Getting married is one of the happiest days in a person's life, two people coming together
to affirm their love and commitment to each other and promising to take care of each other
for the rest of their lives.
However, some people skip past the vows, only taking into account the last section “till
death do us part”.
5 - Mary Channing Mary Elizabeth Brooks was described by her
parents and those around her as “rebellious” and “without morals”, for the 1600s, Mary’s
behaviour was scandalous and brought great shame to her family.
In 2021, this behaviour is viewed very differently, but at the time, Mary was the talk of Dorchester
and seen as a woman who couldn’t be tamed.
Mary was born in Dorchester, England in 1687 to Richard and Elizabeth Brooks, a couple
with high expectations for their children.
Richard and Elizabeth did everything within their power to ensure that Mary received a
good education but neglected to teach her how a woman should behave.
After realising that their daughter was acting out, they sent her to Exeter in the hopes
that she would learn a thing or two and come back a changed woman.
Sadly, this didn’t happen and Mary spent her time at dance schools, showering her friends
with expensive gifts and getting up to no good.
The local’s of Exeter began writing letters to Mary’s parents, complaining about her
behaviour and demanding that something be done about it.
It was at this point that Mary’s parents made the drastic decision to marry her off,
hoping that the responsibilities of married life would finally make her settle down.
After months of searching, they finally found a man who was suitable to marry their wayward
daughter, Thomas Channing.
Both Channing and Mary were displeased about the union and both voiced their objections.
Neither Channing’s nor Mary’s family backed down and weeks later on January 15th 1704,
they were wed, despite the two taking a dislike to each other.
Just 3 months after their wedding, Mary began having an affair with another man and saw
Channing as an obstruction to her freedom.
Mary, desperate to get rid of her new husband, slipped mercury into a bowl of rice milk that
she had prepared for him.
At first, Mary was unsure as to whether her plan had worked but when Channing awoke on
April 18th 1704 violently ill, she knew that everything was slowly falling into place.
For the next few days, Channing remained in bed with his condition worsening by the day.
On April 21st 1704, he changed his last will and testament and wrote that under no circumstances
should his new wife, Mary, receive any of his estate.
This small detail sealed Mary’s fate and Channing passed away a few hours later.
When the autopsy revealed that Channing had mercury in his system and it was found that
he had written his new wife out of his will, the police immediately turned their suspicions
to Mary.
Mary protested her innocence but with the evidence as clear as day, she was convicted
and handed down capital punishment.
During her trial, Mary declared that she was pregnant and her punishment was withheld until
her child was born in December 1705.
4 - Tillie Klimek Otillie “Tillie” Klimek and her parents
emigrated to the United States shortly before her first birthday in 1876 hoping that the
United States would be able to provide them with a better life.
The family chose to settle in Chicago, Illinois in an area that was dubbed “Little Poland”
for its high concentration of Polish immigrants.
The Klimek family quickly settled into their new lives with everyone adoring little Tillie.
Everyone in the area said that Tillie’s cooking was the best that they had ever tasted
and she became a well-known figure in the area.
She wasn’t just known for her cooking skills though, Tillie claimed to be a psychic and
said that she had dreams which predicted who or what would pass next.
Tillie told her neighbours that their beloved dog would sadly be next and days later, it
was.
Tillie didn’t tell them this because she was psychic, in fact, she had fed the dog
arsenic because she couldn’t stand its incessant barking.
In 1895, Tillie married John Mitkiewicz (mickey wicks), not much is known about their marriage
but in 1919 Tillie had another dream predicting the passing of her husband.
She confided in one of her friends, telling them that she had had a psychic dream that
her husband would pass away on a specific date.
When that day rolled around, everyone was shocked to learn that John had fallen ill
in the morning and was gone come evening time.
Friends and family noticed that Tillie acted very strangely in the days after her husband’s
passing.
They had been married for 29 years and she didn’t seem upset or in a state of grief.
In fact, she was more interested in collecting the life insurance check than arranging her
husband's funeral.
Just two months later, Tillie married another man, John Ruskowski.
Again, Ruskowksi was the subject of one of Tillie’s psychic dreams and as predicted,
he passed away on the day that Tillie said he would.
