Jump to content

Stella Nickell: Difference between revisions

Edit links
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
minor cleanup
m grammar tweak
(60 intermediate revisions by 10 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Infobox criminal
{{nofootnotes|date=March 2010}}
| name = Stella Nickell
'''Stella Maudine Nickell''' (née '''Stephenson''', born August 7, 1943){{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} is a [[Seattle]]-area woman who was sentenced to 90 years in prison for [[product tampering]] after she allegedly poisoned [[Excedrin]] capsules with lethal [[cyanide]], resulting in the deaths of her husband Bruce and of Susan Chapman Snow. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence was the first under federal product tampering laws instituted after the [[Chicago Tylenol murders|Tylenol murders]].<ref name=TCH-AP>
| birth_name =
{{cite news
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1943}}
|url= http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=W680AAAAIBAJ&sjid=nIcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6074,546178&dq=stella+nickell&hl=en
| birth_place = [[Oregon]], [[United States]]
|date= June 18, 1988
| death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->
|title= Nickell gets 90 years for cyanide murders
| death_place =
|work= Tri City Herald
| cause =
|author= Associated Press
| resting_place =
}}</ref>
| alias =
| motive = Insurance payout
| charge = Product tampering, 5 counts
| conviction = Product tampering, 5 counts
| conviction_penalty = 90 years in prison
| conviction_status =
| occupation =
| spouse = Bruce Nickell
| parents =<!--Do not include parents unless notable or they are relevant to the crime.-->
| children =Cynthia Hamilton
}}
'''Stella Nickell''' (born 1943) is an [[Americans|American]] woman who was sentenced to 90 years in prison for product tampering after she allegedly poisoned [[Excedrin]] capsules with lethal cyanide, resulting in the deaths of her husband Bruce and of Susan Snow. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence were the first under federal product tampering laws instituted after the [[Chicago Tylenol murders]].<ref name="TriCity"/>


==Early life==
She allegedly laced her husband's medicine with cyanide, killing him. Initially, his death was mistakenly ruled as a result of [[emphysema]], meaning the [[Double indemnity (insurance)|accidental death insurance bonus]] was not liable to be paid to the widow.
Stella Nickell was born near [[Portland, Oregon]] and grew up poor. By age sixteen, she was pregnant with her daughter Cynthia.<ref name="BitterPillCBS"/> Nickell then moved to Southern California, married, and had another daughter. She began to have various legal troubles, including a conviction for [[fraud]] in 1968, a charge the following year of [[child abuse|beating]] Cynthia with a curtain rod, and a conviction for [[forgery]] in 1971.<ref name="PeopleMag"/> She served six months in jail for the fraud charge, and was ordered into counseling after the abuse charge.<ref name="48hours"/>


Stella met Bruce Nickell in 1974. Nickell was a heavy equipment operator with a drinking habit, which suited Stella's lifestyle,<ref name=PeopleMag/> and the two were married in 1976.<ref name=BitterPillCBS/> In the course of their twelve-year marriage, Bruce Nickell entered [[Drug rehabilitation|rehab]] and gave up drinking. Reportedly, Stella resented this. Her bar visits were curtailed by Bruce's sobriety,<ref name=PeopleMag/> and Stella cultivated a home aquarium as a new hobby.<ref name=BitterPillCBS/>
It is said that Nickell's next step was to plant three other Excedrin bottles (each one contaminated with cyanide) back on store shelves, to make it appear like the work of a [[serial killer]], hoping Bruce's death would be reclassified as accidental. It was inevitable that at some point an innocent member of the public would enter the store, unknowingly purchase a bottle of poisoned Excedrin, and ingest the contents. That person was 40-year-old Susan Chapman Snow, who died after swallowing poisoned Excedrin allegedly planted by Stella Nickell. Snow's husband also consumed the poisoned Excedrin, but survived. After Snow's cause of death was found to be the cyanide-laced pills, and the other two bottles were found in different stores, police released the batch numbers for the contaminated bottles in an attempt to warn consumers of the danger. Stella Nickell then came forward, stating she had two bottles of the contaminated medicine. However, she was soon suspected of being the source of the tampered pills because she possessed two of the five known bottles. She failed a [[polygraph]] test, which she had continuously refused to take for a few months. Her daughter, Cindy, later testified her mother had talked about killing her father for the insurance money; the daughter later received $250,000 in reward money put up by the drug industry for information that would solve the tampering case. In addition, the police found Nickell's fingerprints on various books from libraries which she had borrowed to read about poisons. She was also proven to have forged her husband's signature on two insurance policies.


