The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-10
Six Deaths Laid at Her
Door But She Denies Them.


story of crime was closed by the death
in the Maine state prison at Thomas.
ton few days ago of Mrs Mary Cow
an, life convict. Mrs. Cowan was
either monster or a martyr, a cold
blooded murderer or the victim OF
strange condolences. Her maiden name
was Mary knight, and she was three
times married. Her first husband was
Willis Bean, of Dixmont, Me, in which
town she also lived with her parents
Bean was the son of a farmer. Soon af
ter his marriage he conceived the de-
sire to become physician Mrs. Bean
encouraged her husband in this design
and also expressed the intention ia
study medicine herself. They had lit
tie money, and, Furthermore, their three
children were regarded as an obstacle
to the accomplishment of their plans
One day the youngest Of the children
was found smothered in bed Soon after
the other two children, aged two and
three years, died of a stomach com
plant. There were suspicious whisper
ed among the neighbors, but the deaths
of the Bean children We're forgotten for
the time after they were laid away in
the village churchyard at Plymouth
Bean pursued his medical studies in
what was known as a druidical insti-
tute, where, it was said, diplomas could
be purchased for $25 or less. The leg
islature regarded this concern as a
fraud, and passed a law that killed it
before Bean had secured his diploma,
and both husband and wife then decid-
ed to attend a similar institution in
Ohio, where without much study they
might get diplomas. Before leaving,
Bean prevailed upon his parents to in
vest all their ready money in a farm,
upon which he was to live when he re-
turned from the west. The farm was
purchased and Bean received the deed,
giving to his parents a mortgage. For
various reasons this mortgage was new
er recorded, but was kept in the house
Of the elder Bean.
Willis Bean and his wife then bor-
rowed 5000 and went to tie Ohio med
ical school. Soon afterward came a
letter from Mrs. Bean, saying that
Willis had died suddenly, and that the
doctors could not tell the cause Of his
death. 1t afterWard developed that ii
was a stomach trouble, similar to that
which caused the death of two of the
Bean children. Mrs. Bean came home
to stay with her husbands parents, and
when she had been there a few weeks
it was discovered one day that the I'M
recorded mortgage had disappeared.
Young Mrs. Bean had the deed of the
farm. and so the land, bought with the
elder Beans pension money, was hers
in law She sold the place and all upon
it, realizing about $1,000, and the elder
Bean was 80 much the poorer for his
carelessness in not having the mort
gage recorded.
A short time afterward the Widow
Bean married George Taylor, who be-
longed in Dixmont and was employed
in one of the Lewiston mills Taylor
was an Odd Fellow, and it was sup
posed that he had some insurance in
that order. He soon died of the same
stomach trouble that carried off the
Beans, children and father. After his
death the fact developed that he had
not paid his dues in the Odd Fellows.
Lodge. so thar his insurance had
lapsed; but the members contributed
a fund of several hundred dollars for
the widow.
Mrs Taylor did not long remain
widow, but married man named Elias
Cowan, a widower, with o1.e child. Will
lis, aged years, at whose death the
property descended by the laws Of
Maine, to the boy, the father having
the entire income of the place until the
boy attained his majority, and after
that during his lifetime, cne-third the
income. One day in September, 1891,
death was the same stomach trouble
that had affected the Beans and Tay-
lor This case was Investigated, with
the result that Mrs. Cowan was arrest
ed upon the Charge of having killed the
boy with arsenic.
The body was exumed and the stom-
ach and intestines sent to Bowdoin
College for analysis. The chemists re-
ported that the stomach contained
enough arsenic to kill an OK. Mrs.
Cowan was convicted of murder in the
first degree, and sentenced in Febru-
airy, 1896, to a life term at Thomaston.
1t was lately learned that, previous to
he death of the boy Elias Cowan, the
father, was i'll with the same kind OF
stomach trouble, and that at that time
Mrs. Cowan supposed that the farm was
her husbands, not the boys. doc
tor who lived in the neighborhood, and
was familiar with the circumstances
attending the deaths of other members
of Mrs. Cowan's families, is said to
have told her that if her third hus-
ban died of this mysterious stomach
trouble there would be an investiga-
ton Cowan recovered, but there are
people III Dixmont who declare that
this was merely respite for him; that
his turn would have come very soon af-
ter the death of the boy had not Mrs
Cowan been arrested and her career as
a poisOner- stopped.
Mrs. Cowan always maintained that
she was innocent. but there was Moth
ing to support her assertion. There
never was any reasonable doubt that
she poisoned her stepson, and many
believe that she FASTENED the departure
from this life of at least FIVE other per-
sons, all for the sake of n little money
She was remarkably clover woman
in many ways.