He was able to do this during his time as a hospital orderly.His spree took place between 1970 and 1987. She lived with the Nickells months before Bruce died. "I think that she probably killed Bruce and expected them to find out that he died from cyanide poisoning," he says. [5][7], Initial suspicions were directed at Bristol-Myers, with Stella and Webking filing wrongful death lawsuits against the company. But he took a polygraph, passed, and was eliminated as a suspect. 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. Name Stella Nicholls Occupation Student Gender Female Species Human Age 15-17 Status Alive Birth date c. 1951-1953 Appearances Film (s) Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Actors/Actresses Portrayed by Zoe Colletti Stella Nicholls is a fictional character appearing in the 2019 film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. After the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-6), Ulysses S. Grants Army of the Potomac marched south in the drive to take Richmond. The killer in that case has never been caught. Coryn I. Nicholls (Mayerson) is a Physician Assistant in Walnut Creek, CA. Then Stella Nickell's daughter, Cindy Hamilton, began talking to police. Nickell, who kept tropical fish in a large tank, had crushed the cyanide in the same bowl that she used to turn the algaecide into powder. Dont miss out! Less than a week later, Sue Snow, a 40-year-old bank manager took two extra-strength Excedrin capsules for an early-morning headache. Authorities ruled his death to be from natural causesemphysema, the attending physicians said. The drift toward war with Mexico had begun a year earlier when the U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas as a read more, In 1975, John Sebastian, former member of the beloved '60s pop group the Lovin Spoonful, was asked to write and record the theme song for a brand-new ABC television show with the working title Kotter. They also found cyanide in two bottles of Excedrin capsules Stella turned over to the police. Farr and Ciolino say that is not true. The Old Crime is New Again newsletter is a monthly email covering a topic that has not appeared in the blog. FBI document examiners determined that Bruce's signature on the applications had been forged. [2] The former was marked as overdue in library records, indicating that she had borrowed but never returned it. As the investigation continued, the FBI lab found an important clue: green crystals mixed in with the cyanide. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Stella Nicholls : No, Sarah, now it's your turn to hear a story. Estella had 4 sisters: Edith A. According to Stellas daughter from a previous marriage, Stella had begun planning Bruces murder almost from the honeymoon. For one thing, authorities found only five contaminated bottles of painkillers in all of King County. Investigators exhumed Bruce Nickells body and found evidence of cyanide. by Scott McCabe. He died, as did Auburn woman Sue Snow, who apparently picked up a bottle of the tainted tablets from a grocery store, according to news reports and court records. Additionally, network executives feared the film would inspire copycat crimes. At the time, Excedrin was packaged in plastic bottles with the mouth of the bottle sealed with foil and the lid secured to the bottle with plastic wrap. May 9, 1988, U.S. Marshall Merry Moore leads Stella Nickell from the federal courthouse after a jury convicts her on five counts of product tampering. 00:19:08 - Mrs. Stella Nickell might have actually gotten away with it too, if it weren't for her greed and a touch of karma. Snow was airlifted to the hospital, but she was declared brain dead a few hours later. Stella Nicholls. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. 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 Nickell, 78, has served 34 years of her sentence and last month filed a petition arguing that her failing health and nearly spotless record should qualify her for early release. The convicted killer stood before a parole board in 2017, while Klein watched the proceedings on closed-circuit TV. Trusted by millions of genealogists since 2003 Trusted information source for millions of people worldwide #inline-recirc-item--id-a607eb04-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { [3] The FDA inspected the Morrisville, North Carolina, plant where the tainted lot had been packaged, but found no traces of cyanide to explain its presence in the Washington bottles. She told police, and doctors realized that Bruce Nickell had also been poisoned. Although investigators were sure they had the right person, they had very little to take to a jury: No fingerprints, nor any way to prove that Stella Nickell ever bought or possessed cyanide. Authorities alleged he put rat poison in capsules of several SmithKline Beckman Corp. products in Florida and Texas in a failed scheme to manipulate the price of SmithKline stock. 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). Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Historical Records* 3.9 BILLION RECORDS. [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. Klein told them that her mom, who was a bank manager in Auburn, Washington, was "popular and had a big personality.". The FBI began an investigation into possible product tampering having been the source of the poison. Sign up for notifications from Insider! At the end of the movie, she won the prize for the scariest story ever. The bottle had the same lot number as the bottle in Sue Snows home. View more. Stella, who was ordered to go to counseling, says her daughter was jealous of her. Read. Stella . A few years later, though, she had a change of heart. Stella Nickell, then 75, had been sentenced to 90 years in prison in 1988, after she was found guilty of product tampering. [9] Investigators' suspicions began to turn to Stella when they discovered that she claimed that the two contaminated Excedrin bottles that she had turned over to police had been purchased at different times and different locations. They were married two years later. Stella and Bruce Nickell married in 1976, shortly after seven people were killed in Chicago, Illinois, from poisoned Tylenol pills. display: block; She bought nine more bottles of Excedrin and cut through the protective film with a razor blade. Despite the Soviet statement, it was obvious that the boycott was a response to the decision of the read more, On May 8, 1792, Congress passes the second portion of the Militia Act, requiring that every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years be enrolled in the militia. 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 also question how she first became a suspect. [17], Stella was sentenced to two terms of ninety years in prison for the deaths of Bruce and Snow, and three ten-year terms for the other product tampering charges. After all, it had been less than four years since the unsolved Tylenol poisonings in the Chicago area. Stella Nickell used Cyanide to kill her victims. With Snow dead, Stella could step forward and notify police. The police say Stella told them she bought them at different times, probably at different stores. When Cindy was 9, Stella was charged with hitting her with a curtain rod, bruising her legs. 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. [2] When her bar visits were curtailed by Bruce's sobriety,[3] she began requesting evening shifts at her security screener job at SeattleTacoma International Airport and cultivated a home aquarium as a new hobby. He was taken by helicopter to a Seattle hospital. Farr and Ciolino have been traveling the country without pay, interviewing witnesses and friends, talking to anyone who may help them. That case moved Congress to enact tough tampering laws. In June 1986, two Auburn residents were killed by painkillers laced with cyanide. According to Olsen, the police theory is that Stella Nickell crushed the algae tablets in a bowl, and then later, when she mixed the cyanide, used that same bowl without cleaning it. America immediately thought of the unsolved 1982 Chicago Tylenol product-tampering murders in which seven people died. [7], Both Stella and Webking were asked to take polygraph examinations. 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. The case was also featured in episodes of Autopsy, Forensic Files,[26] The New Detectives,[27] Mysteries at the Museum, and Snapped,[28] as well as two episodes of Deadly Women. Hamilton went on to testify against Nickell at her trial two years later. A more recent but undated photo of Stella Nickell. But Tom Noonan, manager of the local fish store, says she did buy algae destroyer. Log In. When detectives investigated, they found that Stella had borrowed, but never returned, a book called Human Poisoning. [13], On December 9, 1987, Stella was indicted by a federal grand jury on five counts of product tampering, including two which resulted in the deaths of Bruce and Snow,[6][14] and arrested the same day. Her husband, Bruce, died after taking cyanide-laced Excedrin tablets in . [1][2] Stella soon found herself in various legal issues, including a conviction for fraud in 1968, a charge of spousal abuse for beating Hamilton with a curtain rod in 1969, and a conviction for forgery in 1971. It was found among a thousand pages never turned over to the defense. display: none; The doctors said it was emphysema, but Stella says that never made sense, because he didn't have that disease. Stella Nickell was found guilty in federal court not of murder but of product tampering on May 9, 1988, and was sentenced to 90 years. 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. The FBI refused to comment. They also posted a $100,000 reward. display: none; Hamilton collected $300,000 in damages, financed by a group of drug companies including Johnson & Johnson. Stella Nickell, 78, has served 34 years of her sentence and last month filed a petition arguing that her failing health and nearly spotless record should qualify her for early release. as well as other partner offers and accept our. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. 