==Deaths==
Nickell is serving her term of imprisonment at the [[Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin|Federal Correctional Institution]] in [[Dublin, California]] and will be eligible for parole on December 7, 2017.
On June 5, 1986, the couple were living in [[Auburn, Washington]] when Bruce Nickell, 52, came home from work with a headache.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> According to Stella, Nickell took four Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules from a bottle in their home for his headache and collapsed minutes later.<ref name="TruTV"/><ref group=note>TruTV's website gives Nickell's date of death as June 6, which contradicts all other sources available, which specify June 5.</ref> Nickell died shortly thereafter at [[Harborview Medical Center]], where treatment had failed to revive him.<ref name="NYT"/> His death was initially ruled to be by natural causes, with attending physicians citing [[emphysema]].<ref name=BitterPillCBS/>


A second death, less than week a later, forced authorities to reconsider the cause of Nickell's death. On June 11, Susan Snow, a 40-year old Auburn bank manager, took two Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules for an early-morning headache.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> Snow's husband, Paul Webking, took two capsules from the same bottle for his arthritis and left the house for work.<ref name=PeopleMag/> At 6:30 am, the Snows' fifteen-year-old daughter found Susan Snow collapsed on the floor of her bathroom, unresponsive and with a [[Cardiogenic shock|faint pulse]]. Paramedics were called and transported Snow to Harborview Medical Center, but she died later the same day without regaining consciousness.<ref name="HistoryLink"/>
Seattle author [[Gregg Olsen]] wrote about the Nickell case in his book, ''Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters and the Seattle Cyanide Murders''. The case was also featured on episodes of ''[[Forensic Files]]'', ''[[Snapped]]'', ''[[New Detectives]]'' and ''[[Deadly Women]]''.


==Investigation==
An episode of the TV show ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'', "[[Poison (Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode)|Poison]]", has plot elements resembling the Stella Nickell case.
===Initial investigation===
During an autopsy on Susan Snow, Assistant Medical Examiner Janet Miller detected the scent of [[bitter almonds]], an odor distinctive to [[cyanide poisoning|cyanide]].<ref name="HistoryLink"/> Tests verified that Snow had died of acute [[cyanide poisoning]]. Investigators examined the contents of the Snow-Webking household and discovered the source of the cyanide&mdash;the bottle of Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules that both Snow and Webking had used the morning of Snow's death. Three capsules out of those that remained in the 60-capsule bottle were found to be laced with cyanide in toxic quantities.<ref name="NYT"/>

A murder by cyanide was sensational news in Washington. When another tainted bottle from the same lot was found in a grocery store in nearby [[Kent, Washington]], the manufacturers of Excedrin, [[Bristol-Myers]], responded to the discovery with a heavily-publicized [[product recall|recall]] of all Extra-Strength Excedrin products in the [[Seattle, Washington]] area,<ref name="FDAConsumer"/> and a group of drug companies came together to offer a $300,000 reward for the capture of the person responsible.<ref name="HistoryLink"/>

In response to the publicity, Stella Nickell came forward on June 19. She told police that her husband had recently died suddenly, after taking pills from a 40-capsule bottle of Extra-Strength Excedrin with the same [[lot number]] as the one that had killed Susan Snow. Tests by the [[US Food and Drug Administration|FDA]] confirmed the presence of cyanide in Bruce Nickell's remains and in two Excedrin bottles Stella Nickell had turned over to police.<ref name="HistoryLink"/><ref name="NYT"/>

Initial suspicions were directed at the manufacturers of the Excedrin capsules. Both Paul Webking and Stella Nickell filed wrongful death lawsuits against Bristol-Myers,<ref name="PeopleMag"/> and the FDA inspected the [[Morrisville, North Carolina]] plant where Extra-Strength Excedrin lot 5H102 had been packaged, but found no traces of cyanide to explain its presence in the Washington bottles.<ref name="NYT"/> On June 18, Bristol-Myers recalled all Excedrin capsules in the United States, pulling them from store shelves and warning consumers to not use any they may already have bought;<ref name="NYT"/> two days later the company announced a recall of all of their non-prescription capsule products.<ref name="TriCityQuestioned"/> On June 24, a cyanide-contaminated bottle of Extra-Strength [[Anacin]]-3 was found at the same store where Susan Snow had bought her contaminated Excedrin.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> On June 27, Washington State put into a effect a 90-day ban on the sale of non-prescription medication in capsules.<ref name="TriCityQuestioned"/>

Examination of the contaminated bottles by the [[FBI Crime Lab]] found that, in addition to containing cyanide powder, the poisoned capsules also contained flecks of an unknown green substance. Further tests showed that the substance was an [[algaecide]] used in home aquariums, sold under the brand name Algae Destroyer.<ref name=TruTV/>

=== Focusing the investigation===
With contamination of the Excedrin at the source having been ruled out, investigators began to focus their investigation on the end-users of the product. The [[FBI]] began an investigation into possible [[product tampering]] having been the source of the poison. At the time, Excedrin was packaged in plastic bottles with the mouth of the bottle sealed with foil and the lid secured to the bottle with plastic wrap.<ref name="NYT"/>

Both Paul Webking and Stella Nickell were asked to take [[polygraph]] examinations. Webking did so, though he complained in subsequent press about his treatment by the FBI. Nickell declined to take a polygraph exam through the lawyer representing her in the wrongful-death suit she had filed, who told reporters that she was too "shaken up" to be subjected to the examination.<ref name="TriCityQuestioned"/>

