![]() ![]() Though she was acquitted on a technicality, her father was convicted of being an accessory after the fact in the murder of John Dick, specifically for dismembering his corpse in the basement of his home and burning the body parts in the furnace. Despite her connections in high society, she was convicted of murder in 1946 and sentenced to the gallows. Her trial became a media circus, dominating headlines across Canada as tales of her dalliances with many powerful, rich, married men came out. She was eventually charged with murder, along with her father and one of her boyfriends. Suspicions quickly turned to his spouse, who told police a string of strange tales about mafia hits and boyfriends. The torso belonged to 39-year-old John Dick, a streetcar and bus driver who had been married to Evelyn for less than six months, thought the two were already estranged. They also agreed that she was a cold-blooded killer, who earned her infamy as the " Torso Killer." Dick’s crime came to light when some children hiking through the woods outside Hamilton, Ontario found a limbless, headless torso in the woods. Her dark history became the inspiration for the play (and later the Frank Capra movie) Arsenic and Old Lace.Įveryone agreed that Evelyn Dick was beautiful. She was eventually transferred to a mental hospital where she died in 1962 at the age of 94. She was convicted, but the state appealed she was re-tried, pleaded insanity, found guilty and given life in prison. While suspected of killing at least 20 people, her lawyer convinced the prosecutor to charge her with only one murder, though. Archer-Gilligan was arrested and indicted for poisoning five people, including her second husband. Local shopkeepers confirmed that she purchased large quantities of arsenic “ to kill rats,” and police also discovered that she had taken out “sizable insurance policies” on her husband. When one of her boarder’s sisters got suspicious and went to the local Hartford Courant, they began to investigate what they later dubbed “the murder factory.” Soon, police began to investigate the trail of bodies in Archer-Gilligan’s wake – and every one they exhumed during their investigation had traces of either arsenic or strychnine. What was surprising, though, was that dozens of them died shortly after naming Archer-Gilligan in their life insurance policies, or forking over $1,000 for their care “while they still breathed.” Between 19, at least 48 people died while in Archer-Gilligan’s care – including Archer-Gilligan’s husband. ![]() After all, many of her boarders were elderly and ailing. It wasn’t surprising that the residents of Amy Archer-Gilligan’s Windsor, Connecticut nursing home passed away. ![]()
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