Hi, friends. How are you today? I hope you're having a
wonderful day so far, Happy Monday. My name is Bailey Sarian, and today's Monday which means it's murder, mystery and makeup Monday. (imitates theme music) If you are new here, hi, my name is Bailey Sarian
and on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you would like makeup, I would highly suggest you
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takes to hunt a killer? (imitates "Twilight Zone"
opening theme music) A big thank you to a Hunt A Killer for partnering with me on today's video. But most of all, a big
thank you to you guys, because without you, I wouldn't
be here making this video. And that's a fact. I wanted to show you guys this. I thought this was a great quote, which pretty much sums up
today's video like perfectly. I don't know who like said it though. It says proverb. Does that mean it came from the Bible? No, Proverb? I should have Googled more. The quote is, "No one will have
a greater wrath or vengeance than a woman when she has been wronged. Most men find out the hard way that hell hath no fury
like a woman scorned." Ooh, deep. And that my friends brings
us to today's story, which is just this in a nutshell. Okay. If you're ever curious as
to what I'm using on my face I will make sure to leave it in the description box down below. But other than that, let's
talk about Cordelia Brown. Have you heard of her? She was born in 1854 in
Kansas City, Missouri. There's really not much
known about her upbringing or how her life was growing up. But what we do know is that
on September 26th, 1872, 18-year-old Cordelia married
33-year-old Welcome Botkin, who worked as a wealthy grain broker. Yes. His name is Welcome. "Welcome, get your *** over here, Welcome. Welcome! Welcome." Okay, so Welcome. Welcome, he worked as
a wealthy grain broker. So they get married and they're living in Kansas City, Missouri,
and then they welcomed... (chuckles) That was so dumb, but like I just... Anyways, they welcomed
their son Beverly in 1874. So they lived the simple kind of life. And then in the late 1880s, Welcome was offered a
new job as a salesman for the Armour Packing Company. So they decided to move
out to Stockton, California for this new job opportunity. So who was Cordelia? Well, Cordelia was described
as a short and stout woman. I'm not trying to shame here you know, I'm just making an observation, but she kind of looks
like Agetha Trunchbull from the movie "Matilda." Right? She kind of does. So with that being said, a lot of people would consider Cordelia to have a frumpy appearance. She was not the best looking, but Cordelia, she
believed she was hot ****. Like you couldn't tell
Cordelia nothing. Okay. She was God's gift to the world. Cordelia would brag to friends
about being photographed in over a hundred different poses, which us, the selfie nation may not seem like that big of a deal. But back then in the
Victorian era, the 1880s, getting photographed
was a really big deal. One of her favorite poses was her standing with her
hands up behind her head and her elbows out. I would show you, but I
didn't shave my armpits and... She would pose like this you know, I'm not gonna show you all the way. Having or posing with
your arms behind your head makes your face and your
boobs the focus of the image, which was a big no-no
in the Victorian era. Being sexy, uh-uh. I mean, they would acknowledge sex, but you had to be more secretive about it. And you definitely
couldn't be overtly sexual, which Cordelia definitely was
in some of her photographs. Now in 1894, Cordelia
and her husband Welcome, their marriage wasn't... it just wasn't working out, okay. Welcome was very proper and prim, and Cordelia just liked
more fun things in life like gambling and drinking. And because this is the
1880s or whatever divorce, it really wasn't a thing
back then, you know. You couldn't ju-, you no, uh-uh, couldn't do that. So they just decided to
go their separate ways, but still remain married because that was really their only option. So once they separate, Cordelia takes her son and then
they moved to San Francisco because there's more of
a party life out there, a little bit more fun. Cordelia is single and ready to mingle. Welcome, stayed in
Stockton where his job was and he would come out there to
pay her alimony every month. He was involved in his own scandal. When he came out to pay
Cordelia her alimony, he would meet with the land lady, her name was Clara and they were having like their own affair that was going on between the two of them. So in 1895, Cordelia who is now 41, she's living in San
Francisco with her son. She goes down to the park
next to the Golden Gate Bridge to meet with a friend and
just like have a chat. While there that's when a
32-year-old man named John Dunning was riding his bicycle, and his bicycle, it broke down. So he stops. He like fixes the wheel. And then he notices a beautiful woman who's sitting on the bench. He's like, "Oh, my God, you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen him on this planet." The beautiful woman was Cordelia. Love at first sight. Back then, 'cause remember olden days, it was very scandalous for a
man and a woman to interact with without a formal introduction. But John said that there
was just something about Cordelia's energy that
he was attracted to. And John knew that he just
needed to talk to her. So he goes up to her and
he introduces himself and they begin chatting away. Now this John guy, he was a big wig reporter
for the Associated Press. He had recently returned
from an overseas assignment where he was reporting on the war that was about to take place between the US, Great
Britain and Imperial Germany over Samoa. I know. So a big typhoon hits this island, sank a bunch of ships. It was a whole situation. We could do like another video on it, but John's there and he's
writing an article about it and it was hot gossip. Nobody could put it down. It was just, everybody read it. And because of this, it also promoted him to the superintendent of the Associated Press,
