Casefile True Crime - Case 66: The Black Widow

Episode Date: November 11, 2017

North Carolina residents James Napoleon Taylor and Raymond Reid died 13 years apart from seemingly natural causes, and doctors felt there was nothing suspicious about their deaths. --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Anna Priestland For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-66-black-widow

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. In 1942, at nine years old, Blanche Taylor Moore, born Blanche Kaiser, left the small town of Tarheel, North Carolina with her family, in search of opportunity in the growing city of Burlington. Burlington had sprung almost a century before, when in the mid-1800s, there became a small

village built around the office for the North Carolina Railroad, a small community of simple shops servicing the comings and goings of the train network. By the 1900s, the rail officers had moved elsewhere, and Burlington, in order to prosper, moved with the toll arms. Small textile mills opened up, and these factories drew more people to Burlington as work grew scarce through the Great Depression. As the Second World War approached, the army started a military tank rebuilding program in Burlington, and the federal government purchased land to construct an aircraft factory, where

they built military planes. After the war, the company Western Electric arrived, adding electronics to the growing military industry. They built radar equipment and guidance systems for missiles. With the addition of these new jobs, the years between 1940 and 1950 saw the city's population double from around 12,000 people to around 25,000 people. Burlington had shown its ability to adapt and prosper through economic change. That's people were hard workers who battled on through the ups and downs.

Post-war, the flatland and rolling hills were dotted with large dairy, grain and tobacco farms, which would become a source of huge income for the area. Many families from outer areas moved to Burlington and neighboring towns in search of work in the textile mills or on the farms. That's exactly why the cause of family moved to Burlington, in search of opportunity to start a new life. Blanche Taylor Moore was born on February 17, 1933. She was the fifth of seven children.

When the family arrived in Burlington in 1942, her parents Parker Davis Kaiser and Flonnie Blanche Kaiser both gained employment in the local mills. They were fairly poor, but so was everyone else in town. The kids felt no different to anyone else who lived the same way they did, side by side in identical housing. When he wasn't working in the local sawmill, Blanche's father Parker was a self-taught minister, a gambler and an alcoholic. Blanche's mother Flonnie worked full-time in the mills as a yarn spinner, bringing home

$40 per week. She handed over half of her salary to Parker, who she knew would go out and spend it on gambling and other women. Parker was strict and often abusive. He didn't allow his children any life outside of the house, apart from school and church. He often took to the pulpit at local churches and community meetings to preach in a style that he himself called primitive. His alcoholism had stemmed from the Great Depression and it caused his family to fear.

He was known to be physically abusive, and there are also reports that he sexually abused his daughter Blanche. On top of that, Parker began using Blanche as a means to gain money. From around the time Blanche turned nine, he sold her to older men so he could repay his gambling debts. He handed his own daughter over to pedophiles. This went on well into Blanche's teen years. It's understood that her mother Flonnie knew what was going on, but didn't intervene.

Blanche found solace in her Christian church. The gospel music gave her a sense of peace and comfort throughout her traumatic childhood. When Blanche was a teenager, she became aware that her father was living a double life. He had a completely separate family with four other children. Flonnie knew, but did nothing. There was no change to their family situation, and Parker remained in the house. It didn't change much for Blanche. She already resented her father.

That seed of hate sprouted long before. Blanche's escape from her abusive home came in 1952. When at age 19, she met and married 24-year-old James Napoleon Taylor. James was a furniture maker and restorer by trade, and had just returned home after fighting in the Korean War. He was stocky and had a short fuse. A trait Blanche knew well. Blanche had a new lease on life after she married James.

She was known for her outgoing personality and was often described as the life of the party. She was also known to have a quirky side. She could go from quoting Bible scripture to talking about sexually explicit topics in the one conversation. The year after they married, 1953, their first daughter Vanessa was born. There would be another five years before their second daughter, Cynthia, arrived. In October 1953, the supermarket chain Krogers opened in Burlington.

The late 1940s had seen the rise of consolidated grocery stores roll out across America, and when Krogers opened on South Church Street, it brought with it a new era of sophistication and prestige. It was the new way of shopping, where staff continued the friendly local feel of the old fashion grocery store, but on a much bigger scale. The new wave of supermarkets set side by side to the bowling alleys and diners of the day. Blanche began working at Krogers as a cashier in 1954, aged 21. With her long black hair and eyes so dark they almost seemed black, Blanche was well

known and well liked, a churchgoing mother with a bright smile. She was energetic and had a fun side despite her troubled younger years and her home life, which was already starting to show cracks. Her husband James had taken up the drink after the war, and much like Blanche's father Parker, he would disappear for sometimes weeks on end without explanation. James too was a gambler, and just as Blanche had witnessed her mother do years before, she also gave her husband part of her paycheck so he could pay off his gambling debts. In 1956, Blanche's father Parker left Flonnie and moved in with his other family.