Investigators' suspicions began to turn to Stella Nickell when they discovered that she claimed that the two contaminated Excedrin bottles that she had turned over to police had been purchased at different times and different locations. A total of five bottles had been found to be contaminated in the entire country, and it was regarded as suspicious that Nickell would happen to have acquired two of them purely by chance.<ref name="ThisDay"/>

With investigatory focus turned to Stella Nickell, detectives uncovered more circumstantial evidence pointing to her as the culprit. Nickell had taken out a total of about $76,000<ref name="BitterAlmonds487"/><ref group=note>Sources vary as to the exact amount. Some cite $71,000, some $75,000, and some $76,000. Gregg Olsen's ''Bitter Almonds'' provides $76,000 as the amount, based on actual trial testimony.</ref> in insurance coverage on her husband's life, with an additional payout of $100,000 if his death was accidental. She was also known to have, even before Susan Snow's death, repeatedly disputed doctors' ruling that her husband had died of natural causes.<ref name=TruTV/> Further FBI investigation showed that Bruce Nickell's purported signatures on at least two of the insurance policies in his name had been forged.<ref name=HistoryLink/>

Investigators were also able to verify that Nickell had purchased Algae Destroyer from a local fish store; it was speculated that the algaecide had become mixed with the cyanide when Nickell used the same container to crush both substances without washing it in between uses.<ref name=BitterPillCBS/>

Nickell finally consented to a polygraph examination in November 1986. She failed it and investigators narrowed their focus to her even farther;<ref name=TruTV/> however, concrete evidence proving that Nickell had ever purchased or used cyanide was lacking, and despite their relative certainty that Stella Nickell had orchestrated the poisonings as either an elaborate cover-up for an insurance-motivated murder of her husband, or as a desperate attempt to force her husband's death to be ruled an accident, to increase her insurance payout, they were unable to build a strong enough case to support an arrest.<ref name=BitterPillCBS/>

===Breaking the case===
In January 1987, Stella Nickell's adult daughter, Cynthia Hamilton, approached police with information: Nickell had spoken to her daughter repeatedly about wanting her husband dead. He was a bore, Nickell said, who after having [[alcoholism|gotten sober]], preferred to stay home and watch television rather than go out to bars.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> Nickell, Hamilton claimed, had even told her that she had tried to poison Bruce previously with [[foxglove]].<ref name=TruTV/> When that failed, she had begun library research into other methods and hit upon cyanide.<ref name=BitterPillCBS/> Cynthia also claimed that Nickell had spoken to her about what the two of them could do with the insurance money if Bruce Nickell were dead.<ref name="HistoryLink"/>

Records from the [[Auburn Public Library (Auburn, Washington)|Auburn Public Library]], when [[subpoena]]ed, showed that Nickell had checked out numerous books about poisons, including ''Human Poisonings from Native and Cultivated Plants'' and ''Deadly Harvest''. The former was marked as overdue in library records, indicating that Nickell had borrowed but never returned it.<ref name="BitterAlmonds398"/> The FBI identified Nickell's fingerprints on cyanide-related pages of a number of the works she had checked out from the library in this period.<ref name=BitterPillCBS/>

By the summer of 1987, even Nickell's attorneys acknowledged that she was the prime suspect in the case.<ref name="Suspect"/>

==Arrest and trial==
On December 9, 1987, Stella Nickell was indicted by a [[federal grand jury]] on five counts of [[product tampering]], including two which resulted in the deaths of Susan Snow and Bruce Nickell,<ref name=TruTV/><ref name="Indictment"/> and arrested the same day.<ref name=TruTV/> She went on trial in April, 1988 and was found guilty of all charges on May 9, after five days of jury deliberation.<ref name="WaPo"/><ref name="BosGlobe"/>

Despite Nickell's legal team's claims of jury-tampering and judicial misconduct having occurred, a motion for a mistrial was denied<ref name="Mistrial"/> and Nickell was sentenced to two ninety-year terms for the charges relating to the deaths of Snow and Bruce Nickell, and three ten-year terms for the other product tampering charges. All sentences were to run concurrently, and the judge ordered Nickell to pay a small fine and forfeit her remaining assets to the families of her victims.<ref name="90Years"/>

Nickell will be eligible for parole in 2018, when she will be 73 years old.<ref name=PeopleMag/>

==Appeals and subsequent petitions==
Nickell continued to maintain her innocence after her trial. An appeal based on jury-tampering and judicial misconduct issues was rejected by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]] in August 1989.<ref name="89Appeal"/> A second appeal, beginning in 2001 with the assistance of [[Innocence Project]] and [[private detectives]] Al Farr and Paul Ciolino, requested a new trial on the basis of new evidence having been discovered that the FBI may have withheld documents from the defense.<ref name="01Appeal"/> The appeal was denied, though Nickell and her team continue to assert her innocence. She claims that her daughter Cynthia lied about Nickell's involvement in the case in order to reap the $300,000 of reward money being offered. Cynthia Hamilton eventually collected $250,000 of that money. Nickell also alleges that the testimony of various smaller cogs in the case, such as the store owner who testified about her having purchased Algae Destroyer, was influenced by promises of payment.<ref name="BitterPill2"/>