their Western division, which was in San Francisco. You get it, you get it. So John, he was married and he had a wife named Mary Elizabeth and the two of them had moved
to San Francisco in 1891. Soon after they had a daughter who they also named Mary. Anytime I talk about the
wife, I'll say Mary Elizabeth, so you know it's the
wife and not the child. But Mary Elizabeth was, she was not adjusting to life
in San Francisco very well. And she just really badly
wanted to move back to Delaware. She was becoming
frustrated in the marriage because her faith was
really important to her. And it wasn't important
to John at all ,really. So their marriage is really rocky. It wasn't going great. What more can you say, really? So when John met Cordelia, they had this instant connection. They couldn't stay away from each other. The two of them would
chat about their partners, their significant others and how they just didn't understand them. They were bonding over how their
partners sucked pretty much which is never good. So John was smitten with Cordelia and what he loved about her most was that she was like one of the guys. She liked to drink. She liked to have sex. And she'd like to talk about sex. You would most likely find
her hanging out with the boys down at the brothel. She wasn't like a normal girl. She was a cool girl, just
one of the guys, you know. "I'm just one of the guys. I just like beer and sports
and stuff, like yeah." So Cordelia and John were hanging out like all the time, okay. Cordelia would bring John to some of her favorite
hangout spots in San Francisco. And they were like not the
most up and up places, I guess. She would take them to
the gambling saloons, brothels, dark bars. And this was all like new to John. He had never seen this
side of San Francisco. I'm assuming here. I'm not, I can't speak for John of course, but it seemed like he was
just excited with it all. 'Cause it was just all new. He never... He didn't like do this at all. And it wasn't long before the two of them were wrapped up in partying, drinking, and a gambling lifestyle. And that wasn't all that
they were wrapped up in. Wink, wink. Because they were also
wrapped up in each other. AKA, they were having a
lot of sexual relations with each other. They were getting down and dirty. Which is fine. We're not judging, it's just that John's still married and that's not good, you know. In the neighborhood Cordelia
had quite the reputation. It was not a good one. It was a very bad one. Remember, how I talked about like Cordelia hanging out with the guys
and she was like a guys-girl. Well, the women, they didn't like that. And because it's the Victorian era, they were very strict and
extremely judgmental back then. Like, ooh, right. Ooh. Like when you brought up Cordelia's name, a look of disgust would
come over everyone's faces. Like she was just known as, this is gonna sound mean, I didn't say it, but she was like known as
the town *****, you know. I'm sorry, Cordelia. Don't come for me from the grave. I didn't say it, your peers did. John was being sloppy. He wasn't trying to hide the fact that he was having an affair or hide the fact that he was hanging out with this new friend, Cordelia, which led to people seeing them and everybody talking. Rumors are swirling, you know. And it wasn't long until
John's wife, Mary Elizabeth found out about his affair. Mary, John's wife, she
would stay with John for about a year. And she was trying to figure out what exactly her plan was you know, because she was feeling super embarrassed. Everybody seemed to know about this affair that her husband's having with Cordelia. She's humiliated. "How dare you, like with her? Uh!" So she's trying to figure
out what her plan is, what is she gonna do? But I couldn't imagine
how Mary was feeling because she moves to this new location for her husband's new job, right? She doesn't like it there. She's having a hard time struggling just finding her way in San Francisco. And she voices to her
husband that she's unhappy. He's never around. He's always working. And then he has an affair on
her with this woman Cordelia. And she's like, "Dude, really." Uh-uh. So with all this in 1896, Mary Elizabeth decides to leave him. And she returns to Dover, Delaware to live with her mother and father. His name was John B. Pennington. He was a working Congressman in Delaware. He's kind of like a big
deal out there, you know, man of importance. So Mary Elizabeth takes
her little daughter, Mary with her and she
gets out of San Francisco, moves in with her parents and decides just to move on with her life. So now that Mary Elizabeth has gone, she's out of the way, right? John and Cordelia are
like, "Hey, we're free." You know, they're getting it
on like teens on spring break. 'Cause there's lots of alcohol. There's gambling, lots of sex. John who hasn't been
living this party lifestyle as long as Cornelia has. I think he just, or he does get
really wrapped up in at all. He can't keep his **** together. He's going hard. You know, those people who
are like new to the party game and they're just being idiots, sloppy drunks, losing all their money. That was John. He's just like, "Fool, what are you doing? Calm down." John's gambling becomes out of control and he racks up a huge debt. So now debt collectors are on his *** and John doesn't have any money. So, John's thinking, "If I can just take some money from my job and gamble that money, then I could probably make money, pay off my debts, put the money back and nobody will know." Great plan, always seems to work, right? And like how usually most
gambling addictions go, you dig yourself into a deep, deep hole. So, John ends up stealing
about $4,000 from his job, which in today's money
would be about $126,000 to pay off his gambling debts. But it didn't take long until
his place of work found out that he was indeed stealing money. And then John gets fired. I know, I'm surprised he
didn't go to prison for this, but I don't know. The relationship between John and Cordelia would end up lasting almost three years. And then in March of 1898,
the Associated Press, they were looking for a top-notch reporter to do an excellent reporting because the United States was on the brink of what was about to become
