Biography[]
Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest, having her first of two daughters, Cynthia Hamilton, at the age of 17. They had a terrible relationship, and in 1969, when Cynthia was nine, Nickell was arrested for beating her legs with a curtain rod. Nickell said Cynthia was always jealous and lied because she refused to go to school, but Nickell still spend a night on jail and was ordered to court-mandated counseling. She was also convicted of check fraud in 1968, for which she served six months in jail, and forgery in 1971. Nickell met her second husband Bruce, a heavy machinery operator, in 1974, and they married in 1976, Nickell working in security screening at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. When Bruce went into rehab after ten years of marriage, Nickell wanted to be done with him, as his alcoholism was what appealed to her. she instead took the night shifts at her job, focused on her home aquarium to avoid her home life, and descended into her own drinking.
Nickell made a plan to kill Bruce for his life insurance policy, which she planned to use for opening an infant's clothing store. She confided in all her plans with Cynthia, who would later testify to police when Nickell was suspected. Nickell prepared by taking out the policy by forging Bruce's signatures for a $76,000 payout with a $100,000 bonus for his death being accidental. Nickell first tried to poison Bruce with digitalis, but there was barely any harm to him, so Nickell went to the Auburn Public Library, borrowing some books on botany and poisons. However Nickell eventually acquired cyanide, she crushed it with the same tool she crushed her algaecide, which wasn't cleaned, to lace bottles of Excedrin with the poison. She directly gave Bruce the capsules, which caused him to come home with a headache on June 5, 1986. He collapsed and later died, the hospital believing a natural pulmonary problem was to blame.
By this point, Nickell had bought bottles of Excedrin to spike with cyanide and replace on store shelves across Washington State, hoping to kill and injure more people to divert suspicion from herself. On June 11, Sue Snow died from the same poison, her husband Paul Webking taking some of the same tablets, albeit living. However, with Sue's murder, Assistant M.E. Janet Miller realized Sue was killed by cyanide from smelling bitter almonds from her mouth, a discharge characteristic of cyanide poisoning. The news was sensational, and when another spiked Excedrin bottle was found in Kent, the region's supply of Excedrin was recalled to identified the tampered bottles. With manufacturer Bristol-Myers facing heat and liability lawsuits, they recalled all their nonprescription products on June 18, finding two additional poisoned bottles of Excedrin and one of Anacin. Nickell came forward on June 19, showing two tainted bottled and joining Paul in filing wrongful death suits against Bristol-Myers. Bruce's remains tested positive for cyanide, and the tainted bottles were confirmed to have been from the same lot number.
The FBI Crime Lab quickly suspected product tampering, so Nickell and Webking were asked to be questioned under polygraphs. Nickell originally declined, so police found her forged policies and also heard she was insistent on Bruce's death being labeled accidental shortly after his murder. The lab also found traces of Nickell's algaecide in the tainted bottles of Excedrin. Nickell caved and took a polygraph test in November 1986, which she failed, but Cynthia finally came forward to investigators in January 1987. Library records were subpoenaed to track Nickell's research, and her prints were found on pages in the books she read that were specifically on cyanide, including one she never returned. Nickell was arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury on December 9. Her defense attorneys tried to file for a mistrial, arguing a juror who experienced a pill baked into a bag of Goldfish crackers would be biased, but the trial continued. On May 9, 1988, after a five-day deliberation, the jury found Nickell guilty of two counts of murder by product tampering and three counts of product tampering. She was sentenced to ninety years imprisonment for each murder charge, ten years for each tampering charge, and to serve the sentences concurrently. She was also ordered to pay a fine and forfeit her assets to the victims' families.
Nickell has unsuccessfully filed multiple appeals and petitions for early release. She resides at the low-security FCI Dublin, the possibility of Nickell facing state murder charges remaining open.
Victims[]
| Name | Age | Date of Death | Cause of Death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bruce Nickell | 52 | June 5, 1986 | Cyanide poisoning |
| Sue Snow | 40 | June 11, 1986 | Cyanide poisoning |
Timeline[]
Bibliography[]
Literature[]
- Olsen, Gregg. Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters, and the Seattle Cyanide Murders,. ISBN 978-0312982003
Related Articles[]
- Tylenol murders, the murder spree that was the template for Nickell's copycat murders, as well as the spree that inspired the laws under which Nickell was convicted.
Links[]
- Stella Nickell at Wikipedia
- Woman convicted of killing two in Excedrin tampering (English). History Channel. Retrieved on September 26, 2024.
- Ridley, Jane. A mom randomly died after a woman laced bottles of Excedrin with cyanide to cover up her husband's murder (English). Business Insider. Retrieved on September 26, 2024.
- Stella Nickell, serving 90 years for planting poisoned pills, killing 2, seeks release from prison (English). The Seattle Times. Retrieved on September 26, 2024.
- Stella Nickell, serving 90 years for planting poisoned pills, denied prison release (English). The Seattle Times. Retrieved on September 26, 2024.
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