==FDA regulations==
After the [[Chicago Tylenol murders|1982 Tylenol murders]], FDA regulations went into effect which made it a federal - rather than just a state or local - crime to tamper with consumer products. Local and state authorities are not, however, prevented from also filing charges in such cases.<ref name="FedTamp"/> Under this law, Nickell's crime was prosecutable as a federal product tampering case as well as a state murder case, and she was convicted not of murder, but of product tampering that caused death. The possibility of state charges for the actual murders of Susan Snow and Bruce Nickell continues to exist.<ref name =TriCity/>

==In media==
A 2000 made-for-TV film was to be made about the Stella Nickell case, but it was cancelled shortly before production began based on strong objections from advertisers, including [[Johnson & Johnson]], owner of the [[Tylenol]] brand of painkillers, which had featured in the Chicago Tylenol murders, a prior product-tampering case. The film was to have aired on [[USA Network]], directed by [[Jeff Reiner]] and starring [[Katey Sagal]].<ref name="TVShow"/>

Seattle author [[Gregg Olsen]] wrote about the Nickell case in his book, ''Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters and the Seattle Cyanide Murders''. The case was also featured on episodes of [[Forensic Files]]<ref name="Fishy"/>, [[The New Detectives]],<ref name="New Detectives"/> and [[Snapped]],<ref name="Snapped"/> as well as two episodes of [[Deadly Women]].<ref name="Bad Medicine"/><ref name="Cold Blood"/>


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist|
{{reflist}}
refs=
<ref name="01Appeal">{{cite news | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-75300072.html | title=AUBURN WOMAN SERVING 90-YEAR TERM SEEKS NEW TRIAL IN HUSBAND-POISONING CASE. | work=[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]] {{Subscription required|via=HighBeam Research}}| date=Jun 5, 2001 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Johnson, Tracy}}</ref>

<ref name="48hours">{{cite interview | title=Mystery Involving Failed Mother-Daughter Relationship, Product Tampering and Murder, CBS | date=Jun 04, 2001 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | last=Nickell | first=Stella | interviewer=[[Troy Roberts (journalist)|Troy Roberts]] | program=[[48 Hours (TV series)|48 Hours]] | callsign=CBS | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-45042037.html{{Subscription required|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}|}}</ref>

<ref name="89Appeal">{{cite news | url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zXdUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WY8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4248,7413075&dq=stella-nickell&hl=en | title=Conviction Upheld | work=[[Ellensburg Daily Record]] | date=Aug 30, 1989 | agency=[[UPI]] | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | location=[[San Francisco]] | pages=12}}</ref>

<ref name="90Years">{{cite news | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-158410358.html | title=Excedrin Poisoner Sentenced | work=[[Albany Times Union]] {{Subscription required | via=HighBeam Research}}| accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Tibbits, George | location=Seattle, Washington}}</ref>

<ref name="Bad Medicine">{{cite episode | title=Bad Medicine | series=[[Deadly Women]] | credits=Dir. John Mavety | network=[[Investigation Discovery]] | airdate=Nov 6, 2008 | season=1 | url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1447284/}}</ref>

<ref name="BitterAlmonds398">Olsen, pg. 398</ref>

<ref name="BitterAlmonds487">Olsen, pg. 487</ref>

<ref name="BitterPill2">{{cite web | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/06/04/48hours/main294702.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;3 | title=Bitter Pill Pt. II: Retracing The Case | publisher=[[CBS News]] | date=Feb 11, 2009 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Kohn, David}}</ref>

<ref name="BitterPillCBS">{{cite web | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18559_162-294700.html | title=Bitter Pill: A Wife On Trial | publisher=[[CBS News]] | work=[[48 Hours Mystery]] | date=Feb 11, 2009 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Kohn, David}}</ref>

<ref name="BosGlobe">{{cite news | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8061375.html | title=Woman Guilty of Killing 2 in Poisoned Excedrin Case | work=[[The Boston Globe]] {{Subscription required | via=HighBeam Research}}| accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Tibbits, George | location=Seattle, Washington}}</ref>

<ref name="Cold Blood">{{cite episode | title=In Cold Blood | series=Deadly Women | network=Investigation Discovery | airdate=Oct 7, 2010 | season=4 | url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/deadly-women/episodes/197460}}</ref>

<ref name="FDAConsumer">{{cite web | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-6862134.html | title=Ninety-year prison term in tampering deaths. | publisher=[[United States Food and Drug Administration]]{{Subscription required | via=HighBeam Research}} | work=[[FDA Consumer]] | date=Oct 1, 1988 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Modeland, Vern}}</ref>

<ref name="FedTamp">{{cite web | url=http://www.musicklawoffice.com/newsletters/laws-legal-news/federal-tampering-act/ | title=The Federal Anti Tampering Act: Criminal Offense To Tamper With Consumer Products | publisher=Musick & Musick, LLP | accessdate=May 10, 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Fishy">{{cite episode | title=Something's Fishy | series=[[Forensic Files]] | credits=Medstar TV | network=[[TruTV]] | season=2 | url=http://www.tv.com/shows/forensic-files/something-s-fishy-520830/}}</ref>

