singer.

The witness revealed she called herself "Jane Gibson" because she had purchased the farm from William and Mary Gibson and folks were used to the name so she adopted it.

When asked in court who "Jesse Easton" was she said that was her too. Her husband was the only one that called her that because he liked the name.

But what happened to the real Mrs. Easton between 1910 and 1920?

Of course, the thing that made Jane Gibson's testimony all the more dramatic is she told it from her sick bed.

Photo courtesy of The Heritage Trail Association

By late 1926, it was known that Jane Gibson was dying from cancer and her doctors said they were worried about her "septic kidneys." They advised that she not be moved from the hospital but Jane demanded to be heard. On November 18, 1926 Jane was transported to the courthouse via ambulance. 

Her mother Salome said, "Jane's not so sick. A lot of sympathy is wasted on her." Charlotte Mills, daughter of the murdered woman apparently had flowers delivered to Jane's hospital room every other day.

Before being removed from the courtroom, after three hours of testimony, Jane raised herself up on one elbow, pointed at the three defendants and shouted "I've told the truth, so help me God and you know it, and you know it, and you know it."

In the end, whether it was Jane Gibson's sketchy past, the lack of untainted physical evidence, the excellent defense, the believability of the accused or any number of factors - on December 3, 1926 a jury found the defendants not guilty. The case remains unsolved.

Jane Gibson would rally post trial and switch to raising skunks and goats but she would finally succumb to the cancer and die on February 7, 1930. In her will she left everything to her husband William H. Easton. The newspaper reports she is survived her son William Jr and daughter June. No mention of Alice.

Yet when William Easton Sr died on December 25, 1945, his obituary notes he is survived by his children William, Alice and Irene.

Some interesting side notes -


This was not the first time Jane Gibson had come forward with information she considered crucial to the police. On December 3, 1912, Trenton NJ resident Miss Luella Marshall was assaulted, her skull fractured. Luella never regained consciousness and she died a week later. Jane was operating a rooming house on south Broad Street at that time and she happened to overhear a conversation about the crime which she thought police should be made aware of. I don't know what information Jane had but the police felt it wasn't relevant and the murder went unsolved.

William Kunstler wrote a book, published in 1964, asserting his belief that the Ku Klux Klan killed the adulterous couple simply because they disapproved of such behavior.

The hat that covered Reverend Hall's face was featured in "Mysteries at the Museum," - S4, Ep 7.

And what of the animosity Salome had for her daughter? According to an article in the November 11, 1926 edition of the Central New Jersey Home News, Jane had not paid her back the entirety of a loan in the amount of $1285.00 and Salome was not on good terms Jane simply because her daughter gave her "a bad reputation" in the neighborhood.

In November 1926, Salome Cerenner was having a little trouble trying to cash in on a Prudential Life Insurance policy for $1,114.00 because her only proof that the insured, her son John Eisleitner, was dead was that he was appearing to her in spirit form. He apparently revealed himself to her several times, wearing a silk dressing gown and asking for 50 cents for ice, which she gave him. Salome had collected $100 from the Metropolitan Life Insurance two years prior after her daughter Margaret disappeared.


Check the As Close to Crime YouTube Channel for a scene from "The Goose Woman" which reflects her tempestuous relationship with the press (https://youtu.be/_30wUxuvxKg).
I've also uploaded the aforementioned segment from "Mysteries at the Museum." (https://youtu.be/R8Uui0iJrDE). Good news for some, bad news for others though as copyright laws prevent this latter clip from being shown in certain countries. Fair enough. However, the episode is available for purchase through Amazon and the older seasons are always being rebroadcast so check your local listings.

 

A New Venture for This Blog

I've started a YouTube Channel for this blog.

I'll now have the ability to edit and share various clips that either serve as companion pieces to specific blog entries or they'll simply be crime-related videos that interest me. And who knows? Perhaps the videos will bring YouTube browsers to this blog. I'm all about the cross-promotion.

This is a purely non-profit venture and I'm clinging to the concept of "fair use" sharing.

Be sure to hit the "subscribe" button after clicking on the channel name below the video.

Ghosts From The Past

Mary Mamon,
Philadelphia
Daily News photo,
Sept 15, 1978

Mary Mamon knew what it was like to be the subject of gossip and accusations. She'd been through it herself .... twice ... 30 years ago. Now the nightmare was starting up again only this time it threatened her son Robert's happiness. Why couldn't people mind their own business? Someone needed to have their mouth shut.

And so it was, on the morning of March 23, 1967, that Mary Mamon set out to lure Ethel Markham to her death. Mary was pretty sure that her old bowling team partner Ethel, the aunt of Robert's (now former) fiancé Mary Ann Martin, was the chief muckraker.



Knowing Ethel would never agree to meet with her, Mary forced her way in to the house of Lorraine Mullery. The Mullerys had the misfortune of living several houses away from the Markhams; they weren't embroiled in this drama at all until that day. Mary beat Mrs. Mullery to death with a hammer then telephoned the Markham house, disguising her voice and claiming to be Lorraine. Mary Marmon asked that Ethel come over. There was an urgent matter they needed to discuss regarding some anonymous obscenity-filled phone calls and poison pen letters that had been circulating. All of which, unsurprisingly, were later linked back to Mary herself.

Ethel came over a little too quickly though. As Ethel was knocking on the front door, Mary was dealing with 11-year-old Donald Mullery. Ethel knew someone was in the house because the TV was blasting but when nobody answered her repeated knocking, she went back home and reported this oddity to her 12-year-old daughter Nancy. Nancy thought perhaps her mother had gone to wrong house. After all, it was she who was friendly with the Mullerys, not her mother. She decided to go over there herself.

