One Daughter From Murder

Mary Francis “Franny” Creighton, was an alluring 24 year old in 1923. She had dark, curly hair, soft, pale skin, glimmering eyes and plump lips. So she had no lack of attention as a young woman. She had married her long time friend, John Creighton in 1919. He was the son of a railroad executive, while Franny waws an orphan along with her brother and two sisters, but they were fortunate to have been raised by their well-to-do grandparents.

John’s parents owned a big 2-story home in Newark New Jersey and after getting married, the couple moved in with John’s parents. John worked as a clerk and after having a baby girl, Franny spent her time caring for their daughter in the home they shared with her in-laws. Neighbors thought Franny was not very kind and “unsociable” when they came to call which I can relate to, though I’m good at hiding my unsociability.

After the couple moved in, John’s mother fell ill and died at the age of 47 of a sudden attack of ptomaine. I looked up ptomaine and it’s basically food poisoning. Then, the family was hit with another blow when John’s father, also 47, died the following year of a heart condition. Franny’s brother and sisters lived nearby, still with their grandparents. Franny and her sisters were not getting along and arguing over their inheritance from their deceased parents. In early 1923,

Franny’s brother, Charles, came to spend a weekend with Franny and she convinced him to stay for a while. She even helped him find a job as a clerk in a store in the neighborhood. However, in early April of the same year, her brother fell ill. He was sick enough that he went to a doctor, which means he must have been feeling pretty shitty to actually go for help since most men won’t go unless they’re on their death bed. He told the doctor he was dealing with a continuous stomach ache and an insatiable thirst that made his tongue feel furry. T

he doctor thought he must have an infection and prescribed a tonic. A week later, on April 12, Charles returned to the doctor. His symptoms had worsened – he was now always nauseous and had a burning sore throat. The doctor increased the dosage of medicine, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. He kept getting sicker. On April 20, Charles had a seizure.

Franny called a neighbor to come help, saying that Charles was making a strange noise. The neighbor, though, felt that know the house well enough and she didn’t like Franny, enough to come help. So, the doctor was called, and he was shocked when he found Charles vomiting uncontrollably, his limbs stiffening and shaking and very close to death and indeed died very quickly upon seeing him.

The doctor couldn’t understand how the boy had gotten so sick and he called another doctor to consult him about the case. The two doctors decided it was a rare, violent attack of gastroenteritis – something along the lines of what John’s mother had suffered. It would have probably been left at that except for the arrival of a very suggestive letter to the detectives.

Soon after Ada's death, an anonymous source - some believe it was a bread deliveryman who was sick of being stiffed by the plump and crabby Fanny Creighton - had sent police a package of yellowed newspaper clippings, dating back to 1923. “IS DEATH not ground for suspicion?” the letter read. “This boy feared his sister as he feared death . . . I am very sorry that I cannot sign my name. I am just an outsider who is very fond of this boy. Please act quickly and beware. You will find it hard to trap this liar.”

So the detectives went and interviewed the attending physician. They found that the doctor had also been contemplating his own diagnoses. He admitted that it was surprising that John’s parents had died so suddenly. The police came upon another surprising discovery. Fanny had convinced her brother to invest in a life insurance policy naming her the beneficiary. It was for $1000; the equivalent of $16,000 today.

At the small store Fanny’s brother, Charles, had worked at, the owner mentioned that Charles had complained about the incessant amount of chocolate pudding he was given by his sister. He told her he was over it and didn’t want more but she would constantly insist that he eat a little before bed. This seemed pretty odd, so the detectives searched the house they had all lived in together.

Women in those times used something called Fowler’s Solution to keep their skin pale and clear. It was a popular tonic that could be found at any corner drug store at the time. The thing about it was, to create the look of near-translucent skin, arsenic was added to the tonic. The arsenic was the key ingredient and a low level of poisoning in the user was what gave the ladies a semitransparent look. Fowler’s solution was found amongst Fanny’s possessions.

Upon finding the skin tonic in the house, police had Charles’s body exhumed. The resulting autopsy and chemical tests found arsenic present in every organ. Fanny and her husband were arrested on suspicion of murder of Charles and they planned to dig up John’s parents to test their remains as well. John and Fanny subsequently hired a well-known defense attorney and former prosecutor named James McCarthy. He claimed there was no way his clients were guilty of such crimes.

