welcome to It's a crime i'm linda and today i have a very special case for you
it's about the very first female serial killer in idaho it involves a woman seven husbands a
brother-in-law and a baby there's a whole lot of deception plus some pretty serious rewards
attached to these plots to kill this will be a two-part series in this one i will solely
cover this woman and in the next video i'm going to show you some eerie parallels in another case
can you guess which one it is but before i get into it if you'd like to be part of the it's a
crime community please click that subscribe button below hit that notification bell to
all also please share this video out where you can and give it a like now let's get into it
the story begins with a girl named anna elizabeth trueblood born october 16 1892 in missouri
she went by the name lyda well for the most part she was also called fly paper lida black widow
and lady bluebeard among other names but more on that later she had six other siblings and
her father who was a farmer moved the family to twin falls idaho when lyda was around 14 years old
now growing up lyda was considered to be one of the prettiest and most popular girls in her high
school she was described as five foot two pretty and petite blue-eyed redhead she was considered a
good citizen in her community and from the outside she looked like a wonderful person when she grew
up she was a wonderful wife mother and friend but lida held some serious secrets on the inside
lyda was a calculated cold-blooded killer and her victims were those who were most close to her and
she almost got away with it in 1912 when lida was 19 years old she married a man named robert dooley
they were married on march 17 1912 and started their new life together on a ranch in twin falls
idaho where they lived with robert's brother ed dooley a year after their marriage on september 16
1913 lyda and robert welcomed a little baby girl named lorraine marie dooley then almost
two years later in august of 1915 began a string of bizarre and deadly events ed dooley lied his
brother-in-law and robert's brother died suddenly on august 15 1915 at 38 years old
death records show that he died from typhoid fever now typhoid is a bacterial infection that
can lead to a high fever diarrhea and vomiting it can be fatal and the infection is often passed on
through contaminated food or drinking water and is more prevalent in places where hand washing
is less frequent it can also be passed on by carriers who do not know they carry the bacteria
what's interesting right away is ed died just after obtaining a life insurance policy payable to
both lyda and robert and his life insurance would pay the couple two thousand dollars now remember
this is 1915 so two thousand dollars is a pretty decent amount of money now two months after ed's
death on october 1st 1915 lida's husband robert dooley died at the age of 28 and records show that
robert also died from typhoid fever now robert had life insurance as well and luckily for lyda
she collected 2 500 on robert's life insurance for a grand total now of 4 500 in just a few months
and not long after that six weeks later in fact on november 30th 1915 lida's little toddler lorraine
passed away at the age of two years old and it was ruled as typhoid fever as well lyda insisted that
little lorraine died from drinking water from a dirty well and in just three short months lida's
husband brother-in-law and her little baby girl were all gone now a year later on december 20th
1916 lyda went on and married a man named william mcafee in twin falls idaho she convinced william
to move away to hardin montana around 550 miles away then two years later on october 20th 1918
just two months shy of their second wedding anniversary william died at the age of 29. his
death record states he died of low pneumonia from the spanish influenza or spanish flu he was buried
back in twin falls idaho but shoot lyda could not collect on william's five thousand dollar
life insurance policy because william had let it lapse and didn't make the payment and it was
said that lida tried to pay the insurance premium after william died but the payment was denied and
an interesting fact when i was researching was the death record of williams states that he died on
in october and he was buried in twin falls but his headstone interestingly says december 22nd 1918
that he died two months later i find that very curious i wonder why that is now lyda is a widow
for the second time and she decides to move south to colorado denver colorado just 500 miles away
and well not long after that just under six months actually later lida marries
husband number three she marries an equipment salesman named harlan c lewis on march 10 1919.
