Bread and Butter Murders 03

Hoag Family Plot - Alabama Center Cemetery, Alabama, NY

SETUP: At the first trial, Polly's sister Julia tried to cover for her. Julia said it was Polly's husband Henry who who asked Polly to go to druggist to get the arsenic for the rats. In part of Julia's testimony for the death of Henry, she tells how Henry allegedly mixed the poison to kill the rodents. We know by last week's snippet this was not the case. The druggist and his wife both testified that Polly purchased it twice, and Henry didn't want it in the house. Henry would die three months later. 

Text in quotes is from actual testimony. 

And now for the eight sentences.

According to Julia, Henry then asked Polly for some meal. "He went upstairs, asked me for the meal and some water, which I gave him. He mixed the most of the arsenic with the meal and water in a basin. He put it between the lathing and the clapboards upstairs. Polly went out into the garden at this time, I think. He put the rest on top of the clothes’ cupboard, at the west end of the house," stated Julia.

We have only Julia's word for this incident taking place. Notice too, that she conveniently places Polly out in the garden while Henry was supposedly doing this, thus implying that Polly could not have seen where Henry put the remaining arsenic.

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BLURB:

In 1856, in the rural town of Alabama, NY one woman's family suffered from multiple unexplained deaths. The town folk grew suspicious of the now remarried Polly Frisch. An investigation commenced, bodies were exhumed, an affair—exposed. Polly would be arrested for the murders of her first husband and daughters. Her fourteen-year-old son would testify against her. If found guilty, the punishment for such a crime was the gallows. Bread & Butter is the true story of Polly Frisch who poisoned her family with arsenic and the five trials it took to convict her. 

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The above excerpt is from Bread & Butter: The Murders of Polly Frisch, a book I co-authored with my friend, Ellen Bachorski in 2000. We are re-releasing it into the modern world of POD and Kindle, etc. with fresh edits and new info.