the Spanish-American War. So they need someone to report on this. And John is like the best of the best. So John gets hired for the job and he has this moment of
clarity where he's like, "Okay, I got this great job opportunity. I got to stop partying, this lifestyle, Cordelia, like all of this just
isn't for me anymore." John realized that he missed his wife and he realized that
the new job opportunity was a way for him to get out. So John goes to Cordelia and he tells her, "Hey, I'm going away on assignment and things are over between us." He also went on to say that when he's done with the assignment he's gonna go back to Delaware and try and win his wife back
because he missed her deeply. Typical. (chuckles) "Now you want me back? Cute." Mm-hmm. How do you think that's gonna go over? I'm sure it's gonna go over smoothly. This news to Cordelia was devastating. She's begging him not to go, but he tells her like,
no, he has to do this. "I'm leaving. This just isn't for me anymore." So John ends up leaving
and he goes to Cuba for his new job opportunity. And Cordelia, she was
not having a good time. She was having a very difficult time. Her life was now like at a standstill. She was depressed. She didn't understand why
John just up and left her. How could he do this? She gave him a place to live. She gave him everything. Now as the days go on her
depression now turns into anger. So Cordelia is thinking, "If I can't have John then I guess nobody can have John." I don't know you guys, I think he has like beer flavored nipples or something because she wants him bad. Now, back in Dover, Delaware, Mary Elizabeth, John's wife, she starts receiving handwritten letters detailing about the affair John
was having in San Francisco. The letters said John was
constantly seen around with an extremely attractive woman and that Mary Elizabeth
should not take John back if he ever tried to come back to her. Now, Mary Elizabeth is
extremely upset by these letters but she just like didn't know what to do with the information. So she takes all the letters and she stuffs them in a drawer. Out of sight, out of mind. So Mary Elizabeth had
been getting these letters for about four or five months. And then on August 9th, 1898,
she gets a knock on the door. (imitates knocking) She opens the door and she finds a gift of chocolate bonbons
wrapped in brown paper with a pink satin ribbon. She's like, "Oh, my God, chocolate! Yay." So Mary opens up the box
and sees that the chocolates are sitting on a lace handkerchief with the price tag still attached. And the note reads quote, "With love to yourself and
baby, Mrs. C." end quote. So Mary's thinking that the Mrs. C. stood for Mrs. Corebaley, it was one of her friends that she made back in San Francisco. So she's like, "Oh, my God,
that is so sweet of her. I'm gonna save these
chocolates for after dinner." So she puts the chocolates
away and she's like, "I cannot wait to enjoy these treats." You know, she had a lot more
self-discipline than I do because I would have
just eaten the whole box right then and there. Good for her. So Mary Elizabeth and her
family sit down and have dinner. Her sister and niece also came over to have dinner with the whole family. They had trout and corn
fritters for dinner. Mm, so delicious. So again, olden days, no AC. So when you cooked, especially
with like a stove and stuff, it would get brutally hot in the house. So again, because it's so fricking hot, they go and they sit
out on the front porch and they try to just sit there, cool off with the nighttime breeze. While sitting there, you guessed it. Mary was like, "Oh, my God, I should go get those
chocolates right now. We can enjoy them while
we sit here on the porch." Great idea. So she goes, she gets the
lovely gift of chocolates. And she, before going out to the porch she has three pieces for herself. And then she offered some to her family. She's like, "This is my box. I'm having three pieces. You guys can only have one, okay. Now Cordelia's older sister
also loves chocolate. So she helped herself to a couple pieces. And then the neighbors,
their kids came over and they're just hanging out and they took one piece each. Mary's mom and her dad
passed on the chocolate. They were like, "We don't want
any, it's okay. Thank you." So they eat their chocolate and just enjoy the evening
with each other's company. Then a couple of hours go by and everyone who ate the chocolate started getting really bad stomach aches. And then all of a sudden start barfing, throwing up. Oh, God. Now everyone is puking, okay. Except for dad. Mary Elizabeth's dad, he calls the doctor
because everyone is puking and he's the only one who wasn't sick. So the doctor comes out and he thinks that everybody
has food poisoning. Yeah. Food poisoning. You know, it must be the corn fritters. Corn fritters were probably
bad. Food poisoning. But Mary Elizabeth's dad didn't think so because he had corn fritters
and he wasn't throwing up. After a couple hours
of some intense puking, everyone seemed to get better except for Mary Elizabeth and her sister, both of them were just getting worse. So in addition to vomiting, they were also just experiencing
severe stomach pains, like gripping your stomach, Jesus, I'm coming home kind of pains. You know what I'm saying? The first doctor thought
that their illness was coming from the corn fritters. And Mary Elizabeth's dad, he knew better. He was like, "It's not
the corn fritters, okay. 'Cause I'm not sick. I should be sick." And he goes with his gut feeling and he calls another doctor to come and like check on his daughters. So this doctor, he didn't think
that it was food poisoning. Nay-nay. He thinks it's a poisoning poison-ing. The doctor tells the
family that he believed they had been badly poisoned. And they're like, "Oh, my
God, like, what do we do with this information that
you have just given us?" And the doctor's like, "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do to save you. Have a good day." And then he takes off. I know he's definitely useless other than telling them
