Lyda Southard: Killer of Husbands and Escapee of Jail

Lyda Southard was born as Lyda Anna Mae Trueblood on October 16, 1892 in Keytesville, Missouri, about 60 miles Northeast of Kansas City. She is known by many names including “Flypaper Lyda,” “The Black Widow,” and Anna E. Shaw. She is also known as being one of America’s first known female serial killers.

She killed four husbands, a brother-in-law, and daughter. What could be the motive for doing such a thing? How did she get the nickname “Flypaper Lyda”? Read on to find out…

Lyda’s murderous ways began when she married Robert Dooley on March 17, 1912, at the age of 21. The couple moved onto Ed Dooley’s ranch, who is Robert’s brother, in Twin Falls, Idaho. Things started out great for the couple. They welcomed a daughter, Lorraine, in 1914. The very next year, are when things went bad. Lorraine died unexpectedly before reaching her second birthday. Lyda insisted that little Lorraine died from drinking water from a dirt well.

Later that year, in August, Edward Dooley died from what was, at the time, ruled ptomaine poisoning. Ptomaine poisoning is now known as food poisoning. Maybe he just ate a meal that was not prepared properly…nothing to see here.

Just a couple short months later, on October 12, 1915, Robert Dooley became ill and died of what was thought to be typhoid fever.

Two years later, Lyda married husband number two, William G. McHaffie, in June of 1917. A year later McHaffie suddenly became sick and died on October 1, 1918. The death certificate ruled the cause of death as influenza and diptheria.

Wasting no time, she married husband number three, Harlan C. Lewis, a car salesman from Billings, Montana, in March of 1919. Just four months after they married, he too was dead. His death was ruled as a result of complication of gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea which causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.

Now, surely after losing three husbands, a brother-in-law, and a daughter, someone would have become suspicious of her? Right? Wrong.

On August 10, 1920, Lyda married her fourth husband, Edward F. Meyer, a ranch foreman in Pocatello, Idaho. Three weeks into the marriage he fell ill and died of typhoid on September 7, 1920.

Finally, this got the attention of Earl Dooley, a relative of Lyda’s first husband, Robert. Earl was a chemist in Twin Falls, Idaho and begain to study the deaths of the people around Lyda Southard. Dooley had just seen Edward Meyer at his home days before his death, looking very ill. Dooley immediately went back to Meyer’s home to the very place he was standing when Dooley last same him. Dooley scraped up dirt from the exact spot and took it to his lab to be tested. After careful analysis, he found arsenic in the sample. To be sure, Dooley asked a physician, Dr. Hal G. Bieler and a fellow chemist, Edwin F. Rodenback to conduct their own independent studies of the sample. Both of them agreed with Dooley’s initial findings, that there was evidence of arsenic. They concluded that Meyer had been killed by arsenic poisoning and felt that the deaths of her other husbands should be further investigated.

Dooley notified authorities of his findings and the bodies of Lyda’s other three husbands, brother-in-law, and daughter were all exhumed to be tested. They did find traces of arsenic in some of the bodies, while the others were suspected of arsenic poisoning because of how well the bodies were preserved.

The authorities also searched her home where they found mass quantities of rolled flypaper. They also found large barrels filled with water in which to soak the flypaper to extract the arsenic from it. “Flypaper Lyda.”

Next, authorities had to find a motive. They found it when searching the records of the Idaho State Life Insurance company. All four of Lyda’s husbands had life insurance policies on themselves. Lyda was listed as the beneficiary on each one.

Husband	Insurance Money
Robert Dooley	$4,600.00
William McHaffie	$500.00
Harlan Lewis	$3,000.00
Edward Meyer	$10,000.00

Lyda was tracked down in Honolulu, Hawaii, married to husband number five, Paul Southard, a Navy petty officer. Lyda had tried to convince Paul to get a life insurance policy with her as the beneficiary, luckily for Paul he decided against the idea. Paul files for divorce when Lyda was arrested. She was extradited back to Idaho, where she was arraigned on June 11, 1921.

After a trial that lasted six weeks, Lyda was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to serve 10 years to life in prison at the Old Idaho State Penitentiary.

You may think that the story would end here with Lyda Southard spending the rest of her life in prison, but no, there’s much more to her story.

While in prison, a guard by the name of Jack Watkins became infatuated with Lyda and helped her escape. Weirdly enough, Jack died before Lyda made her great escape. They say it was from natural causes.

On the night of May 4, 1931, Lyda cut the bars on her cell window using a saw that was given to her by Jack. Jack had also positioned a ladder, made with plumbing pipes, by the prison wall that allowed Lyda to scale the prison wall. He had also made a rope of torn blankets so that she could reach the ground on the other side. But that’s not all the help Lyda had.

Once over the prison wall, David Minton, was waiting for her with a getaway car. David was an ex-con, who had just been released from the same prison three weeks before. He thought she was worth risking his newly given freedom. Later, during the prison warden’s investigation, it was found that David had visited Lyda in the women’s ward two nights before she made her escape. Also, in the weeks leading up to the escape he had exchanged many love letters with her by throwing them over the prison wall.

Police searched for the couple and found Minton in Denver, Colorado on July 2, 1932. Turns out that Lyda was only using him to help in her escape and then left him when they got to Colorado. Minton was bitter about being used and had no problem sharing where she went. He ended up being arrested for the part he played in Lyda’s escape.

She began working as a housekeeper for Harry Whitlock, in Denver. In March of 1932 Lyda and Harry were married. Husband number six, in case you lost count. By July 1932, Harry learned Lyda’s true identity and helped the police in their arrest. Harry arranged to have Lyda go to a post office in Teopeka, Kansas where the police were waiting for her. She was going by the name Fern Zellars Rains and had dyed her brown hair black and had two front teeth replaced with gold ones in an attempt to conceal her identity. She told police “I expected to be caught.” She had been free for 15 months.

Harry had his marriage to Lyda annulled and applied to receive the $500 award that was offered for her arrest. Harry later told police, he was stunned when he first learned of her crimes. He said that she was a model wife. After some thought, he recalled that she had suggested that he take out a life insurance policy, but he neglected to do so.

In 1933, it was revealed that Lyda was given extraordinary favors in prison. She had been allowed to visit her sick mother off of prison grounds and was even left unguarded for five hours. She had been given rides in cars so that she could spend time at a nearby resort or go see a picture show at a local theater. The warden, George Rudd, admitted that he allowed Lyda certain liberties. He then resigned from his position.

On October 2, 1941, at the age of 48, Lyda was given a six-month probationary release from the penitentiary. A year and a half later she received a full pardon.

Lyda moved to Oregon to live with a sister for a few years before going back to Twin Falls where she married Hal Shaw. Husband number seven. He disappeared without a trace two years later.

On February 5, 1958, at the age of 65, Lyda, who was then going by the name Anna E. Shaw, died of a heart attack while carrying groceries on a city street in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is buried at Sunset Memorial Park in Twin Falls, Idaho.

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