The couple claimed they were shocked to learn that so much arsenic was floating around in Charles’s body. They didn’t disagree that it was in his system but they denied any involvement in getting it into his body. The attorney went so far as to claim that Charles may have even taken the arsenic himself, after Fanny told of Charles having been through a breakup just prior to his death.

During their trial, the attorney claimed the discovery of Fowler’s solution meant little as it could be found in most households at the time and besides, it’s a very diluted poison at that. It would take gallons of the solution to bring about the amount scientists had found in Charles’s system. It was at 4 times the lethal dose. It also didn’t seem that either Fanny or John had gone about buying large amounts of the tonic or other arsenic.

In fact, the store Charles worked at had products like one called, “Rough on Rats,” so he had plenty of access to loads of arsenic. Apparently, there was such a thing at the time as “arsenic eaters,” and even people who spread arsenic paste on toast, believing that it had health benefits and gave some level of immunity against poison. Maybe Charles was one of these believers.

The lawyer pointed out that the anonymous letter could have been sent by a vengeful neighbor or someone who just didn’t like the Creightons. And as for the $1000 from the life insurance, after funeral expenses, not much more than a few hundred was left. On June 23, both Fanny and John were acquitted of all charges. Fanny, ever the delicate flower, fainted in her lawyer’s arms at the news.

But, there was still the question of what had happened to John’s parents. Walter and Annie Creighton, John’s parents, were exhumed which ignited a journalistic fire-storm. Police had to patrol the grounds constantly as photographers were climbing the cemetery walls, trying to get the most drama-worthy shots. In fact, one photographer was able to make it almost to the gravesite where he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Pathologists for some reason, decided to forgo moving the bodies to the morgue and instead made a makeshift autopsy room directly above the gravesite. They set up a rough tent and performed the autopsies on gurneys at the site. They weren’t able to determine exactly what killed the couple, but they were able to say that the two did not die of the diseases that had been listed on their death certificates.

Walter, John’s dad, seemed to be clear of poison, but Annie, his mother, had the tell tale white crystals showing the presence of arsenic. Just ONE DAY after being acquitted of Charles’s murder, Fannie was again arrested and charged with murdering her mother-in-law. A nurse who had cared for Annie testified that she had become sick after Fanny fixed her a cup of cocoa. She was just recovering when Fanny asked to watch over her while the nurse went down to eat breakfast.

When the nurse returned 20 minutes later, Annie’s eyes were fixed, wide and fearful. The nurse immediately reacted, asking what had happened, hurrying to try to help her patient. Annie, just looked at her, helpless, gurgling, and then promptly vomited on the floor. The nurse quickly summoned the doctor, telling him he was urgently needed. She and the doctor fought for an hour to save her but Annie died later that December morning in 1920.

The doctor had initially thought Annie had suffered a stroke since she hadn’t been able to speak. He thought it had come on suddenly because of some sort of food poisoning. Only after the previous trial and new coverage, did he realize that Annie’s symptoms had been consistent with arsenic poisoning. John claimed there was no way Fanny had killed his mother and he sat behind Fanny during this subsequent trial, displaying his support for her.

Prosecutors came to trial armed with some powerful circumstantial evidence like the mysterious deaths of several members of the family, as well as a couple of the family's dogs, in the previous few years. Prosecutors presented the testimony of two prominent and respected pathologists who both believed that Annie had been killed with arsenic while Fanny’s lawyer had 3 of their own experts who methodically tore apart the prosecution’s case.

The original doctor who had diagnosed the cause of Annie’s death thought that her food poisoning diagnosis probably still fit the best and another expert agreed, saying that had arsenic been the cause of death, more extensive damage would have been evident. The third expert agreed that the amount of arsenic found was infinitesimal – arsenic compounds in the liver, but Annie’s didn’t have much. Arsenic in murder cases has always mystified criminologists for several reasons.

Arsenic has many problems associated with its use as a means of death. The biggest problem is that arsenic is easily detected at post mortem examinations, even in minute quantities. Although the human body maintains a natural level of arsenic, and this fact has been utilized as a trial defense, it is a simple procedure to measure these levels to refute that claim. It's tough in poisoning to measure exactly how much of the drug to use since people have a different tolerance to arsenic, which forces the killer to use a large amount which virtually assures it will be detected at autopsy.

Since a large amount can be instantly tasted by the victim, the killer often resorts to chronic poisoning: using many doses of small amounts over a period of time. Based on all the testimonies of the experts, and the fact that No one had seen Fanny adding a spoonful of arsenic to the victim's food, the jury found Fanny not guilty of murder. As of July 13, she was a free woman and told reporters that : “I bear no malice toward anyone,” she said. “I realize the prosecutor did his duty. I have no plans for the future and I don’t know what I shall do. I am too happy with my family just now to think of anything else. But I shall never forget Friday the 13th.”