that they were poisoned. But there was literally nothing
that he could do for them. He was like, "Good luck. Bye." Their death that these two
experience was pretty hardcore. In addition to the severe stomach pains, they were also experiencing intense, bloody diarrhea and delirium, which is basically a fancier word for saying that they're hallucinating. After a few days of this illness, both Mary Elizabeth and her sister die a slow and awful death. So Mary Elizabeth's dad, he now just lost two daughters
and he's out for blood. He is angry. He wants to track down
who did this to them. He's thinking the common thing was that mysterious box of
chocolate set showed up, right? Mary Elizabeth and her sisters were the ones that ate most of them and they were the ones that died. So he's thinking that
can't be a coincidence. You know? So what does dad do? So he's a smart man. And he takes the few
remaining pieces of chocolate and he sends them out to be analyzed by a local chemist by
the name of Dr. Wood. Now Dr. Wood, his report came back and said that the chocolates
tested positive for arsenic. Arsenic is a chemical element that is on the scientific table posted in your high
school chemistry class. But it's a heavy metal
element commonly used in car batteries and ammunition. And it's also found in pesticides. But in the Victorian era it was mixed with vinegar and chalk, and it was used as like a skin lightener by high society ladies who
just wanted to, you know, look very pale as if they did
not work out in the fields. 'Cause that was the look back then. You don't want to tan, you want to be white as ****. But one of the more famous uses
of arsenic was as a poison. And arsenic is not a poison
you want to mess around with. You will suffer greatly. Greatly. So with Mary Elizabeth dead, dad knew that he had to tell
his son-in-law, John Dunning, that his wife, that he planned
to come back to had died. So John was obviously
no husband of the year, but the dad felt that he deserved
to know his wife was dead. John, who remember he still
loved Mary Elizabeth very much and wanted to fix his marriage
after he got back from Cuba, he was devastated by this news that he packed his bags and he headed straight to Dover, Delaware as fast as he could. So he gets there in like 10 days. Yeah. I finished my makeup way to early because like, I still got a lot of story. When John gets to Dover, Mary Elizabeth's dad tells
him about the chocolates. Oh, yes. So the dad is also cleaning out his daughter's things, right? And he finds those strange letters that were shoved in a drawer. Now, since John was obviously
the topic of conversation in the letters, the dad,
he shows them to John. He's like, "Look what I
found, these weird letters someone was writing my daughter and your name is mentioned practically on every page. It's saying here in this letter
that you're having an affair that you've been seen around
town with some beautiful woman who is not my daughter, explain yourself, like, what is this situation?" Okay. John takes one, look at the letters and he knows exactly who wrote them. So he tells the dad, "Look, I know who's handwriting this is. I was seeing this woman
named Cordelia Botkin, but I broke up with her because I missed Mary Elizabeth too much. I told her I was gonna come back, and try and fix my marriage. And I guess she just didn't
take the news so well." Dad then hands John the card
from the box of chocolates and asks, if he thinks Cordelia, this Cornelia woman, was the
one who wrote the card too. Now John takes a look
at this and he's ****** because the card has the same
handwriting as the letters, which means Cordelia most
likely wrote the note herself, which means Cordelia probably
sent those box of chocolates, which meant that Cordelia
most likely murdered his wife. So John tells his father-in-law that he remembered telling Cordelia how much of a crazy sweet
tooth Mary Elizabeth had. And she must have like
stashed that in her noggin, you know, filed that away
and used it against her. He also might have mentioned that Mary Elizabeth had a
friend named Mrs. Corebaley who lived in San Francisco. And that's maybe where she got the name Mrs. C. from that was on the letter. So after all of this,
dad is obviously mad. He's ****** off because he knows, or he thinks he knows a hundred percent like who killed his daughters
and he wants justice. And this dad is also a Congressman. So he knows that he can't go
committing revenge murder. The next best thing that he
can do is call the police. So he does. So he calls the Dover Police and the Dover Police Department calls the San Francisco Police because they needed help. The box of chocolates was
purchased in San Francisco. And San Francisco Police
would have a better chance of hunting down where Cordelia was out than the Dover Police, right? Since they don't,
they're different cities. A detective from Dover hand
delivers the murder evidence to the San Francisco PD. This included the remaining
candy, the paper it came in, the handkerchief and the
San Francisco Police Chief, Isaiah W. Lees, he wasted no time and
immediately gets to work building a case against Cordelia. Fun fact, Isaiah Lee's, this guy, he's basically the godfather
of the modern gay mugshot. He didn't necessarily invent the mugshot but in a way he kind of did because he was the first police officer to make it a regular thing. When criminals were arrested, right? He started collecting pictures of these criminals starting in 1854. And by the time that 1898 rolled around his police department had
the largest collection of criminal photos. I thought that was cool. Anyways, we don't know if Cordelia had a lengthy rap sheet at all, but based on her behaviors, you know, one could
assume that she may have, which meant that they may
have had a photo of her. And this would be super useful. And it's funny because maybe
that's what Cornelia meant when she said that she had
over a hundred photographs taken of her. Anyhow, back to the case. So the first thing Isaiah Lees did was figure out where the
box of chocolates came from. That wasn't so hard