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. Find Nicholls's address, hospital affiliations and more. FBI working to identify unknown victims of serial killer She also planted other bottles of cyanide-tainted Excedrin in local stores to. "She never talks about my mom," Klein said. Rider was never called to testify. One of the jurors had been a plaintiff in a case involving a pill baked into Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers. Olsen told Insider that Snow was a random victim who "paid for Stella's greed with her life." Examination showed that Bruces signatures on at least two of the policies in his name were forgeries. "It was a means to an end," the author said. win all terms to run concurrently. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. She told them her mother had often spoken of wanting Bruce dead. So she put poisoned painkillers in stores, they say, hoping someone else would die and the tainted capsules would be discovered. On the basis of their new findings, Stella's legal team today filed a request for a new trial. She said that she acted in self-defense as a victim of domestic violence. } Snow died a few days later, after also taking Excedrin pills laced with cyanide. Strength Excedrin is a safe medication. Olsen says Hamilton and her mother had a combative relationship. Suspicious investigators, noting that $100,000 of that would only be paid out because the cause of death was now known to be cyanide, wondered if Stella had randomly killed Sue Snow by planting the bottle that killed her on the Pay-N-Save shelf, simply to bring attention to the fact Bruce had been poisoned and increase her take. How Americans Became Convinced Their Halloween Candy was Poisoned. A total of five bottles containing cyanide-laced capsules were recovered: the bottle Sue Snow had purchased, the two bottles Stella Nickell had turned in, the Excedrin found on the shelves at Johnny's Market in Kent, and the Anacin capsules discovered at Pay-n-Save in Auburn. On December 9, 1987, a federal grand jury indicted Stella Nickell on five counts of product tampering. He was taken by helicopter to a Seattle hospital. She will be eligible for parole in 2017. [15][16], Stella's legal team sought a mistrial on grounds of jury tampering and judicial misconduct. Stella's payoff now totaled $175,000. This, in turn, brought in the FBI. Stella had an aquarium, but says she never bought algae destroyer. A year later, Stella put cyanide in an Excedrin capsule that Bruce later took for a headache. Bruce's insurance paid an extra $100,000 if he died by accident, including poisoning. Nickell says her husband walked out on the deck to watch the birds, and suddenly collapsed. Stella Nicholls was presumably born in the early 1950s, and when Stella was young, her mother would leave her for an unknown reason. May 08, 2013 12:00 AM. "And I won't quit fighting until I prove it.". Stella Nickell, an Auburn woman who was sentenced to 90 years in prison for product-tampering that left two people dead, is seen here in 1987 at the age of 44. ER . 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. View this record View. Bruce worked as a heavy equipment operator and had a fondness for alcohol. But the policy would pay an additional $100,000 if he died from accidental causes. Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Cynthia Hamilton, 30, the Nickells daughter who now lives in Garden Grove, testified that her mother repeatedly talked about ways to kill her husband, Bruce Nickell, who was 52 when he died. Sues husband also took two capsules from the bottle for his arthritis before leaving for work. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. The Chicago Tylenol incident (which was never solved) had a lasting impact on Stella, who decided that cyanide would be a good method of murder. She had a history of abusing drugs. You have to go to the city. The reward money came from a drug manufacturer's trade association. She told them that she thought that he'd been poisoned, too. [5] Stella, Hamilton claimed, had even told her that she had tried to poison Bruce previously with foxglove hidden in capsules. Ramn Morales : If you're serious about being a writer, it's not going to happen here. 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. In the next 12 years, there would be a failed marriage and a second daughter. DARLING (born NICHOLLS) and 3 other siblings. She said she had a bottle of Excedrin in her home with the same lot number as the bottle that had killed Sue Snow. Paramedics found her unconscious and gasping for breath. 