Fanny and John Creighton lived a quiet life since their acquittals for some 12 years. They sold their house in New Jersey and bought a small place in the Long island town of Baldwin. John worked in the county engineer’s office. Their daughter Ruth, 15 and their son, Jack, 12, attended the local schools. John was active in the American Legion and he made a friend there named Everett Applegate.

Everett was an officer at the American legion and worked as investigator in the Veteran’s Relief Bureau. He and his family, which included his wife and daughter, lived with his wife, Ada’s, parents. Everett wasn’t getting along with his in-laws and the Creighton’s offered to let the family live with them in their house where they could all split the costs.

There were only 2 bedrooms on the ground floor which the adults stayed in while the daughters stayed in the attic and the boy, Jack slept on a cot on the porch. It was crowded, obviously, but at the time, the country was in the throes of the great depression so this had become quite normal in America. Ada, Everett’s wife wasn’t very well liked by the neighborhood; she was difficult to get along with in general.

She got annoyed by people easily and she took to criticizing them. However, Fanny and John, seemed to get along just fine with her and the families co-existed easily. In September of 1936, Ada, 36 at the time, became terribly sick. She was throwing up violently and was having such severe abdominal pain, she had trouble standing upright. Her doctor suspected a gallbladder problem so he sent her to the hospital.

After a week’s stay there, she was released to go home. She was still a little shaky and feeling ill so she went straight to bed. She wasn’t feeling well enough to eat yet, and could only seem to keep down milk, sometimes with a little egg and sugar mixed into it. Just 2 days later, though, she woke up again in a state of extreme illness that came on with such ferocity that she kept passing out.

Her husband, Everett, called the doctor and the police, begging for oxygen to be brought for her. When the doctor showed up, police were there, trying to get Ada to breathe but she had already died. Ada was not a dainty gal, especially for what was normal in that day in age. She had been obese for quite a while and weighed almost 270 pounds.

Her doctor had been trying to help her with weight loss for a while now so he figured that her heart was just too overtaxed and had given out. On her death certificate, he wrote that she had died from coronary occlusion and her body was sent to the funeral home. Police weren’t so quick to accept the doctor’s diagnosis, however.

They happened to know of the Creighton’s history and that they had been accused of murder more than once. So, they asked Ada’s husband if they could order an autopsy on his dead wife. Shockingly, he refused. So the district attorney called Everett to explain that they could force an autopsy to be performed if they wanted to, but it would look better for him if he agreed to it.

So, reluctantly, he did. Pathologists sent samples to a lab to be tested where the scientists discovered arsenic in every organ in her body. The well-known scientist, Alexander Gettler, said that Ada had been given 3 times the lethal dose. On October 6, Fanny Creighton was charged with murder along with Ada’s husband, Everett. The crazy thing is that Gettler had been a defense witness for Fanny’s earlier murder trials.

His own chemical analysis had helped clear her for the murder of her mother-in-law. He believed she had probably just outwitted detection somehow in her brother’s death and her poison wasn’t Fowler’s solution which the police had found, but the pesticide called Rough on Rats that Fanny had thrown out so it hadn’t been found at the scene.

That arsenic-filled formula was also the poison that was found in Ada’s body, right down to the other ingredients mixed into the rat killer. Though she was once a beauty, Fanny’s good looks had faded and she now appeared much older than her age of 36. She was stout and had a triple-chin and looked a little reminiscent of a frog in photos.

Everett was the same age as Fanny, but he looked far younger. He was slim with brown hair and blue eyes and he was proud of his good looks. Detectives thought that maybe the two could have been in a love affair, but when Everett was asked about that possibility he was adamant that was FOR SURE not the case.

Police were close with that theory but it wasn’t Fanny Everett was involved with. He had his eye on Fanny’s beautiful 15 year old daughter, Ruth, instead. This was the exchange he had with authorities about that.
Q. You had intercourse with Ruth in the very bed where your wife lay?
Everett: Yes.
Q. What did your wife say to that?
Everett. She didn’t know anything about the intercourse.
Q. You were nude?
Everett. Yes.
Q. Was your wife nude?
A. Yes.
Q. And Ruth slept nude?
A. She came in clothed.
Q. But she soon stripped.
A. Yes.
Q. So we have a picture of your wife and Ruth and you in this bed, nude?
A. Yes.