because the brown paper and pink satin bow the box was wrapped in was pretty well-known
around San Francisco. Those were the wrappings at
George Haas Confectionary, a popular candy store used to
gift wrap their chocolates. Now this George Haas Confectionary,
they had four locations, which was like a big deal back then. First of all, everyone
recognized the ribbon, but most of all it was gonna be a little bit more challenging
to track down the exact store that the box was sold at. But finally, after going to question everybody at the different candy stores, the chocolate stores, they find the store clerk who remembered selling half
a box of chocolate bonbons on July 31st to a woman who was short, stout and kind of frumpy looking. And they're like, Hey, that
kind of sounds like Cordelia. And the clerk remembered that
it was weird that the woman only wanted half a box of candy. So he asked her, "Why
do you only want half?" Like who gives half empty
box of chocolates as a gift? And the woman buying the
chocolate told the clerk that she planned on adding in her own homemade chocolate to the box, which is weird because if
you're gonna go out of your way to buy like top-notch
chocolates as a gift, unless you're an amazing baker why would you put in
your own homemade ones? Okay. Cordelia, sure, you know. Also it was found that on the handkerchief that was left in the box, it had a price tag left on it. So this led the investigators to the City of Paris department store, which at the time was San Francisco's most important department store. So they go down to the department store and they talked to a sales woman by the name of Mrs. Grace Harris. Now she remembered the customer who purchased the handkerchief because she thought that the woman looked just like her dead mother. This saleswoman also had like a picture of her mom with her. And she's like, "She
looks like my dead mom." And let me tell you
this woman's dead mother was like a dead ringer for Cordelia. They could have been twins. They could have been sisters. She wasn't wrong, but she remembered her 'cause she told Cordelia, "You
look just like my dead mom. Wow." And she just remembered her. Now there weren't many
post office locations in the same area as the stores. So it wasn't too hard to find
the post office attendant who helped a woman ship a box that was wrapped in brown
paper with a pink bow. The clerk, a man named John Dunnigan, he had no problem remembering the package sent to miss John Dunning
because he thought, "Oh, my God it sounds just like my name." Because his name was John Dunnigan. I know this is getting confusing but he just remembered
the box being shipped out. And the detective is like, "Okay, can you tell us what
the woman looked like?" And he's like, "Oh, yeah it was the stout, frumpy looking woman." And they're like, Hm, it's
not looking good for Cordelia. So they had three clues
down and they had one to go. The last piece of the
puzzle was the arsenic. Where did it come from? And this one seemed to be the hardest part for police to figure out because it wasn't wrapped
up in a nice, pretty bow, like everything else was. And they couldn't find any leads
as far as the arsenic went. But right before they
were about to give up, he finally talked to a
clerk at the Owl Drug store who remembered selling arsenic to a woman, who surprise, surprise
also resembled Cordelia. Now it was really looking like Cordelia bought the chocolates and
poisoned them with arsenic before mailing them to Mary Elizabeth. But the San Francisco Police
Department had two more leads that they needed to follow-up on. They obtained a search
warrant for the room that Cordelia was staying
at in the Victoria Hotel to see if they could find anything else. So they get into Cordelia's home. She's not there. Great. We already know like
Cordelia is kind of sloppy with her killing job. So when they go inside, they see that she left the leftover string and wrapping paper that
matched the box of chocolates in her room after she left, like she didn't throw it away. So she practically left
like the smoking gun in her hotel room is what I'm getting at. Like girl, come on. The final lead that the San
Francisco Police Department needed to follow-up on were the letters that were sent to Mary Elizabeth. So a local handwriting expert, he analyzes the handwriting on the note that came with the chocolates and the anonymous letters that
were sent to Mary Elizabeth. Now in the expert's opinion,
there was no question. The note and letters were
written by the same person. And when compared to the love letters that Cordelia had written to John, it seemed like a pretty
open and shut case. Cordelia was the killer and
they had caught her red-handed. So on October 28th, 1989, Chief Lees presented his
case against Cordelia before the grand jury. He was pretty confident that they would charge
Cordelia with murder but he also knew his case
had two super large holes. The first hole was that
not all the chocolates tested positive for arsenic. This could be potentially a huge problem because the second hole was
about the size of two graves. Meaning no one bothered to do an autopsy on either Mary Elizabeth or the sister before they were buried. So technically Lees had no concrete proof that the two of them died
from arsenic poisoning in the first place. So remember Mary Elizabeth's
dad was super on top of stuff. So why he didn't have an
autopsy done on his daughters is kind of like, why
don't you do that, sir? But this one was a little
more out of his jurisdiction because the doctor in
charge of the hospital morgue believed that the
girls vomited so much that they had most
likely purged the poison out of their system. So there was no point in doing an autopsy because the doctor was confident he wouldn't be able to
find any traces of it. Today, we know that the doctor had no idea what he was talking about. I mean, most doctors at the time didn't because let's face it
medicine at that time it was like the Stone Ages. You know, people were
just kind of guessing. But a toxicologists today would have known that traces of arsenic would