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. Authorities became suspicious because she told them she had bought two bottles of Excedrin at different times, probably in different places. "But more importantly, I know who didn't do it and that's Stella Nickell. They then looked toward Nickell. She became eligible for parole in 2018 but remains in prison. But U.S.. He died shortly after arriving. Snow died a few days later, after also taking Excedrin pills laced with cyanide. The FBI found Stella's fingerprints on several books. One June evening in 1986, he came home with a headache and four Excedrins. Bruces heavy drinking suited Stella just fine. Because of product tampering legislation passed in response to the Chicago killings, these murders became a federal case. In the next 12 years, there would be a failed marriage and a second daughter. Bruce's insurance paid an extra hundred thousand dollars if he died by accident, including poisoning. [7] His death initially was ruled to be by natural causes, with attending physicians citing emphysema. Judge wont release WA woman serving 90 years for planting poisoned pills, Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. FBI detectives knew that it was an unlikely coincidence that Nickell had purchased two of four known contaminated bottles purely by chance. [1] By the summer of 1987, even Stella's attorneys acknowledged that she was the prime suspect in the case. Nixon reaffirmed his promise to withdraw 150,000 read more, On May 8, 1884, Harry S. Truman is born in Lamar, Missouri. Farr says that there is no credible evidence against her. But this time, there was a suspect and an arrest. She belongs in prison until she is dead. Sign Up. 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 . The judge sentenced her to two 90-year terms for tampering with the bottles that caused the deaths of Bruce and Sue Snow. Prosecutors said that Nickell had tampered with medication in several stores to cover up her husband's death. She asked for compassionate release due to bad health, but where was her compassion when she murdered her own husband and another women? Her release date is set for July 10, 2040, when she will be almost 97 years old. "It's entirely possible that the real killer is walking around somewhere out there," says Farr. Stella Nicholas. During the autopsy, an assistant medical examiner noticed the odor of bitter almonds, a tell-tale indicator of cyanide. One June evening in 1986, he came home with a headache and four Excedrins. Background Report for Stella Chen. May 9, 1988, U.S. Marshall Merry Moore leads Stella Nickell from the federal courthouse after a jury convicts her on five counts of product tampering. Her husband, Bruce Nickell, collapsed at home in 1986 at the age of 42 after taking several Excedrin tablets for a headache, according to news accounts. Your email address will not be published. These included convictions for fraud and forgery and a charge of beating Cindy with a curtain rod. One June evening in 1986, he came home with a headache and four Excedrins. The odds of her selecting two contaminated bottles by random chance were astronomical. She laced some of the pills with cyanide, just as she'd done before, and placed the bottles on the shelves of random stores in the area. Search for profiles by email and username. Like cyanide poisoning. Gregg Olsen's, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, "Case 93: Sue Snow and Bruce Nickell - Casefile: True Crime Podcast", "Killing Her Husband Wasn't Enough for Stella Nickell; to Make Her Point, She Poisoned a Stranger", "Mystery Involving Failed Mother-Daughter Relationship, Product Tampering and Murder, CBS", "Poisoned Painkiller Panic: The Snow-Nickell Cyanide Murders", "Poisoned Excedrin Suspected in 2D Seattle Death", "Ninety-year prison term in tampering deaths", United States Food and Drug Administration, "Husband of cyanide poisoning victim questioned", "Woman is Held in Deaths from Excedrin Laced with Cyanide", "Woman Guilty of Killing 2 With Poisoned Excedrin", "Woman Guilty of Killing 2 in Poisoned Excedrin Case", "Possibility of Mistrial Raised In Product-Tampering Case", "Stella Nickell, serving 90 years for planting poisoned pills, killing 2, seeks release from prison", "AUBURN WOMAN SERVING 90-YEAR TERM SEEKS NEW TRIAL IN HUSBAND-POISONING CASE", "The Federal Anti Tampering Act: Criminal Offense To Tamper With Consumer Products", "Nickell gets 90 years for cyanide murders", "TV film canceled after drug maker objects", "USA Network Pulls Movie After Advertiser Protests", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stella_Nickell&oldid=1130965489, People convicted of murder by Washington (state), Articles with dead external links from November 2021, Articles with permanently dead external links, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Pages using infobox criminal with motive parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 January 2023, at 21:57. Other occupants: Joanna R Nicholls. Cindy subsequently received $250,000 of the $300,000 drug industry award. See Photos. Stella refused, her lawyer saying she was too shaken up. 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. The Food and Drug Administration soon announced that Extra Strength Excedrin capsules found at Snow's home contained cyanide. See Photos. Are you a "motivated dater"? There was nothing wrong with her. A year and half after Bruce Nickell died, Stella Nickell was arrested and stood trial in federal court. They exhumed her husband's body and determined that he too, had been poisoned. Colbert says that he has never seen the polygraph graph, although he has asked to. They then looked toward Nickell. Stella had taken out $76,000 of life insurance on Bruce. "All she wanted was a tropical-fish store.". The clincher came when Stellas oldest daughter, Cindy Hamilton, contacted police. Stella Maudine Stephenson was a native of Colton, Oregon. