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N0KFQ > TODAY 08.05.11 20:39l 60 Lines 2691 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - May 8
Path: IZ3LSV<IV3SCP<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<F6CDD<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 110508/1913Z 7509@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
May 8, 1988:
Woman convicted for tampering with Excedrin
Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle,
Washington, jury. 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.
Stella and Bruce Nickell married in 1976, shortly after seven
people were killed in Chicago, Illinois, from poisoned Tylenol
pills. According to Stella's daughter from a previous marriage,
Stella had begun planning Bruce's murder almost from the
honeymoon. 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.
In 1985, Stella took out a life insurance policy on Bruce that
included a substantial indemnity payment for accidental death. A
year later, Stella put cyanide in an Excedrin capsule that Bruce
later took for a headache. He died in the hospital, but doctors
did not detect the cyanide and ascribed the death to emphysema.
Stella, who stood to lose $100,000 if his death wasn't ruled an
accident, decided to alter her plan.
Nickell tampered with five additional bottles of Excedrin and
placed them on store shelves in the Seattle area. Six days later,
Susan Snow took one of these capsules and died instantly. After
her death was reported in the news, Stella called police to tell
them that she thought her husband had also been poisoned.
When investigators came to Nickell's home to pick up the Excedrin
bottle, she told them that there were two bottles and that she
had purchased them on different days at different places. When
both turned out to contain contaminated capsules, investigators
grew suspicious. FBI detectives knew that it was an unlikely
coincidence that Nickell had purchased two of four known
contaminated bottles purely by chance. Still, hard evidence
against her was hard to come by until January 1988.
Cynthia Hamilton, Stella's daughter, came forward (possibly in
order to obtain reward money) with her account of Stella's plan
to kill her husband. She told authorities that her mother had
done extensive research at the library. When detectives
investigated, they found that Stella had borrowed, but never
returned, a book called Human Poisoning. Her fingerprints were
also found all over other books on cyanide.
Nickell was given two 90-year sentences for the murders of her
husband and Susan Snow. She will be eligible for parole in 2018.
New evidence in the case has led some to believe that Nickell
might be innocent.
73, K.O. N0KFQ
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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