have remained in the bones, fingernails and hair, but 1898, they didn't have that knowledge yet. So they probably barfed it up. So Lees was super concerned that this no autopsy report thing was going to be a deal
breaker for the grand jury, but they surprised him. It turns out that the grand jury felt that the San
Francisco Police Department had done enough of their homework, that not having this piece of evidence was really not that big of a deal. They barely blinked an eye
when they indicted Cordelia on two counts of first degree murder. Police found Cordelia
at her sister's house in Healdsburg, California
and they arrested her. Now this arrest didn't go quite the way that the police anticipated. They were hoping she would
just confess to the murders and they could all skip the trial and the mountain of paperwork that was probably gonna
come along with it, they could skip that to, you know. But Cordelia surprised them. Not only did she refuse to confess, but she decided to **** with the police who came to arrest her. When the police showed up, they're like pack your
things, you're going to jail. And Cordelia said, "You know, sure thing just wait right here and I'll go pack." And boy, did she pack? She packed her trunk so heavy that it took two police officers
to carry it out of there. I guess she figured that she was probably
going away for a while and she needed every outfit
she owned or she was stalling. Now this case is interesting because it was the first
case of murder by mail. Oh, yes. But it was also the first
American prosecution for a crime that took place in
two different jurisdictions. The state of California
and the state of Delaware battled it out for a hot minute over who was going to oversee
the court proceedings. Now Delaware argued that Cordelia should be tried in Dover because that's where the
actual murder took place. But California said, no way. You can't extradite a person to a place where they've
never been before. And California ended up
winning that argument. And Cordelia's trial began
on December 6th, 1898. Now it was no big surprise when
Cordelia pleaded not guilty before the San Francisco judge. But what was a big
surprise was how fascinated the city of San Francisco
was by the whole thing. And it turned into a media circus. I'm sorry, I'm not doing any makeup. I really did finish my
makeup quite fast didn't I. I practiced it yesterday
and I think that's why. Anyways, so this case was
getting a lot of attention. People were packing the
courtroom to the gills. They were just eating up all this drama. They were fascinated, fascinated, by Cordelia's private life
and her sexual indiscretions. The newspapers reported on
Cordelia's excessive vanity, they called it. They also talked about her love for posing for photographs in a very sexually suggestive way. Of course, they're mainly in the media focusing on how she looks and
her sexuality and all of that because you know, she was
the villain you love to hate and they wanted every salacious
scandalous detail about her. Now, Victorian era, remember, no TV, no trash TV, no reality TV, right? None, none of that. The people, they had to rely
on the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner for their hot gossip. They essentially were the People Magazine of back in the day. In the beginning of Cordelia's trial, the prosecution laid
out a pretty solid case. They presented the handwriting
analysis that they had done and they had witnesses speak about the different
items that Cordelia bought. And they also pulled out the string and the brown paper that were found in Cordelia's hotel room. Now, during all of it, Cordelia
just pretty much sat there. It was said that she was just emotionless. Nothing. Now Cordelia would show up
to court, very dramatic. She was dressed in like
an all black dress. She would have a white lace
handkerchief in her hand and it looked like she
was going to a funeral. I just can't imagine how
judgmental it was back then. Oh, God. The media though, they would describe her as a quote, smug, self-satisfied, cunning,
little woman end quote. But they really painted
her as the villain, which I guess she was. But I mean, most of all it was selling newspapers
more than anything else. They needed this fill in to sell papers. Now people were so eager to
get a glimpse of John Dunning. They wanted to know what
so special about this guy that it was worth
murdering over, you know, like we have to see what he looks like. Who is he? So people are just excited
when it was his day to like come into the courtroom. He must be super hot if he's
worth murdering over, right? Well, when John showed up
people were very disappointed when he entered the courtroom. The newspapers described him as whiny. And the papers also mentioned
that he had a good cleft chin, which I guess is a good thing. But the newspaper has also said that John had narrow
shoulders and thinning hair, and they were just going in on John and Cordelia's looks, not much has changed, huh. So John ends up taking the stand and the defense questioned him about the number of women
that he had slept with in San Francisco. They really wanted to show the jurors that John had many lovers and any of them could have been the one that
murdered Mary Elizabeth. And you know what? John tells the courtroom
that he could not remember who he slept with or any of their names. He would go on to say that
he could remember three names in addition to Cordelia's, but he wasn't going to say who they were and what their names were. The prosecution, they
weren't having any of that. So they decided to teach John a lesson and threw him in jail for the night. They're like, Hey, maybe
you sitting your *** in jail will jog your memory. But nope, John still refused. So the judge figures, let's
put 'em another night in jail. Maybe that will make him speak. At first I couldn't figure out why they wanted that information so bad. Like why does it matter? And it makes sense. Like they wanted to pin
it on somebody else. But John refused to give anyone's names. He did not want these people, these women to be dragged
into this whole mess and get thrown into
the middle of all of it and then have a murder pinned on them. So John, just, he didn't
