FULL TEXT: San Antonio, Tx. – Mrs. Mae Ella Lee told police yesterday she killed her boy friend last month by poisoning his drinking water at a hospital where he was recovering from an earlier attempt to do him in.
It was not the first time she had eliminated a man who was bothering her, the 33-year-old mother of four said. She told police she poisoned her husband two years ago.
Police filed murder charges against Mrs. Lee in the deaths of Bloy Lee, who died March 14, 1960, and James Nolden, who died in a San Antonio hospital Feb. 14. She was being held without bond.
The woman told police she poisoned her husband "because of marital difficulties." She did not explain what the difficulties were.
Mrs. Lee said she poisoned Nolden because he was pressing her to marry him. Rather than keep turning him down she decided to get rid of him. She said she used thallium on both victims. Mrs. Lee told police she first tried to poison Nolden at her home. But the thallium only made him sick.
He was rushed to a hospital and was reported recovering, she said, and she paid him a visit. This time, she said, she added the thallium to Nolden's drinking water. He died in the hospital.
Police became suspicious of Mrs. Lee when an autopsy showed considerable quantities of thallium in Nolden's body. When she was brought in for questioning, she broke down and confessed.
[“Woman Tells Of Killing Boy Friend And Husband,” Tucson Daily Citizen (Az.), Mar. 2, 1962, p., 14]
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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
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