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Lydia Sherman (December 24, 1824 – May 16, 1878), née Danbury, also known as The Derby Poisoner, was an American serial killer. She poisoned eight children in her care (six of whom were her own) and her three husbands and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1872.
Mar 22, 2023 · In June 1871, police arrested Lydia Sherman in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for the murder of her third husband, Horatio N. Sherman. She returned to Connecticut and was tried in New Haven in 1872. The jury found her guilty of second-degree murder.
- Lydia Sherman
- How It Started
- Child Killer
- Move to Connecticut
- Lydia Sherman Unmasked
- Arrest and Trial
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The childhood of Lydia Sherman offers few clues to her emergence as a serial killer. She was born Lydia Danbury on Christmas Eve, 1824, in Burlington, N.J. A year after her birth, her mother died, and she went to live on her uncle’s farm until she turned 16. Then she went to live with her brother in New Brunswick. She was slim and pretty, with blue...
Edward Struck sank into depression, refusing to leave the apartment or his bed. Lydia decided to put him out of his misery. One day she went to the drugstore to buy arsenic, easy to obtain as a rat-killing poison in the 19thcentury. She stirred a thimbleful into Edward’s oatmeal – though a few grains will kill a man – and after several agonizing ho...
As the Civil Warraged, Lydia created carnage in her own household. Without any means of support and young children to feed, Lydia decided her youngest three — Martha Ann, 6; Edward, Jr., 4 and William, 9 months old — “could do nothing for me or for themselves.” She decided to put them out of the way the same way she had disposed of their father. Le...
By the end of the Civil War, Lydia’s stepson Cornelius Struck grew suspicious about Lydia and shared his concern with the district attorney. The DA promised an investigation, but nothing happened. When the Civil War ended, Lydia got a job selling sewing machines in New York City. She met John Curtiss, a customer impressed with the 41-year-old’s nur...
Horatio Sherman, unaware of his wife’s murderous proclivities, drank heavily and spent her money freely. One day, while drunk, he ranted that he wished his sickly infant son Frankie would die to end his suffering. Lydia Sherman took the hint, and mixed a little arsenic into the baby’s milk. He died quickly. The next month, her 14-year-old stepdaugh...
Lydia Sherman had moved to New Brunswick to live with her family, but on June 7, 1872, police arrested her for murder. They took her to New Haven to await trial. Her trial began on April 16, 1872 and lasted eight days. Lydia Sherman appeared prim and proper in court, wearing a black alpaca dress, a shawl, gloves, a straw hat with a thin veil. She s...
Lydia Sherman was a notorious serial killer who poisoned eight children and three husbands in New York and Connecticut in the 19th century. She confessed to her crimes in a best-selling book and was hanged in 1872.
Lydia Sherman (Burlington, New Jersey, United States, 1824 – 16 May 1878), also known as The Derby Poisoner, was a serial killer. She poisoned several children in her care and her three husbands and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1872.
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Jan 10, 2015 · Mostly forgotten, Lydia Sherman poisoned 3 husbands, 8 children. By Raymond Bendici Connecticut Magazine Jan 10, 2015. Illustration of Lydia Sherman courtesy of “Greg Shea Creations”...
Jul 26, 2021 · Lydia Sherman was a notorious murderess who poisoned her three husbands and several stepchildren with arsenic in the late 19th century. She was arrested, tried, and hanged for her crimes, but her motives and methods remain a mystery.
Visitors will see arsenic tests from the 1872 trial of Lydia Sherman, who was suspected of poisoning three of her husbands and eight children in her care, the first polygraph used for lie detection, and a modern apparatus for testing bite marks on cadavers.