reveal who they were. He kept his mouth shut. Bravo, John, honestly. That's pretty great. 'Cause like it would a
went completely south. Those poor women would
have been brought into it. It would have been a hot mess. So good for him. The defense team they realized we're not gonna get any answers from John. So let's just let it go, I guess. Now when it was Cordelia's
turn to take the stand it was like her whole
presence was scripted. We know Cordelia thought
that she was hot ****, but her legal team wanted her
to tone it down a little bit. So she spoke with like an
upbeat and pleasant tone that the defense team thought
the jury would find endearing. They also wanted her to sound intelligent and independent, right? So they're like telling her, here's what you're gonna say. Here's how you should talk. Here's how you should sit. You know, it's hard to convict
a woman you like, right? During questioning Cordelia did admit to purchasing arsenic back in
June, which was like, what? At this time they didn't know that. So she admits to this,
but she said she bought it because she wanted to
clean a straw hat with it. She loved her straw hat. It needs to be cleaned. She was upset because she didn't see how this pinned the murder on her because she purchased powdered arsenic not the crystalline type that
was found in the chocolates. So Cordelia also claimed to have an alibi that could prove to she did
not purchase the chocolate or mailed the package
on the days in question. But when they told her,
okay, what's your alibi? Like, bring them in here. Let's have them questioned. No one ever came forward
to support her alibi. Girl, you're a mess. Get it together. The trial only lasted about three weeks. And on the day of closing statements, a line of over 500 people
formed outside the courthouse. Every one wanted to be there
for the grand finale, right? Everyone's trying to get inside. And of course the courthouse
can't fit that many people. So the Examiner came up
with a brand new idea. Instead of taking the
time to collect the news, run back to the printing press, lay out the type and print
of the trial results, the newspaper executives
decided to do something super innovative for this time, live news. I know, good for them. They essentially like invented
Twitter during this time, but they didn't even know it. You know? And they
didn't, I'm exaggerating. But they built this big
billboard out of wood in front of the courthouse, and the reporters they would rotate running in and out of the courtroom with minute-by-minute
updates that were posted onto this board, which was large enough for everyone who was standing outside was able to read this. So they're updating this board and people are able to
get like what's happening. Great. On December 30th, after
four hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Cordelia of murder. And on February 4th, Judge Cook sentenced
her to life in prison. Now, when they updated
that little board outside the crowd erupted,
everyone was so excited. It was like New Year's day. Aah! They had nothing else going on. You know, it was exciting to them. So Cordelia is carted off
to the San Francisco jail, but she doesn't seem to
stay there that long. So a couple of months
later, it was like a Sunday. The judge, Judge Cook, he's out doing some shopping
in downtown San Francisco. And while he's out doing some shopping he spots who he believes is
Cordelia out shopping as well. He's like, "She's
supposed to be in prison. You know, why is she
running around shopping? You know, what is going on?" He was super confused. And he needed to get
to the bottom of this. So instead of approaching her, 'cause he doesn't want to tip her off that he knows and then she
could potentially run for it. He doesn't say anything. And then he decides that he's going to launch
his own investigation as to why Cordelia was
wandering out and about free as a bird. "Mam, you killed someone. No." So he discovers that Cordelia was up to her old tricks again. Cordelia was exchanging sexual
favors for ****, you know. She managed to get her
own private jail cell, a more comfortable mattress and pillows and the freedom to
leave the prison grounds whenever she wanted. She must've had a magical
hoo-ha you know what I'm saying? Like she was getting all sorts of stuff. The judge tried to get a
case against the guards because they're obviously like
working with Cordelia here, they need to be fired, and then Cordelia needs
to lose her privileges. But literally nobody would admit about this little trade that was going on between Cordelia and the guards. Nobody said a word. So it was like they couldn't do anything because they didn't have any, they don't even know who's doing it. And then word got to Cordelia that she was spotted out shopping. And she used this to her advantage. She's like, "Oh, my God, look,
I haven't left the prison. So whoever the judge saw
out there in the city, it must have been the real murderer. And this is just a case
of a mistaken identity." She's trying to milk it. "Like, oh, I have a twin out
there who's committing murders. And it's not me." She thought someone was gonna believe it but no one believed her bull
**** you know, she tried. So you're probably wondering what happened to Cordelia's son. Yeah, I know, you probably
forgot she had a son 'cause honestly, so did I. There's really not much
said about her son, Beverly. His feelings towards his mother after the outcome of her trial. What happened to him? Where was he during all of this? You know, I don't know. Nothing. Zip. Nada. But after Cordelia is
found guilty of murder, her husband, Welcome, finally
had the ammunition he needed to be able to file for divorce because being charged with a felony is a major no-no in Victorian society. Well, being charged with a
felony is still a no-no today. But back in the Victorian society days, it was a way for you to be
able to get out of a marriage. So Welcome wanted a divorce because Cordelia was
found guilty of murder. He was able to get out of the marriage. Do you see what I'm saying? You get what I'm saying? Because she went to prison.
