Cordelia Botkin was born in Polk County, Missouri in 1854. She later moved with her family to California, where she married her husband, Welcome Botkin. They were the parents of one son named Beverly who was born 1872 in Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO, and died on 3 May 1905 in Byron, Contra Costa Co., CA.
In 1895, Cordelia met John Preston Dunning (a married man) and the pair quickly started an affair. Estranged from Welcome, the affair lasted almost three years but ended with Dunning leaving California and reconciling with his wife, Elizabeth. Angered, Botkin sent anonymous letters to Elizabeth Dunning detailing her husband's affairs. On August 9, 1898, Elizabeth opened a box of candies addressed to her and her sister in Dover, Delaware. It was only "With love to yourself and baby." "Passionately fond of candy," according to her husband, Dunning took at least three pieces herself and shared the rest with others on the porch of her father's home. After two days in agony, Elizabeth and her older sister, 44-year-old Ida Harriet Deane, died from arsenic poisoning. Four others who had sampled the chocolates survived. Elizabeth's father remarked upon the familiar handwriting on the note and saw that it matched the taunting letters he had kept in a drawer. Police traced the candy to a shop in San Francisco, and from there, to Botkin.
She was convicted of murder in December 1898, appealed, and was convicted again at a retrial in 1904. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. She died in San Quentin State Prison in 1910.
Unable to locate marker
In 1895, Cordelia met John Preston Dunning (a married man) and the pair quickly started an affair. Estranged from Welcome, the affair lasted almost three years but ended with Dunning leaving California and reconciling with his wife, Elizabeth. Angered, Botkin sent anonymous letters to Elizabeth Dunning detailing her husband's affairs. On August 9, 1898, Elizabeth opened a box of candies addressed to her and her sister in Dover, Delaware. It was only "With love to yourself and baby." "Passionately fond of candy," according to her husband, Dunning took at least three pieces herself and shared the rest with others on the porch of her father's home. After two days in agony, Elizabeth and her older sister, 44-year-old Ida Harriet Deane, died from arsenic poisoning. Four others who had sampled the chocolates survived. Elizabeth's father remarked upon the familiar handwriting on the note and saw that it matched the taunting letters he had kept in a drawer. Police traced the candy to a shop in San Francisco, and from there, to Botkin.
She was convicted of murder in December 1898, appealed, and was convicted again at a retrial in 1904. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. She died in San Quentin State Prison in 1910.
Unable to locate marker
Cordelia Botkin was born in Polk County, Missouri in 1854. She later moved with her family to California, where she married her husband, Welcome Botkin. They were the parents of one son named Beverly who was born 1872 in Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO, and died on 3 May 1905 in Byron, Contra Costa Co., CA.
In 1895, Cordelia met John Preston Dunning (a married man) and the pair quickly started an affair. Estranged from Welcome, the affair lasted almost three years but ended with Dunning leaving California and reconciling with his wife, Elizabeth. Angered, Botkin sent anonymous letters to Elizabeth Dunning detailing her husband's affairs. On August 9, 1898, Elizabeth opened a box of candies addressed to her and her sister in Dover, Delaware. It was only "With love to yourself and baby." "Passionately fond of candy," according to her husband, Dunning took at least three pieces herself and shared the rest with others on the porch of her father's home. After two days in agony, Elizabeth and her older sister, 44-year-old Ida Harriet Deane, died from arsenic poisoning. Four others who had sampled the chocolates survived. Elizabeth's father remarked upon the familiar handwriting on the note and saw that it matched the taunting letters he had kept in a drawer. Police traced the candy to a shop in San Francisco, and from there, to Botkin.
She was convicted of murder in December 1898, appealed, and was convicted again at a retrial in 1904. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. She died in San Quentin State Prison in 1910.
Unable to locate marker
In 1895, Cordelia met John Preston Dunning (a married man) and the pair quickly started an affair. Estranged from Welcome, the affair lasted almost three years but ended with Dunning leaving California and reconciling with his wife, Elizabeth. Angered, Botkin sent anonymous letters to Elizabeth Dunning detailing her husband's affairs. On August 9, 1898, Elizabeth opened a box of candies addressed to her and her sister in Dover, Delaware. It was only "With love to yourself and baby." "Passionately fond of candy," according to her husband, Dunning took at least three pieces herself and shared the rest with others on the porch of her father's home. After two days in agony, Elizabeth and her older sister, 44-year-old Ida Harriet Deane, died from arsenic poisoning. Four others who had sampled the chocolates survived. Elizabeth's father remarked upon the familiar handwriting on the note and saw that it matched the taunting letters he had kept in a drawer. Police traced the candy to a shop in San Francisco, and from there, to Botkin.
She was convicted of murder in December 1898, appealed, and was convicted again at a retrial in 1904. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. She died in San Quentin State Prison in 1910.
Unable to locate marker
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