they make their way to billings montana to settle down and then four months later on july 6 1919
harlan dies at the age of 33 and his death record states he died of acute nephritis and
the secondary cause is acute gastroenteritis which is kidney problems and stomach flu mixed
together lyda then goes on to collect harlan's life insurance of five thousand dollars and in
some sources say ten thousand dollars and she was successful harlan is buried in billings montana
lyda then decides to head back to twin falls idaho but she changes her name to anna mae
and then changes her last name from lewis back to husband number two's last name mcafee
she's now under the name anna mae mcafee and so she gets a job at a cafe and everyone apparently
enjoys her bright presence at the cafe she was loved by members of the community and lyda didn't
stay single for long not surprisingly in true lida's style she marries a ranch foreman named
edward f meyer they were married on august 10th in 1920 in pocatello idaho but there's a twist
to this edward met lyda while she was working at the cafe and then they were secretly married now
they spent one night together at the rogerson hotel in twin falls where lida was staying
and the next day ed goes back to the ranch where he lives and lyda continues to live in the hotel
ed gets the impression that leida is well off and that she owns a big ranch up in montana and a
day after they got married lyda got ed to draw up a will with her as the beneficiary
of his estate and tells ed to go get a life insurance policy and a few weeks into their
marriage towards the end of august lyda goes to ed's house and that same day cooks a meal for
and his farmhand named ben squires and they both were sick after eating this homemade meal
the farmhand completely recovered but ed was worse he ends up going into the hospital and he did
start to recover until lyda pays him a visit at the hospital where he takes a turn for the worst
edward f meyer died september 7th 1920 five days shy of his 36th birthday his cause of death
typhoid fever and secondary cause myocarditis so lida goes to collect on edward's life insurance of
12 000 the insurance company however requested an autopsy first when lyda was asked for permission
for an autopsy she responded yes you may go ahead and cut them all to pieces if you want to lida
then splits town quickly without collecting and people started to talk they began to gossip about
how leida didn't show any emotion when ed died there was a story right after ed's funeral where
lyda hung around the grave site and once everyone left she actually started laughing while standing
at his grave and edward's death now caught the attention of law enforcement and in one book it
was stated that she had no compassion no sorrow not the way a young widow should act when her
husband has just passed away in the shank of life so ed's peculiar death led to an investigation by
a deputy named val or virgil ormsby over the next few months deputy ormsby backtracked throughout
lyda's life piecing together each little puzzle piece to this mystery now the deputy went to
billings montana to investigate the death of husband number three harlan c lewis and it was in
montana where the deputy found a drug store where lida had purchased large quantities of fly paper
in the fall of 1918. she bought these just before her second husband william mcafee died now fly
paper back then was made with arsenic they would attract flies and then they would die a family who
bought the mcafee house found a barrel full of fly paper in the basement and deputy ormsby believed
that laida boiled the arsenic out of the fly paper and used it to poison one or more of her husbands
it was also said in my research that they had found arsenic residue in a pot that lyda had
used to boil the poison and when i look up arsenic poisoning and symptoms of it here's what it says
its ideal properties for sinister uses include its lack of color odor or taste when mixed in
food or drink it says it's readily available to all classes of society this is way back when
symptoms of arsenic poisoning were difficult to detect since they could mimic food poisoning and
other common disorders it says that it could provoke violent abdominal cramping diarrhea
and vomiting often followed by death from shock so very much like what we see in the death records of
her previous husbands and so the nickname began fly paper lida so deputy ormsby actually
followed lida's trail from idaho to california mexico and then finally to hawaii where leida's
new target husband number five was stationed paul v southard was a chief petty officer in the navy
lida had married him on november 23 1920 under the name eva edith meyer and it was said that paul
applied for a ten thousand dollar life insurance policy with lyda being of course the beneficiary
but about six months later while lyda was married to paul in the spring of 1921 and that's almost a
year after ed meyer's death who was husband number four his body was exhumed and was found to contain
enough arsenic to have caused his death this led to the exhumation of lida's other previous
husbands their bodies were also found to contain lethal quantities of arsenic
lyda was arrested in honolulu and charged with murder on april 22nd 1921. she returned to twin
falls idaho for the trial of a century that took place a few months later she pled not guilty to
all charges her trial made national headlines and had extensive coverage in the new york times
and the san francisco chronicle at trial an idaho state chemist was questioned and he said he found
about five grains of poison in ed meyer's body now the 12-man jury found lied guilty