<ref name="HistoryLink">{{cite web | url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5643 | title=Poisoned Painkiller Panic: The Snow-Nickell Cyanide Murders | publisher=Historylink.org | accessdate=May 10, 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Indictment">{{cite web | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3859748.html | title=Woman is Held in Deaths from Excedrin Laced with Cyanide | publisher=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] {{Subscription required | via=HighBeam Research}} | date=Dec 10, 1987 | accessdate=May 10, 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Mistrial">{{cite news | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1256709.html | title=Possibility of Mistrial Raised In Product-Tampering Case | work=[[The Washington Post]] {{Subscription required|via=HighBeam Research}}| date=May 14, 1988 | accessdate=May 10, 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="New Detectives">{{cite episode | title=Deadly Chemistry | series=[[The New Detectives]] | credits=[[New Dominion Pictures]] | season=1 | url=http://www.newdominion.com/2012/03/16/the-new-detectives.html}}</ref>

<ref name="NYT">{{cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/19/us/poisoned-excedrin-suspected-in-2d-seattle-death.html | title=Poisoned Excedrin Suspected in 2D Seattle Death | work=[[New York Times]] | date=Jun 19, 1986 | agency=[[United Press International]] | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | location=[[Seattle, Washington]]}}</ref>

<ref name="PeopleMag">{{cite web | url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20099360,00.html | title=Killing Her Husband Wasn't Enough for Stella Nickell; to Make Her Point, She Poisoned a Stranger | publisher=[[People Magazine]] | work=Vol. 30, No. 1 | date=Jul 04, 1988 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Wadler, Joyce and Meg Grant}}</ref>

<ref name="Snapped">{{cite episode | title=Stella Nickell | series=[[Snapped]] | credits=Dir. Erin Althaus | network=[[Oxygen (TV channel)|Oxygen]] | airdate=Dec 4, 2005 | season=3 | Episode number=10 | url=http://www.tv.com/shows/snapped/stella-nickell-551582/}}</ref>

<ref name="Suspect">{{cite news | url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xoZOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7_oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5177,2690567&dq=stella-nickell&hl=en | title=Widow Suspect in Tampering | work=[[Spokane Chronicle]] | date=Jul 15, 1987 | agency=[[Associated Press]] | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | location=Seattle, Washington | pages=A1}}</ref>

<ref name="ThisDay">{{cite web | url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/woman-convicted-for-tampering-with-excedrin | title=This Day in History: May 8, 1988 | publisher=[[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]] | work=history.com | accessdate=May 10, 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="TriCity">{{cite news | url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=W680AAAAIBAJ&sjid=nIcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6074,546178&dq=stella+nickell&hl=en | title=Nickell gets 90 years for cyanide murders | work=[[Tri City Herald]] | date=June 18, 1988 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref>

<ref name="TriCityQuestioned">{{cite news | url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rRgqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hoUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=905,1412823&dq=stella-nickell&hl=en | title=Husband of cyanide poisoning victim questioned | work=[[Tri-City Herald]] | date=Jul 5, 1986 | agency=[[Associated Press]] | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | location=Seattle, Washington | pages=B1}}</ref>

<ref name="TruTV">{{cite web | url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/tylenol_murders/4.html | title=The Tylenol Terrorist | publisher=[[TruTV]] | work=TruTV Crime Library | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Bell, Rachel}}</ref>

<ref name="TVShow">{{cite web | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4573250.html | title=TV film canceled after drug maker objects | publisher=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] {{Subscription required|via=HighBeam Research}}| date=Dec 7, 2000 | accessdate=May 10, 2012 | author=Eller, Claudia and Sallie Hofmeister}}</ref>

<ref name="WaPo">{{cite news| url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1255902.html | title=Woman Guilty of Killing 2 With Poisoned Excedrin | publisher=[[The Washington Post]] {{Subscription required|via=HighBeam Research}}| date=May 10, 1988 | accessdate=May 10, 2012}}</ref>
|2}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book | title=Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters and the Seattle Cyanide Murders | publisher=Macmillan | author=Olsen, Gregg | year=2002 | isbn=0312982003}}


==External links==
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}
* [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5643 Poisoned Painkiller Panic: The Snow-Nickell Cyanide Murders]


{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Nickell, Stella
| NAME = Nickell, Stella
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =American woman convicted of murder
| DATE OF BIRTH = August 7, 1943
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1943
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Oregon]], [[United States]]
| DATE OF DEATH =
| DATE OF DEATH =
| PLACE OF DEATH =
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nickell, Stella}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nickell, Stella}}
{{Good article}}
[[Category:People from Seattle, Washington]]
[[Category:People from Seattle, Washington]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
Line 43: Line 166:
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Washington (state)]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Poisoners]]
[[Category:Poisoners]]
[[Category:People from Portland, Oregon]]