Twenty minutes later, 13-year-old Patricia Mullery, returning home after church services, opened her front door and found her friend Nancy in a pool of blood. Nancy was unconscious but alive. Doctors would determine she'd been struck as many as 15 times on the back of her head with a hammer; part of her brain was exposed. Then she found her mother's body. Lorraine Mullery was dead from three solid blows to her head. Understandably, Patricia ran from the house screaming. The police were called and it was then the Donald was found. Donald would live but he'd never fully recover from the multiple blows to his head and he was later institutionalized.

photo courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer

The police had a few good clues including the phone call from Lorraine Mullery to Ethel Markham plus a neighbor who had spotted a suspicous character entering the Mullery's garage about 30 minutes before the fatal phone call. This individual was described as male, 20-30 years of age, 5' 7", 160 pounds, wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a hunting cap with ear flaps.



Philadelphia
Inquirer photo,
April 3, 1967

Ordinarily, Mary might not like to be mistaken for a burly man but on this day it worked in her favor. Nobody was immediately looking for a 49-year-old housewife. She had time to flee, with her son Robert's help, to another state just as suspicion was falling on her. Police would have to wait 6 days for Nancy Markham to regain consciousness and identify her attacker, which she did.

Mary was eventually located in Alabama, where she'd been given sanctuary in a convent, and one year later she was finally extradited back to Pennsylvania and made to stand trial. 

But what was all the gossip about? What ghosts from Mary Mamon's past were coming back to haunt her?

Mary Mamon, formerly Mary O'Connor or alternately "Tarzan" to those who wished to allude to her boyish athleticism, had her first brush with scandal in 1937 at the age of 19.



Marie Phillips nee' Kibler

The scandal was two part. Mary O'Connor and Marie Phillips nee' Kibler, who represented the US as part of the gymnastics team in the 1936 Olympics, had been accused of engaging in immoral acts while working as counselors at Philadelphia's Camp Happy. A camp trustee named John Joseph Tunney claimed he saw them kissing.

Mary O'Connor and
Marie Phillips,
summer of 1937,
Beach Haven NJ -
Daily News -Mar 13, 1938

Tunney was later discredited when his own criminal history (7 arrests resulting in 6 convictions for larceny, disorderly conduct and indecent behavior) was revealed. He later refused to testify in open court, was brandished "a contemptible liar" by Magistrate Jacob Dogole and threatened with perjury. Another worker, Joseph P. Costello, testified he'd found nothing unusual about the girls' behavior. Marie Phillips and her husband Chester denounced the claims as "shameful lies."

The charges were dropped, the case dismissed.

However, there was a much more serious and tragic charge facing Mary - homicide.

photo courtesy of
The Pittsburgh Press

Mary was responsible for the death of her neighbor, 5-year-old Nancy Glenn whose body had been found on September 7 (Labor Day), 1937 by Nancy's father Joseph C. Glenn and 7-year-old brother Joseph, Jr..

Police were initially baffled but to everyone except Nancy's family, who pressured the Mayor & police to investigate, it seemed like an accident. An autopsy revealed water, mud and pebbles in Nancy's lungs and the cause of death to be drowning. However, even if Nancy accidentally hit her head and fell into that mudhole, who was it that put a heavy sheet of metal over the body?

The guilt caused Mary O'Connor to crack. She drove to New Jersey and confessed what she had done to her friend Marie Phillips then checked herself in to a sanitarium. Marie Phillips chose not to turn her friend in because "it wouldn't bring Nancy back." She shared this information with only her husband Chester and Mary's father. Marie would later face criminal charges as a result of her loyalty and be held as a material witness.

It didn't matter though, by now Mary was freely confessing to anyone who'd listen. She was arrested on November 21, 1937 at her grandparents' house in NJ.

Mary's version of events is all we have to go on. Mary testified that Nancy "got on my nerves and I hit her" with enough force to knock her down. She checked Nancy's pulse but detected none; thinking the girl was dead, Mary tried to cover up the crime. Sadly, Nancy was still alive when Mary deposited her body into the mudhole and even if she had regained consciousness, the metal sheet was too heavy for a 5-year-old to shift.

Mary had run into Nancy's mother on September 7th as Mrs. Glenn was searching for her missing daughter. When asked if she'd seen Nancy, Mary replied "No."

The February 1938 murder trial was swift because Mary didn't deny she'd been the cause of Nancy's death but, after 14 hours of deliberations, the jury wasn't convinced the District Attorney had proven it was "voluntary manslaughter" so Mary was acquitted. People were outraged and rightly so. Even the jury thought it was a miscarriage of justice. They felt hampered by the options available to them; they blamed the Prosecutor, the police for the inferior job during the initial investigation and each other. The O'Connors were delighted with the verdict.

NY Daily News photo, March 13, 1938

In 1943, Mary married Maurice Mamon, a man 13 years her senior; they had three sons of their own and adopted a fourth but separated around 1957. Mary and her three sons relocated to Levittown, PA in 1958 in a house purchased by Mary's father. When Maurice filed for divorce he stated that Mary had "a violent temper and uncontrollable fits of anger."

Flash forward to November of 1969 - one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder and a different outcome. This time Mary was found guilty of first degree murder and received a life sentence. She applied for parole and even compasssionate release several times but was consistently denied. Mary died on May 29, 1983 from complications related to emphysema. She was 64.

NY Daily News, January 18, 1970