and she was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 years to life at the idaho state
penitentiary in boise idaho chief petty officer southard also known as husband number five filed
for divorce just after her arrest luckily for him he wasn't killed i'm sure he thought so too
now while in prison a visitor described lyda as a plump and cheerful woman she sold fancy needlework
to visitors and it was said that these visitors couldn't resist her appealing voice and sales
pitch and during her time in prison she befriended a fellow prisoner named david minton when david
was released from prison he purchased a car and three weeks later on the night of may 4th 1931
he waited outside for lyda while she escaped and the two made their way to denver colorado before
splitting up now there was a 50 reward poster for her return or her capture circulating after her
escape describing lyda as prisoner number 3052 a 5 foot 2 and 142 pounds woman with light brown hair
blue eyes a sallow complexion and a very shifty look so while in denver and while on the run
lyda marries another man husband number six harry whitlock she worked for him as a housekeeper and
a nurse to help with his ailing mother and a year later in 1932 david minton her getaway buddy was
arrested in denver he confessed to law enforcement about lyda and where her whereabouts could be now
lyda left denver when she heard that david had been arrested and law enforcement eventually
caught up to lyda and she was found in topeka kansas when she was at the post office 15 months
after her escape and her husband number six harry whitlock helped authorities capture lyda and he
divorced her in 1933. so back to prison she went and it was said while she was in prison during
both her stays she repeatedly campaigned for a pardon and she was described as almost hysterical
each time she was denied so prison life back then was a little bit different than these days
lyda must have had quite the personality because not only did she easily reel in her suitors
she won the likes of the prison warden and he would actually allow some of the inmates
lyda included some extra perks shall we say and even left the prisons for little outings
in november 1933 12 years into lida's sentence lyda and two other inmates went to fox theater
it's now known today as the egyptian to see a movie called the flying devils and one of the
girls that accompanied her her name was marguerite boggin and she had an argument with her husband
that resulted in a gun fight a struggle over a gun you could say and her husband lost the
battle and he was killed she was later pardoned and angela hopper the other movie going inmate
served as a city clerk in boise idaho for 13 years and just a few days before movie night
she had pleaded guilty to embezzling more than 50 000 dollars from local improvement districts
and the three inmates though were not alone their friends mr and mrs george rudd went with them
and george rudd was in fact the warden of the idaho state penitentiary but this isn't all that
warden rudd did for the inmates the day angela hopper was incarcerated warden rudd took her for
a joy ride he took lyda to visit her mother in twin falls leaving her unsupervised for hours it
was said and some extra free time was not too uncommon in the prison sometimes inmates were
allowed to hike along the boise river play tennis and have picnics outside of the prison walls
warden rudd saw these special privileges as simple acts of kindness to the prisoners in hopes to
help them in their rehabilitation and during this time as a warden there wasn't one escape
laida remained in prison until she was paroled in 1941 and the governor at the time actually
voted against her release because he felt that in the interest of society that she would be
best kept in prison he was outvoted however by two of his colleagues on the parole board
and in the article that i found it featured some quotes that were quite interesting she says i will
never marry again i have not met any man who would interest me religion is my whole life now i guess
she forgot what she said because once she was out of prison yep you guessed it she gets married
again for the seventh time his name hal shaw and if you guess that he died too well there's a plot
twist he mysteriously disappeared two years into their marriage and leiden now went by the name
anna e shaw and moved to salt lake city where she died of a heart attack in 1958 at the age of
65 years old she was walking home with a bag of groceries she is now buried in twin falls idaho
and there was actually a song written about her by an unknown author in 1921 entitled southard's
famous apple pie about her apple pies laced with arsenic and when i was reading it said the life
insurance taken out on her four husbands and brother-in-law totaled about thirty thousand
dollars and it says it's about seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars in today's money
also lida's pattern of marrying and killing men for their life insurance is still studied
a century later it says by psychiatrists and writers alike so four husbands died two divorced
and one mysteriously vanished and there's a whole lot of money
and one little toddler who got in the way of the almighty dollar
and every single one of lida's victims all loved and cherished her she was even said to be a very
good wife well other than their last homemade meals let's have a chit chat below you can tell
me who you think this is most like i think we all know at this point please subscribe if you haven't
done so already please like and don't forget to share thank you so much for watching see you soon
there he is
lyda and robert welcomed a little baby girl named lorraine moraine lorraine marine marie