Revision as of 17:46, 20 August 2012

Stella Nickell
Born1943 (age 80–81)
Oregon, United States
SpouseBruce Nickell
ChildrenCynthia Hamilton
MotiveInsurance payout
Conviction(s)Product tampering, 5 counts
Criminal chargeProduct tampering, 5 counts
Penalty90 years in prison

Stella Nickell (born 1943) is an American woman who was sentenced to 90 years in prison for product tampering after she allegedly poisoned Excedrin capsules with lethal cyanide, resulting in the deaths of her husband Bruce and of Susan Snow. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence were the first under federal product tampering laws instituted after the Chicago Tylenol murders.[1]

Early life

Stella Nickell was born near Portland, Oregon and grew up poor. By age sixteen, she was pregnant with her daughter Cynthia.[2] Nickell then moved to Southern California, married, and had another daughter. She began to have various legal troubles, including a conviction for fraud in 1968, a charge the following year of beating Cynthia with a curtain rod, and a conviction for forgery in 1971.[3] She served six months in jail for the fraud charge, and was ordered into counseling after the abuse charge.[4]

Stella met Bruce Nickell in 1974. Nickell was a heavy equipment operator with a drinking habit, which suited Stella's lifestyle,[3] and the two were married in 1976.[2] In the course of their twelve-year marriage, Bruce Nickell entered rehab and gave up drinking. Reportedly, Stella resented this. Her bar visits were curtailed by Bruce's sobriety,[3] and Stella cultivated a home aquarium as a new hobby.[2]

Deaths

On June 5, 1986, the couple were living in Auburn, Washington when Bruce Nickell, 52, came home from work with a headache.[5] According to Stella, Nickell took four Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules from a bottle in their home for his headache and collapsed minutes later.[6][note 1] Nickell died shortly thereafter at Harborview Medical Center, where treatment had failed to revive him.[7] His death was initially ruled to be by natural causes, with attending physicians citing emphysema.[2]

A second death, less than week a later, forced authorities to reconsider the cause of Nickell's death. On June 11, Susan Snow, a 40-year old Auburn bank manager, took two Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules for an early-morning headache.[5] Snow's husband, Paul Webking, took two capsules from the same bottle for his arthritis and left the house for work.[3] At 6:30 am, the Snows' fifteen-year-old daughter found Susan Snow collapsed on the floor of her bathroom, unresponsive and with a faint pulse. Paramedics were called and transported Snow to Harborview Medical Center, but she died later the same day without regaining consciousness.[5]

Investigation

Initial investigation

During an autopsy on Susan Snow, Assistant Medical Examiner Janet Miller detected the scent of bitter almonds, an odor distinctive to cyanide.[5] Tests verified that Snow had died of acute cyanide poisoning. Investigators examined the contents of the Snow-Webking household and discovered the source of the cyanide—the bottle of Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules that both Snow and Webking had used the morning of Snow's death. Three capsules out of those that remained in the 60-capsule bottle were found to be laced with cyanide in toxic quantities.[7]

A murder by cyanide was sensational news in Washington. When another tainted bottle from the same lot was found in a grocery store in nearby Kent, Washington, the manufacturers of Excedrin, Bristol-Myers, responded to the discovery with a heavily-publicized recall of all Extra-Strength Excedrin products in the Seattle, Washington area,[8] and a group of drug companies came together to offer a $300,000 reward for the capture of the person responsible.[5]

In response to the publicity, Stella Nickell came forward on June 19. She told police that her husband had recently died suddenly, after taking pills from a 40-capsule bottle of Extra-Strength Excedrin with the same lot number as the one that had killed Susan Snow. Tests by the FDA confirmed the presence of cyanide in Bruce Nickell's remains and in two Excedrin bottles Stella Nickell had turned over to police.[5][7]

Initial suspicions were directed at the manufacturers of the Excedrin capsules. Both Paul Webking and Stella Nickell filed wrongful death lawsuits against Bristol-Myers,[3] and the FDA inspected the Morrisville, North Carolina plant where Extra-Strength Excedrin lot 5H102 had been packaged, but found no traces of cyanide to explain its presence in the Washington bottles.[7] On June 18, Bristol-Myers recalled all Excedrin capsules in the United States, pulling them from store shelves and warning consumers to not use any they may already have bought;[7] two days later the company announced a recall of all of their non-prescription capsule products.[9] On June 24, a cyanide-contaminated bottle of Extra-Strength Anacin-3 was found at the same store where Susan Snow had bought her contaminated Excedrin.[5] On June 27, Washington State put into a effect a 90-day ban on the sale of non-prescription medication in capsules.[9]

Examination of the contaminated bottles by the FBI Crime Lab found that, in addition to containing cyanide powder, the poisoned capsules also contained flecks of an unknown green substance. Further tests showed that the substance was an algaecide used in home aquariums, sold under the brand name Algae Destroyer.[6]

Focusing the investigation

With contamination of the Excedrin at the source having been ruled out, investigators began to focus their investigation on the end-users of the product. The FBI began an investigation into possible product tampering having been the source of the poison. At the time, Excedrin was packaged in plastic bottles with the mouth of the bottle sealed with foil and the lid secured to the bottle with plastic wrap.[7]