Tillie married 2 more men in quick succession with each quickly becoming the subjects of
her “psychic dreams”.
By Tillie’s fifth marriage to a man named, Josephnamed Joseph Klimek, people in the local
community became very suspicious of her.
In 1921, Joseph called for a doctor after he unexpectedly fell very ill, to his surprise,
the doctors were suspicious, to say the least, tests confirmed that he had arsenic in his
system and Tillie was swiftly arrested.
Following this shocking discovery, Tillie’s husbands were exhumed and they were all found
to have large amounts of arsenic in their systems.
Tillie Klimek was taken to trial and was only found guilty in the case of her third husband.
She was subsequently given a life sentence and passed away at the Joliet Correctional
Centre in Joliet, Illinois in November 1936.
3 - Mary Elizabeth Wilson 66-year-old Mary Elizabeth Wilson was known
around town as “The Merry Widow of Windy Nook'' and whilst the nickname may appear
harsh, there was a good reason that the locals were suspicious of Mary.
Life up north was tough in the early part of the 20th century, poverty ran rampant and
the country was desperately trying to rebuild itself in the midst of World War I.
Mary Elizabeth Wilson was determined to ensure that her life was as happy and fulfilled as
possible and in November 1914 she married her first husband, John Knowles.
Shortly after their marriage, the two bought a house in the idyllic village of Windy Nook
in Tyne and Wear with a population of around 3,000 people.
To the outside world, their marriage appeared perfect but behind closed doors, it was a
very different story.
Shortly after Mary had married John Knowles, her lover, John Russell moved into the home.
Then in 1955 her first husband, John Knowles mysteriously passed away.
Mary wasted no time and quickly married John Russell who also passed away just months after
their wedding.
Mary inherited £42 which in today’s money is £870 and the coroner ruled that both men
had died of natural causes.
Mary showed no interest in playing the part of a grieving wife and soon found another
man to trap into her web.
In late 1957 Mary married Oliver Leonard and astoundingly, he passed away just 12 days
after the two had tied the knot leaving her behind £100 (£2,300 in today’s money).
At this point, people began pointing the finger at Mary and even joked that the undertakers
gave her a discount because she was there so often.
It was also during this time that Mary picked up the nickname of “The Merry Widow of Windy
Nook”.
With each husband, Mary inherited a large sum of money and everything from their estate
but it seems that this still wasn’t enough for her.
Her fourth and final husband, Ernest Wilson also met with a similar fate and Mary even
joked with friends and family that the food from her wedding buffet should be saved and
used for Ernest’s funeral.
This morbid joke put Mary on the police’s radar and just days after Ernest passed, they
demanded that all of her husbands be exhumed and subjected to further testing which revealed
high levels of phosphorus.
When asked about the exhumations and allegations against her, Mary told a Sunday Sun reporter
“I’m not worried about what they are saying.
I can go to the blessed sacrament, I’m a Catholic, tomorrow.
I take no notice of the tittle-rattle.
It is all jealousy.
I am not worried at all about what is going on.”
Mary’s bravado and arrogance didn’t pay off and in 1958 she was found guilty on 2
counts of murder.
She was originally handed down capital punishment, however, due to her age, this was commuted
to life in prison.
Mary passed away aged 70 whilst imprisoned at HMP Holloway.
2 - Betty Lou Beets 2000, the start of a brand new decade filled
with hope and promise for some and fear and worry for others.
At the turn of the decade, many were worried that Y2K would become a reality and take over
wreaking havoc on computers and spiralling us into a new technological age.
Meanwhile, the State of Texas was gearing up for a very different event.
On February 24th 2000, Betty Lou Beets became the 4th woman whose capital punishment sentence
was carried out since the Supreme Court allowed it to continue in 1976.
Betty’s life had not been an easy one, born on March 12th 1937 in Roxboro, North Carolina,
Betty was left deaf at an early age after contracting measles.
Betty claimed that her upbringing was rough making her a bitter and angry young woman.
To make matters worse, when Betty was just 12 years old her mother was hospitalised and
Betty took over the care of her younger brothers and sisters.