The trial for Everette and Fanny began January 13, of 1936. Everett testified that he’d wanted to marry Ruth Creighton. Ruth testified that Everett had once asked her if she would like him better if he were single. She also told of an incident in which she was riding home in the Everett’s car with Everett and Ada.

The couple was arguing and When they got to the house, Ada slammed out of the car. Her husband came after her, knocking her to the ground. She got up, screaming at him, “If it was Ruth, you wouldn’t have done that.” So it seems Ada was aware of the affair to some degree.

ACCORDING TO Everett, John was the only innocent parent in the Creighton family. He testified that Fanny had known that Ruth was sleeping with him; she was even helping him keep track of Ruth’s menstrual periods. She liked the idea of her daughter being married and out of the overcrowded house. Everett’s lawyer was hoping to show that Everett was a sex fiend but not a murderer.

Everett admitted that he’d driven Fanny to a drugstore to buy a packet of Rough on Rats and had even paid for it. But he insisted that she had told him that she needed the poison to deal with some mice in the house. He had been shocked, he said, when his wife died.

Fanny testified that he had taken her to the drugstore and given her twenty-five cents to get the rat powder, then taken it from her and put it in his pocket. About the night of the murder, Fanny said: “Shortly after dinner that night, I went to the icebox and got the milk and poured it into a glass and he (Everett) gave me or handed me a powder and told me to put it in the milk. Sort of a grayish white substance, a white paper.”
Q. You knew the powder was arsenic?
A. Only his saying so.
Q. So when you put that eggnog on Ada’s table and waited for her to drink it, you knew there was arsenic in it?
A. That’s true.
Q. And you stood by and watched her die?
A. I didn’t know she was dying.
Q. You didn’t know she was dying?
A. Well—not exactly.

On January 30, Mary Frances Creighton and Everett Appelgate were convicted of first-degree murder which made the sentence of death mandatory they were sent to Sing Sing prison to await the result of their appeals. In her cell in Sing Sing Prison Fanny was obviously excited at the prospect of a favourable result being reached by the Court of Appeal, thinking she had gotten away with murder before, so it was likely she would again,

But when news came through that the original death sentence had been affirmed, she lost it. She didn’t eat much other than ice cream, she lay on the bed in her cell crying and moaning; she rarely slept but when she did she would wake up screaming, ‘I can’t stand it, I can’t stand it!’

Something that made her freak out even further, which is unsurprising, is that at least 10 men were electrocuted while she was waiting her time and it wasn’t concealed in the least. I’m not sure if the inmates could hear it or it was just passed around by the guards, but it would likely cause some distress at knowing what was coming. Before their scheduled execution times, which were planned back to back, the Warden allowed Fanny and Everett visitation with their families.

Everett’s father and step-mother came to visit and Everett’s was able to have a brief meeting with his son. “I said ‘Goodbye, Ev’ and he said ‘Goodbye, Pop’. That was all,” John Creighton visited Fanny and was allowed to hug and kiss her for the last time. He was never sure that Fanny had killed his own mother. John broke down and cried openly. As he left, he threatened to shoot any reporter who asked him a question. In the waiting room, as reporters gathered to enter the witness room,

Agnes Appelgate, 13, and Ruth Creighton, 15, the object of Everett’s sexual desires, munched on hamburgers as reported by NY Daily News. Fanny became worse and worse, she became pretty much bedridden and lost a lot of weight. On the day of her execution, July 16t, 1936, the executioner was surprised to find Fanny in a state of utter despair.

She wore a pink nightgown with a robe and some black slippers. She held a rosary and had to be placed in a wheelchair as she refused to walk. She was limp and unconscious when she was lifted into the electric chair. She was strapped in without resistance and seemed to be completely passed out when they flipped the switch. She died without being aware she was being killed.

This is gruesome, but kinda worth noting: To show the level of the heat that is generated in a person being electrocuted, one of the guards on duty that night suffered severe burns after coming into contact with Fanny’s body while releasing her from the chair; normally this would have been prevented by the thick clothing usually worn by the victim, but her thin nightgown didn’t provide any protection.

Immediately following Fanny’s execution, with the odors of the burning electrocution still in the air, Everett was brought in for his execution. He proclaimed his innocence once again before he too was put to death.

Sources: The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum, Murderpedia, Library of Congress, http://womenincrimeink.blogspot.com, NYDailyNews.com