The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-04-16
GARY WOMAN
GAVE POISON
T0CHILDREN
Denies Responsibility For
Death of Her Husband,
First to Die
SPARED ONE DAUGHTER
Says Love Prompted Her
To Administer Arsenic
To Victims
SPARED ONE DAUGHTER
(By The Associated Press)


Crown Point. Ind, April 16.-Calm
and unmoved Mrs. Anna Cunningham,
40, confessed last night that she gave
poison to three of the five members
of her family, whose mysterious
deaths within six years led to an in
vestigation resulting in murder
charge against her.
The victims, Isabelle. 18, Charles 10.
and Walter. l3, she said she had kill
ed because she loved them best. She
believed she was going to die and
wanted to take them with her and
that for the same reason she had
given poison to David. the last son,
cago hospital. She denied that she
to die, or Harry. another son, in
whose exhumed body coroner's chem
ist found arsenic.
She spared May. 10. surviving
daughter, because she disliked her.
she said.
Each time she administered the
arsenic in bread and butter she took
similar dose herself. and after the
dose of Walter, she added a teaspoon
full of iodine for herself, but always
recovered. The desire to "join in
heaven her husband and take with
her her best loved child" had prompt
ed her to administer the death po-
ton to Isabel, the first victim who
died December 81. 1920.
The confession of the woman who
had remained unshaken under ques-
tioning in Chicago of prosecutors
Robert +. Grove and John S. Shar-
baro, who had obtained admissions
of guilt from Nathan Leopold, Jr..
and Richard Loeb, was obtained by
sheriff Benjamin H. Strong and Miss
Maureen ,McKernen, Chicago newspa.
per reporter. During yesterday, af.
ter she had recovered from state
of coma into which she lapsed early
Tuesday, Mrs. Cunningham talked to
Miss McKernen and admitted that
she might have placed some arsenic
in the food of David by mistake, but
was stolid in her denial that she had
poisoned any members of her family.
She permitted the reporter to apply
cold congresses to her head and loo5-
en- her clothing, appearing more in
terested in changing her best black
silk dress for an apron than in her
subsequent cold blooded recital of
the deaths.
ouuucHly SHc dShSu IudI HcT uouSu IL
ter, May, be sent for, and that she be
removed from her cell because Of the
presence there of several women pri-
soners. Disregarding the girls fran
tic screams to remain silent, she de.
tailed her story to Sheriff Strong and
later to an official court reporter.
The girl refused to remain and listen
to the account of the death of her
brother and was taken away. She
also declined an offer to remain in
the Jail near her mother during the
night and went to an adjoining ho-
tel.
Only when she was asked to sign
the Transcribed confession at 2:45 a.
m. today, did Mrs: Cunningham be-
tray any emotion. Then she broke
down and sobbed.
Brooding over the death of the
father, David, senior, while the fam
lily resided on farm near Valparai
SO, Indiana, Mrs. Cunningham's sign
ed confession said, she determined
"to join him in heaven and take with
her their best loved child, Isabelle"
AS much poison as lay on the end of
a table knife was spread on bread
and covered with butter and fed to
the girl who died December 81, 1920.
The next to die was Harry, Il, Oct
ober 13, 1921. He had suffered from
an inherited disease, she said. She
denied poisoning him, even after be-
ing told that poison sufficient to
have caused death had been found in
his body.
Charles, 10, who died September 21,
1922, also suffered from the inherited
ailment, according to physicians
examination. During his illness she
poisoned him, however, the confess
sion said
Another decision to join her hus-
this admin nistration of the poison.
but recovered.
The last child to die was Walter,
13, September 26, 1928. His body
was exhumed with that of Harry last
Monday and in the formal murder
charge filed against her yesterday.
she was held responsible for his
death. He was in bed with slight
illness, when, she said, she gave him
one of the poisoned bread and butter
sandwiches.
The death of Walter, youngest in
the family, had haunted her she said,
before making her statement. At the
time she gave him the sandwich, she
took the usual dose Of arsenic and
added teaspoonful of iodine, but
only made herself Ill.
Isabelle carried $1,000 in insur-
ance, the confession said. Harry had
|. So 500. Charles, $500. and Walter,
$3.50. All the insurance money had
been spent. most of it in physicians
and funeral bills. DR.. A. A. Watts of
Gary, Ind, whose certificates of
death in each of the five cases at
tributed them to iliocolitis in the
case of David, senior, meningitis in
Isabelle's, peritonitis in Charles, and
endocarditis, in Walters. was paid
about $1,000, she said.
A package of poison, bought for
twenty-five cents before the death
of Isabelle, sufficed for all the doses,
she said. "
DR.. w. F. Houk, deputy coroner.
present when che told her story, said
she gave no indications to him of
| insanity.
The family was known g peculiar
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