Throughout her life, Betty had multiple husbands who she claimed mistreated her.
Each marriage ended when Betty attempted to harm her husbands, causing them to file for
divorce and get as far away from her as possible.
In 1982 Betty married Jimmy Don Beets whose surname she carried until her passing.
Her marriage to Jimmy wasn’t a happy one either and the relationship was tumultuous
with Jimmy’s children from a previous relationship voicing their concerns.
Just a year after the couple had married, Betty Lou phoned the Henderson County Sheriff’s
Office in a state of panic, claiming that her husband was missing from the home that
they shared in Cedar Creek Lake.
Before making the call, Betty told her son Robert Branson to leave the house because
she was about to do the unthinkable.
Branson told the courts that when he returned home hours later, he found Jimmy on the floor
and helped his mother hide his body in the front garden in a wishing well.
He also told the court that his mother had then put some of Jimmy’s heart medication
into his boat and allowed it to float out on Cedar Creek Lake, making it appear that
his disappearance had been a terrible accident.
Thankfully, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office received a tip in the weeks following
Jimmy’s disappearance and they were able to execute a search warrant which turned up
the remains of not just one, but two of Betty’s husbands, Jimmy Don Beets and her previous
husband, Doyle Wayne Barker.
Following this shocking discovery, Betty Lou Beets was arrested and charged for Jimmy’s
case and handed down a sentence of capital punishment.
During her last moments on earth, none of her family members showed up to say their
goodbyes, but Jamie Beets, Jimmy’s son from a previous marriage did.
He told CBS “She really didn’t have no expression on her face at all.
I just kind of focused on my dad.
I seen my dad’s face.
I knew that he was smiling and that it was over now.
I think my dad would want this just to be over for me and the family.
I needed the closure.
I needed to finish this, to stand up for my dad and let people know what kind of man he
was.
That he was a good person.”
1 - Betty Neumar Harold Gentry made a startling confession
to his brother Al in mid-1986, Harold told his brother that his marriage to Betty wasn’t
as perfect as they made it out to be in public.
He told his brother “Never trust that woman.
She isn’t who she says she is.”
Al was confused but when his brother passed in July of that year, he knew that something
was wrong.
It wasn’t until 2008 that the truth about Betty Neumar unravelled and the truth about
the Black Widow was known to the public.
Between 1950 and 2007, Betty had been married 5 different times with each husband ending
up deceased under questionable circumstances.
For decades, these deaths went unsolved and a few of them were chalked up to being accidents.
It wasn’t until Al Gentry, Harold’s brother put more pressure on the police that the investigation
was opened again.
In 1986, Harold was found in their Norwood, North Carolina home in what police described
as “a robbery gone wrong”.
The house appeared to have been ransacked and Harold had most likely disturbed the intruder,
but this theory didn’t sit well with Al, especially after his brother had confided
in him just weeks beforehand, telling him not to trust Betty.
Despite an intense investigation, Harold’s case remains unsolved but the story of Betty
Neumar doesn’t end here.
On October 25th 2007, Betty’s fifth husband, John Neumar was found deceased and his passing
was ruled as “natural causes' '. John’s son, John Neumar Jr had heard about Betty’s
‘Black Widow’ reputation and told them that his fathers passing was suspicious, causing
the police to reopen the investigation.
In a stroke of luck, they received a tip from an informant stating that Betty had attempted
to hire the help of an ex-police officer to get rid of her husband.
The informant claimed that Betty wanted rid of John Neumar so that she could claim his
$20,000 life insurance policy.
The police began to build their case and also found out that despite having purchased a
burial plot, John Neumar had been cremated at Betty’s request.
After delving deeper into Betty’s past, they discovered that John Neumar and Harold
Gentry possibly weren’t Betty’s first victims.
Following her arrest, she was able to post a $300,000 bail and went on to carry on as
normal.
Betty Neumar passed away in June 2011 before a trial date could be set, leaving 5 sets
of families without answers.
Al Gentry told Oxygen “She’d been married five times and all of them are dead.
She took all of those secrets to her grave.”
Al Gentry passed away in 2013 due to a heart attack and never found out what happened to
his brother, Harold.