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True Crime
Serial Killer: The Pittsburgh Poisoner
Would you like some arsenic with your tea?
Martha Grinder was hanged on January 19, 1866. She was one of only two women executed in Pittsburgh history.
She was convicted and confessed to the poisoning of two people. Her neighbor Mary Caroline Carothers, and a former maid Jane Buchanan, both of which died under mysterious circumstances after Martha and her husband George had moved to Pittsburgh from Louisville.
After the story broke, the speculation about her actual number of victims grew to include a former husband, her current husband’s brothers, Samuel and Jeremiah, along with two other neighbors. J.M. Johnston, and Marguerite Smith.
Who knows how many victims might have existed in Louisville. She might have moved from there to escape suspicion.
It seems that her methods of killing was to give a victim poison, making them sick. Then pretending to care for the now wretched soul. This made her appear to be a kind loving neighbor or family member. But, she poisoned these people over the course of weeks as she pretended to bring healing and comfort. She let them suffer under the pain and torture of arsenic and antimony poisoning.
