Sunday, January 24, 2016

The Murder of Michael Smith

A tragic story that one just couldn't make up...

"SUICIDED IN PENITENTIARY
 Daughter of Mike Smith Kills Herself By Eating Spiders

The following press dispatch will be of interest to the acquaintances of Michael Smith, who was born and reared in Defiance, and who was poisoned by his wife and daughter a few years since:

 Des Moines, Oct. 11...

Cora Smith, who murdered her blind father, Mike Smith in Des Moines, in 1894, by putting rough on rats in his coffee, committed suicide at the Anamosa penitentiary by eating spiders.

She was serving a life sentence with her mother, Betsy Smith, for the crime.  A paper bag of spiders was found in the cell after her death and a post mortem examination revealed the spiders in her stomach."

Defiance Democrat
October 13, 1898 




Now for the back story with a few more details...  Chronicled in The Davenport Democrat and Leader, Davenport, Iowa on May 11, 1894:

"POISONED HER HUSBAND.
Fiendish Murder Committed by a Woman at Des Moines.

Des Moines, Ia., May 11 - Without doubt the most brutal and fiendish murder in the history of the city has just come to light by the confession of the sister of the murderess, who is said to have killed her husband by slow poison.  

Michael Smith was a railroad engineer and was in the way of his wife.  There was $3000 insurance on his life.  Mrs. Ida Scoville, the sister of the wife of Michael Smith, confessed to the grand jury that her sister had given the husband, who died two weeks ago from the effects of poison, arsenical doses three times.  The first was in a pie and the second in a dish of oatmeal and the last and fatal dose in a capsule.

The fatal dose was given in the evening, and the wife left the house, returning about midnight almost drunk.  The sister who made the confession wanted to send for a doctor, and got a young man with whom Mrs. Smith was intimate and with whom she had said she would start a saloon after her husband was out of the way, to go for a doctor.  The wife went after the messenger, and brought him back, refusing medical aid to the dying man, who was screaming with agony.  

He died five hours after.  Mrs. Schoville is under arrest for the murder.  She confesses to a knowledge of the poisoning, but nothing more."

And on June 27, 1894, in the Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska:   

"IOWA MURDERESS CONVICTED.
Mrs. Betsey Smith Found Guilty of Murdering Her Husband.

Des Moines, June 27 - Mrs. Betsey Smith was found guilty of murdering her husband, Michael Smith, and sentenced to life imprisonment by the jury.  
Mrs. Smith poisoned her husband, Michael Smith, a blind Rock Island engineer, to get his $3000 life insurance, so that she could live with her lover, Frank Bellaire.  She laid the crime upon her sister, Mrs. Ida Schoville, but the latter gave the whole story away and Mrs. Smith was convicted." 

BUT...what of the daughter, Cora?  What was her role?  Almost a year will pass before the truth comes out.  Read on...

From The Perry Daily Chief, Perry, Iowa on March 30, 1895:

"HER GREAT REMORSE
Cora Smith, An Omaha Woman, Confesses to Giving Her Father Poison in Des Moines.

Omaha, March 29 - Cora Smith, formerly a resident of Des Moines, but who has lived in this city since last September, was arrested last night on information received from Des Moines and held for the crime of murder.  The Smith woman was found in the Tremaine girls' house of prostitution, and shortly after being taken to the police station, she confessed to having assisted in murdering her father last May.

Mike Smith was the murdered man's name and previous to the last and successful attempt to kill him by poisoning, an attempt was made by shooting.  The ball passed through the head just back of the eyes and from the effects, he was blinded.  It was not proven who fired this shot, and Smith could not be led to believe that members of his family were plotting to kill him, but insisted that it was a man who was an enemy of his.    

Not long after the shooting incident, poison in small doses was administered from the effects of which he died last May.  The wife and daughter were arrested, charged with the crime, and in June the wife was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Iowa penitentiary. 

Cora was discharged when taken before the police judge for a hearing, and, after remaining in Des Moines for a short time, she came to Omaha and entered a house on the row.  Her associates noticed that something was continually worrying her and that she could not sleep, but were not aware of the cause.

After her mother was sent to the penitentiary, she began writing to her, and in one of the letters she told her mother how she had assisted in poisoning her father, and at the same time implicating her aunt, Mrs. Ellen Leader.  This letter fell into the hands of the detectives, as did all the correspondence following.  

In her confession last night, she said that the poison which was used to kill her father was purchased by her aunt, Mrs. Leader, and that Mrs. Leader administered several doses, but the one which caused her father's death and the last one given was by her own hands.
The object of the murder was to secure $6000 life insurance."

By the end of April 1895, the gig was up for Cora Smith.

"Des Moines, April 24 - Cora Smith was today sentenced for the murder of her stepfather to life imprisonment at Anamosa.  On receiving the sentence, Cora fainted and was carried from the court.  
Miss Smith's guilt was determined by her own confession as to the perpetration of the crime"


A communication was left by the unfortunate woman addressed to Attorney General Remley. Its verbatim contents are as follows:
"Anamosa, Iowa, Oct. 4, 1898 -- Confession by Cora McCamly. Mr. Milton Remley. Dear Sir: I will write you these few lines, as I want everything clear. I have repented for all of my sins and I feel as if they was forgiven. My health is failing so rapidly I know I am going into consumption. I want to tell you the truth about my mother's case as it will go before you. Ellen Scoville and myself poisoned my stepfather Michael Smith. Ellen made a peach pie for supper and put rat poison in it and also in his coffee, and that night I put rat poison in a glass of water and he drank it. I have never been sorry that I told the truth, but God knows I hope you will do all you can for my dear mother, for she is suffering for something she never done. It breaks my heart. I want to tell the truth about everything; my dear mother is innocent of what she is charged. I cannot stand to see her suffer so; it worried me dreadful. This is the truth as sure as God is my creator, and I repeat once more that my mother is innocent, so do all you can for her. I am not sorry for the confession I made, but I am ready to die, so I ask you again to help my mother. No one knows that I am going to do anything, but my life is a misery to me to see my mother suffering so, and to know that it is for nothing. This is the God's truth.
Yours truly, Cora McCamley.
Mr. Hunter, please see that this is mailed to Mr. Milton Remley. Cora."


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