Both Paul Webking and Stella Nickell were asked to take polygraph examinations. Webking did so, though he complained in subsequent press about his treatment by the FBI. Nickell declined to take a polygraph exam through the lawyer representing her in the wrongful-death suit she had filed, who told reporters that she was too "shaken up" to be subjected to the examination.[9]

Investigators' suspicions began to turn to Stella Nickell when they discovered that she claimed that the two contaminated Excedrin bottles that she had turned over to police had been purchased at different times and different locations. A total of five bottles had been found to be contaminated in the entire country, and it was regarded as suspicious that Nickell would happen to have acquired two of them purely by chance.[10]

With investigatory focus turned to Stella Nickell, detectives uncovered more circumstantial evidence pointing to her as the culprit. Nickell had taken out a total of about $76,000[11][note 2] in insurance coverage on her husband's life, with an additional payout of $100,000 if his death was accidental. She was also known to have, even before Susan Snow's death, repeatedly disputed doctors' ruling that her husband had died of natural causes.[6] Further FBI investigation showed that Bruce Nickell's purported signatures on at least two of the insurance policies in his name had been forged.[5]

Investigators were also able to verify that Nickell had purchased Algae Destroyer from a local fish store; it was speculated that the algaecide had become mixed with the cyanide when Nickell used the same container to crush both substances without washing it in between uses.[2]

Nickell finally consented to a polygraph examination in November 1986. She failed it and investigators narrowed their focus to her even farther;[6] however, concrete evidence proving that Nickell had ever purchased or used cyanide was lacking, and despite their relative certainty that Stella Nickell had orchestrated the poisonings as either an elaborate cover-up for an insurance-motivated murder of her husband, or as a desperate attempt to force her husband's death to be ruled an accident, to increase her insurance payout, they were unable to build a strong enough case to support an arrest.[2]

Breaking the case

In January 1987, Stella Nickell's adult daughter, Cynthia Hamilton, approached police with information: Nickell had spoken to her daughter repeatedly about wanting her husband dead. He was a bore, Nickell said, who after having gotten sober, preferred to stay home and watch television rather than go out to bars.[5] Nickell, Hamilton claimed, had even told her that she had tried to poison Bruce previously with foxglove.[6] When that failed, she had begun library research into other methods and hit upon cyanide.[2] Cynthia also claimed that Nickell had spoken to her about what the two of them could do with the insurance money if Bruce Nickell were dead.[5]

Records from the Auburn Public Library, when subpoenaed, showed that Nickell had checked out numerous books about poisons, including Human Poisonings from Native and Cultivated Plants and Deadly Harvest. The former was marked as overdue in library records, indicating that Nickell had borrowed but never returned it.[12] The FBI identified Nickell's fingerprints on cyanide-related pages of a number of the works she had checked out from the library in this period.[2]

By the summer of 1987, even Nickell's attorneys acknowledged that she was the prime suspect in the case.[13]

Arrest and trial

On December 9, 1987, Stella Nickell was indicted by a federal grand jury on five counts of product tampering, including two which resulted in the deaths of Susan Snow and Bruce Nickell,[6][14] and arrested the same day.[6] She went on trial in April, 1988 and was found guilty of all charges on May 9, after five days of jury deliberation.[15][16]

Despite Nickell's legal team's claims of jury-tampering and judicial misconduct having occurred, a motion for a mistrial was denied[17] and Nickell was sentenced to two ninety-year terms for the charges relating to the deaths of Snow and Bruce Nickell, and three ten-year terms for the other product tampering charges. All sentences were to run concurrently, and the judge ordered Nickell to pay a small fine and forfeit her remaining assets to the families of her victims.[18]

Nickell will be eligible for parole in 2018, when she will be 73 years old.[3]

Appeals and subsequent petitions

Nickell continued to maintain her innocence after her trial. An appeal based on jury-tampering and judicial misconduct issues was rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in August 1989.[19] A second appeal, beginning in 2001 with the assistance of Innocence Project and private detectives Al Farr and Paul Ciolino, requested a new trial on the basis of new evidence having been discovered that the FBI may have withheld documents from the defense.[20] The appeal was denied, though Nickell and her team continue to assert her innocence. She claims that her daughter Cynthia lied about Nickell's involvement in the case in order to reap the $300,000 of reward money being offered. Cynthia Hamilton eventually collected $250,000 of that money. Nickell also alleges that the testimony of various smaller cogs in the case, such as the store owner who testified about her having purchased Algae Destroyer, was influenced by promises of payment.[21]

FDA regulations

After the 1982 Tylenol murders, FDA regulations went into effect which made it a federal - rather than just a state or local - crime to tamper with consumer products. Local and state authorities are not, however, prevented from also filing charges in such cases.[22] Under this law, Nickell's crime was prosecutable as a federal product tampering case as well as a state murder case, and she was convicted not of murder, but of product tampering that caused death. The possibility of state charges for the actual murders of Susan Snow and Bruce Nickell continues to exist.[1]

