Sarah WhitelingThe Motive: Send the Kids to HeavenSarah Whiteling’s family dropped dead one at a

time. Husband John was the first to go. Dr. George Smith attributed John’s death to inflammation of the
bowels. One month later, when daughter Bertha died, Smith blamed gastric fever. Two-year-old William
died less than two months later. Cause of death: obstruction of the bowels as the cause of death. Smith
alerted the coroner to the three deaths. The bodies were exhumed and found to contain large amounts
of arsenic. Whiteling was arrested and described how rat poison had killed her family. She claimed that
John has poisoned himself because he was depressed and unable to provide for his family. Whiteling fed
the poison to her daughter because she feared “that ‘Birdie’ might grow up to be sinful and wicked.”
She poisoned her son to “get him out of the way.” He was a burden, and she was unable to provide for
him.She considered taking her own life but didn’t want to sin. “I know my children are angels in
Heaven,” she said, “and I want to meet them when I die. I don’t expect to meet my husband there
because he committed suicide and a suicide cannot go to heaven.” She later admitted that she had killed
John, too. “The devil possessed me and told me to go home and give my husband some [poison], and I
did.” Whiteling was charged with three counts of murder. In 1889, she became the first woman to be
hanged in Philadelphia