That was his way out. So Welcome was happy because he was trapped in this
loveless, useless marriage and Welcome was finally free. You're welcome. Now, Mary Elizabeth's father
lived just long enough to see justice served. He would go on to die on June 1st, 1902. And then two years later, Cordelia's lawyer tried to file an appeal and get her conviction overturned. She tried her best, but once again everyone saw right through her. They did a retrial and she was convicted
again on August 2nd, 1904. And once again, Cordelia was
sentenced to life imprisonment. The second trial didn't
get nearly the same level of newspaper attention
as the first go round. So not much is really
said about the retrial and not much is out
there about the retrial because unfortunately all
the original trial records were destroyed in the San Francisco 1906 earthquake and fire. Iconic earthquake that
destroyed San Francisco. This earthquake also destroyed the jail that Cordelia was living in. So she was transferred to
San Quentin State Prison. Now that prison is no joke. Okay. That's like real prison. That's where all of the
death row inmates go and hang out together. So it must have been no picnic in the park because in 1908 she applied for parole on the basis of bad health. But her request was denied. She remained at San
Quentin until her death on March 7th, 1910 at the age of 56, which was considered still
pretty young back then. The official cause of death
was softening of the brain due to melancholy. So essentially she died of depression. It's not hard to understand why she might have died from depression. The last few years of her life were very rough for Cordelia. Aside from being at San
Quentin first of all, she lost just about
everyone she was close to. Her father died in 1900 after
being kicked by a horse. Her now ex-husband Welcome, he died on May 2nd in
1904 from heart failure. And then their son died the following year also from heart failure. So for Cordelia, it was
just loss after loss, after loss, after loss, and they believe that's what led her to die. So I remember John,
John Dunning, the lover, poor John he could not
escape this whole situation without it just destroying his life. Let me tell you, it
just destroyed his life because this whole like relationship and affair with Cordelia came
out during the trial, right? And other details about
him drinking, gambling, whoring around with a
ton of different women. This is all like public
information during the trial. So aside from being
associated with Cordelia and being wrapped up in all that drama, John, he became an undesirable man is what he was considered. Nobody wanted to be associated with him. Nobody wanted to hire him. And so once again, his career
was destroyed, poor guy. He really didn't deserve it to be honest, he just got wrapped up
in some bull ****, okay. And they destroyed his life after that. I mean, luckily for him,
he didn't suffer that long because John died in Philadelphia in 1908. So poor guy. I don't know. I was trying to make it positive. At least he died so he's not humiliated. So Cordelia's story is kind of a sad one. You have to give her credit for taking charge of her own life. Look talking about sex and being sexual is just completely like hell freaking no, that was something you did
not do back then, right? The fact that Cordelia Delia
was brave enough to be like, "Ah, you guys think I'm ugly. Not me though. I'm hot. And I got ****. Like I'm gonna show them, okay." And she just did her thing and that I can respect, for sure. Good for her. Unfortunately, she would go on to make some terrible
decisions, bad choices. She snapped from heartbreak. But again, I'm gonna give her
a little bit of credit here because she did get creative and she poisoned some chocolates. Like that, again, not really
heard of, not a thing. Death by mail, murder
by mail, not a thing. It's a shame that she
put all of this energy towards being a bad person instead of just being a good person because she had some ideas. In the end though, Cordelia was just a very insecure woman who wanted John all to herself and murdered a woman who
lives 6,000 miles away so she could have John. At the end of the day she's
a pretty ****** up lady. And that my friends is a
story of Cordelia Botkin, very interesting woman. Murder by mail. So what did we learn here today? I think what we learned here today is that nobody is worth murdering over. Okay. I don't know what else to tell you. Nobody is worth it. And I hope that's what you learned today. Oh, also another thing
we can take away here is like if you ever fighting
over a man with somebody, just ******* let it go. Like it's not worth it. Let someone else have them. Your day will come. Anyhow, I will love to hear
your guys' thoughts down below. Again, I'm so sorry that I
didn't really do much makeup. It happened so fast. Or is this a really long video? I don't know yet. Let me know down in the description box who you want me to talk about next week, but other than that I
hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. And make good choices, I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye. (upbeat dramatic music)
Actually loved this one and I don't usually love older stories.
Totally thought Aqua Tofana when the chocolates were eaten
Has anyone heard if dark history is coming to YouTube this week?