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. Gregg Olsen, whose book "Bitter Almonds" chronicles the case, says that is why the FBI zeroed in on her. Farr and Ciolino believe that finding Hamilton is the key to their case. #inline-recirc-item--id-a607eb04-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-a607eb04-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { [6] Concrete evidence proving that she had ever purchased or used cyanide was lacking, and despite their relative certainty that she had orchestrated the poisonings as either an elaborate cover-up for an insurance-motivated murder of her husband or a desperate attempt to force her husband's death to be ruled an accident to increase her insurance payout, they were unable to build a strong case supporting arrest. On June 11, Sue Snow, a 40-year-old bank manager, took two Excedrin capsules for an early-morning headache. Stella appealed her conviction but none of her appeals succeeded. Cynthia Hamilton, Stellas daughter, came forward (possibly in order to obtain reward money) with her account of Stellas plan to kill her husband. The Food and drug administration and the manufacturer, Bristol - Meyers, moved quickly to remove all Extra - Strength Excedrin bottles from the shelves across the, The victims had taken it as a regular pill and did not realized it had Cyanide. Let's remember when Stella Nickell was convicted of tampering with Excedrin, on this day in 1988 (May 9) | by Chris Burlingame | Journal of Precipitation | Medium Write Sign up Sign In 500. And she is completely capable of murdering again at 78 yrs old. They say she was desperate to establish an accidental cause of death. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Stella Nickell was convicted two years later. ER 2002-12, 2014-16 Milford Haven, Dyfed, SA73. Gradually suspicion hardened on Stella Nickell. Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. On June 24th, a fifth bottle of cyanide-laced pills appeared on retail shelves in South King County. They have a history of helping people they feel have been unfairly convicted. Stella Nicholl. "And I won't quit fighting until I prove it.". In the next 12 years, there would be a failed marriage and a second daughter. Stella Maudine Nickell (ne Stephenson; born August 7, 1943) is an American woman who was sentenced to ninety years in prison for product tampering after she poisoned Excedrin capsules with lethal cyanide, resulting in the deaths of her husband Bruce Nickell and Sue Snow. [20] Her release date is given as July 10, 2040, when she will be 96 years old. ", Klein has watched all three of Nickell's parole hearings, where she's petitioned for release on "compassionate grounds." In the face of the publicity blitz, Stella Nickell came forward on June 19. President Nixon, at a news conference, defends the U.S. troop movement into Cambodia, saying the operation would provide six to eight months of time for training South Vietnamese forces and thus would shorten the war for Americans. Federal prosecutors said they opposed her release. [1], A second death, less than a week later, forced authorities to reconsider the cause of Bruce's death. The media was riveted because of its similarity to the notorious Chicago "Tylenol murders," less than four years earlier, when seven people died in fall 1982 after taking cyanide-tainted Tylenol pills. 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. The defense agreed not to cross-examine Cindy about the reward. Stella Chen has been associated with one company, according to public records. In the next 12 years, there would be a failed marriage and a second daughter. Search for birth, death, marriage, divorce, US Census, and military records. Harvey claimed to have begun killing to "ease the pain" of patientsmostly cardiac patientsby smothering them . Nickell took a lie detector test and failed. Bristol-Myers and the industry were following in the footsteps of Johnson & Johnson, whose swift reaction to the 1982 Tylenol case has been held up as a model of corporate responsibility and good public relations. The son of a farmer, Truman could not afford to go to college. But in 1986, when two Seattle-area people died after ingesting Excedrin laced with cyanide, Stella Nickell was nabbed for the. Investigators speculated she had used the same container to crush algae killer and store cyanide. The Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Assn. 2011 Update: New book presents compelling case that the murderous capsules were prepared within the manufacturer's facilities, not at the retail level.

Dsw Homes Floor Plans, Abandoned Houses For Sale In Fort Worth, Heritage Club Membership Cost, Articles S