In media

A 2000 made-for-TV film was to be made about the Stella Nickell case, but it was cancelled shortly before production began based on strong objections from advertisers, including Johnson & Johnson, owner of the Tylenol brand of painkillers, which had featured in the Chicago Tylenol murders, a prior product-tampering case. The film was to have aired on USA Network, directed by Jeff Reiner and starring Katey Sagal.[23]

Seattle author Gregg Olsen wrote about the Nickell case in his book, Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters and the Seattle Cyanide Murders. The case was also featured on episodes of Forensic Files[24], The New Detectives,[25] and Snapped,[26] as well as two episodes of Deadly Women.[27][28]

References

  1. ^ a b Associated Press (June 18, 1988). "Nickell gets 90 years for cyanide murders". Tri City Herald. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kohn, David (Feb 11, 2009). "Bitter Pill: A Wife On Trial". 48 Hours Mystery. CBS News. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Wadler, Joyce and Meg Grant (Jul 04, 1988). "Killing Her Husband Wasn't Enough for Stella Nickell; to Make Her Point, She Poisoned a Stranger". Vol. 30, No. 1. People Magazine. Retrieved May 10, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Nickell, Stella (Jun 04, 2001). Research%5d%5d (subscription required) %5b%5bCategory:Subscription required using via%5d%5d%5b%5bCategory:Pages containing links to subscription-only content%5d%5d "Mystery Involving Failed Mother-Daughter Relationship, Product Tampering and Murder, CBS" (Interview). Interviewed by Troy Roberts. Retrieved May 10, 2012. {{cite interview}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |callsign= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Bell, Rachel. "The Tylenol Terrorist". TruTV Crime Library. TruTV. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Poisoned Excedrin Suspected in 2D Seattle Death". New York Times. Seattle, Washington. United Press International. Jun 19, 1986. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  7. ^ Modeland, Vern (Oct 1, 1988). "Ninety-year prison term in tampering deaths". FDA Consumer. United States Food and Drug Administration – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  8. ^ a b c "Husband of cyanide poisoning victim questioned". Tri-City Herald. Seattle, Washington. Associated Press. Jul 5, 1986. pp. B1. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  9. ^ "This Day in History: May 8, 1988". history.com. The History Channel. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  10. ^ Olsen, pg. 487
  11. ^ Olsen, pg. 398
  12. ^ "Widow Suspect in Tampering". Spokane Chronicle. Seattle, Washington. Associated Press. Jul 15, 1987. pp. A1. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  13. ^ "Woman is Held in Deaths from Excedrin Laced with Cyanide". Chicago Sun-Times  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Dec 10, 1987. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  14. ^ "Woman Guilty of Killing 2 With Poisoned Excedrin". The Washington Post  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . May 10, 1988. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  15. ^ Tibbits, George. "Woman Guilty of Killing 2 in Poisoned Excedrin Case". The Boston Globe  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Seattle, Washington. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  16. ^ "Possibility of Mistrial Raised In Product-Tampering Case". The Washington Post  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . May 14, 1988. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  17. ^ Tibbits, George. "Excedrin Poisoner Sentenced". Albany Times Union  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Seattle, Washington. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  18. ^ "Conviction Upheld". Ellensburg Daily Record. San Francisco. UPI. Aug 30, 1989. p. 12. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  19. ^ Johnson, Tracy (Jun 5, 2001). "AUBURN WOMAN SERVING 90-YEAR TERM SEEKS NEW TRIAL IN HUSBAND-POISONING CASE". Seattle Post-Intelligencer  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  20. ^ Kohn, David (Feb 11, 2009). "Bitter Pill Pt. II: Retracing The Case". CBS News. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  21. ^ "The Federal Anti Tampering Act: Criminal Offense To Tamper With Consumer Products". Musick & Musick, LLP. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  22. ^ Eller, Claudia and Sallie Hofmeister (Dec 7, 2000). "TV film canceled after drug maker objects". Chicago Sun-Times  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  23. ^ Medstar TV. "Something's Fishy". Forensic Files. Season 2. TruTV.
  24. ^ New Dominion Pictures. "Deadly Chemistry". The New Detectives. Season 1.
  25. ^ Dir. Erin Althaus (Dec 4, 2005). "Stella Nickell". Snapped. Season 3. Oxygen. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |Episode number= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Dir. John Mavety (Nov 6, 2008). "Bad Medicine". Deadly Women. Season 1. Investigation Discovery.
  27. ^ "In Cold Blood". Deadly Women. Season 4. Oct 7, 2010. Investigation Discovery.

Bibliography

  • Olsen, Gregg (2002). Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters and the Seattle Cyanide Murders. Macmillan. ISBN 0312982003.

Notes

  1. ^ TruTV's website gives Nickell's date of death as June 6, which contradicts all other sources available, which specify June 5.
  2. ^ Sources vary as to the exact amount. Some cite $71,000, some $75,000, and some $76,000. Gregg Olsen's Bitter Almonds provides $76,000 as the amount, based on actual trial testimony.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stella_Nickell&oldid=508322192"