Ellen Walker Etheridge
Ellen Walker was born in 1866, she had an ordinary life being
raised in the hard times of the 1800’s. Ellen met and married a man named West,
sadly after just a short time married West passed away due to unknown causes.
Ellen packed up her and her child’s belongings and moved home with her mother,
who was recently separated from her husband. Within a short time of living at
home with her mother, her mother passed away, leaving Ellen to tend to her
child alone.
Ellen needed a job to help support
herself and her child; Ellen’s sister, Maddy, assisted Ellen with obtaining a
job as a housekeeper for J.D. Etheridge, his wife Martha Etheridge, and their seven
children Annie Mae, Lillie Pearl, Richard, Harrison, Oscar, Amanda, and Eula
Mae. From all accounts Ellen worked hard and was an excellent employee to the
Etheridge family.
On January 6th, 1913 J.
D. and Martha welcomed baby girl, Lillian Belle into their growing family. The
couple spent the night doting on the new baby and Martha dozed in her bed. When
Martha failed to get up in the morning, J. D. went to her bed and discovered
that she had passed away sometime during the night because of the childbirth.
J.D. was now a single father of 8 children, he had no idea how he was going to mange
to take care of the house, the children, and still work to support the family.
Ellen stepped out from the shadows, this was the answer to her prayers, and
took over the motherly duties that were bestowed upon her. J.D. did not want to
loose the only help he seemed to have at the time, and quickly asked Ellen to
marry him!
While Ellen was looking for love,
J.D. was looking for help. The couple married in March of 1913; Ellen fully
believed that things would change once the couple married. She felt that she
would take her rightful place as matriarch of the family, that J.D. would
shower her in love and affection. However, J.D. had other plans, he spent all
of his free time, when he wasn’t working on the farm, with his children. He
would play and teach his children, like any good father should. It often left
Ellen feeling neglected and alone.
The anger and resentment for the
children began to grow; the tiny flame of anger began to grow into a full
raging fire within her. On June 15th, 1913 that anger finally boiled
over, Ellen could no longer hold back the pain of being forgotten by her
husband. When two year old Eula Mae awoke on that fatefully June morning, Ellen
noticed right away that she appeared “puny and fretful”, Ellen not wanting the
young girl to suffer, knowing that death was near for the young girl, forced a
small spoonful of Lye into the child’s mouth. Eula died later that day; her
death certificate lists Diphtheria as her cause of death. Ellen had gotten away
with it!
Just a few days later, sweet 9-year-old
Harrison, came trotting into the kitchen. Ellen was tired of Harrison, as he always
seemed to try to annoy her, get under her skin, he was always pushing his boundaries
with her. She had, had enough today was the day he would stop annoying her.
Ellen placed Lye into his drink, he died later in the day. His death went
unnoticed as poisoning and Ellen had gotten away with it again!
With two of the eight children gone
and having gotten away with murder, Ellen decided she would do the same to the
other six children that way she would have J. D. all to herself and would no
longer have to share him with his children. On October 2nd, 1913, three of the Etheridge children Oscar, Richard, and Lillie Pearl walked inside
from playing in the yard. Ellen had made them some buttermilk and cornbread to
quench their hunger. Oscar and Richard finished their glasses and trotted off
to continue playing. Lillie Pearl, did not like the way it tasted today and
refused to finish the glass. Before long Oscar and Richard were dead and poor
little Lillie Pearl was deathly ill. J.D. called for the doctor, who was able to
save Lillie Pearl from the brink of death.
The doctor
became suspicious, although child deaths were common during this time, having
two perfectly healthy children die suddenly and one almost die was not common.
The doctor immediately notified the Sheriff, who in turn started an
investigation into their deaths. The doctor performed an autopsy on the
children and discovered signs of arsenic poisoning. The Sheriff set his sights
on Ellen, as she was the newcomer to the family and the person to gain the most
from their deaths. The Sheriff was given permission to search the home and investigators
discovered a white powder in a pouch inside her trunk in her bedroom, which was
sent for testing. Ellen claimed that her mother had given her the powder six
years before to rid herself of rats. Ellen denied having anything do with the
children’s deaths. J. D. stood by her side through the investigation, convinced
that his wife would not harm his children.
Until, October 14th, 1913, Ellen confessed to
everything, to the murders, to the attempted murders. When the Investigator
asked her why she had murdered them, she simply stated that she was jealous of the
children’s relationship with their father and wanted more attention. J. D.
never did visit Ellen again after that, neither did any of her family. She
attempted to plead the insanity defense, but was unsuccessful. She was sentenced
to life in prison. After serving 18 years, on January 22nd, 1932,
Ellen Etheridge was released from Prison at the age of 66. Was 18 years, really
long enough for the murder of four innocent children?
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