It took Flonnie almost three years to file the divorce papers, on which she wrote Parker had left her to take up with younger women. She didn't mention the second family, even though she knew that was the real reason he left. By 1959, Blanche had worked her way up to head cashier, which was the highest job possible for a female employer at Krogers at the time. She had high self-esteem and flourished in her role. She even had use of the company car, which was an unheard of privilege at the time.

Rumors started to circle that she was cheating on her husband James with a few of her co-workers, and even some customers, but Blanche denied them. She had just given birth to her second daughter Cynthia, and being a new mother and spending more time at home, she joined the Tupperware craze, which had boomed during the 50s. Blanche put on Tupperware parties, which enabled her to have a social life. And sometimes Tupperware parties would become a cover story for when she was cheating on James. It turned out, the rumors were true.

Blanche and James' sex life had become non-existent. Blanche said his alcoholism, gambling, and impotence carved a wedge in their marriage, which they would never recover from. There were many physical altercations between them, and not all were behind closed doors. On one occasion, James confronted Blanche in plain view of onlookers about having an affair with one of her customers. And on another occasion, people looked on as James dragged Blanche behind their car during an argument.

In 1962, Kroger's got a new assistant manager, 27-year-old Raymond Reed. He was married with two boys. Blanche took an instant liking to Raymond and pursued him, never hiding her flirtations from anyone else, even though she was still married to James. Eventually, after three years of persistence, Raymond fell for Blanche, and the two began an intense affair. In September 1966, Blanche decided to reconcile her relationship with her father Parker, who at age 62 was still with his second wife and four other children.

Blanche reconciled with him just in time, as his health quickly began deteriorating. He became gravely ill. Blanche remained at his bedside and acted as his nurse throughout. He became delirious and suffered excruciating pain with stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. A few weeks after becoming ill, he turned a shade of blue before suffering a heart attack, which killed him. Blanche's husband James Taylor also suffered a heart attack around at this time, but he survived and actually turned his life around.

He gave up drinking and became heavily involved in the church. He became focused on his family and spent more time with his daughters. His spare time was spent at the Glenhope Baptist Church, helping to edit recordings of the sermons to send overseas to missionary workers. As he started to get his life back on track, his mother, Isla Taylor, became ill. Although Blanche continued her long-running affair with her assistant manager Raymond Reed, she remained at home as a mother to her children, a wife to James, and as a nurse to her mother-in-law Isla, as her health deteriorated.

She nursed Isla when she became bedridden, just like she had nursed her sick father. Blanche hadn't been that close to Isla, but in those months, she became the doting nursemaid. She cooked for Isla, and often spoon-fed her elderly mother-in-law to give her strength, but it didn't help, and Isla died shortly after. In early 1971, after a five-year affair, Raymond found it impossible to keep hiding their relationship, and he left his wife and family, but Blanche remained at home with James and her girls. Raymond didn't mind, neither he nor Blanche stayed faithful to each other during their affair. The end of Raymond's first marriage became official in 1973, when he divorced his wife.

In September of that year, James Taylor became ill. He had debilitating flu-like symptoms and deteriorated quickly. He lost his hair and suffered bloody stools and urine. He got painful blisters on his hands and feet, and by the time he was on his deathbed, he had such bad stomach issues that he could no longer eat the meals his wife Blanche had carefully prepared for him. Blanche was experienced in nursing someone so ill. James was the third person on their deathbed she had cared for.

She knew exactly what someone feeling so awful needed, and she brought him ice cream. She had to feed it to him because he was so weak, and only a few hours later, he took his last breath. It was October 2, 1971. James was 45 years old. Blanche, a widow at 40, wasn't surprised when the doctor who came explained he had suffered a heart attack. She recognized the same blue tint to his face she had seen on her father before his death.

James left her with little money, even the small amount they had received after Isla died was gone, and there was barely enough cash to pay for his burial. But after selling their house, Blanche had enough to buy a better place in Burlington, and as she was officially widowed, there was no need to hide her relationship with Raymond Reid anymore. According to Blanche's daughters Vanessa and Cynthia, Raymond Reid was a good father figure and a good man. Meanwhile, Blanche had become notorious at Kroger's, not just because of her high level

position and rumored dalliances, but she was always smartly dressed and had something about her that drew the men in and turned some women away. She seemed to have the ability to flirt and frighten in the same look. In the years 1979 and 1980, Raymond was transferred several times around the greater area. The his and Blanche's relationship was the catalyst is unknown, but Raymond eventually settled on a position as the manager of a store in nearby Winston Salem. It was hot gossip amongst Kroger employees that Blanche had begun a relationship with Kroger's regional manager, Kevin Denton.

There was talk of others she was seeing as well. By that time, she had lost her affection for Raymond. She had been with him for over a decade, and after straying into the arms of her regional manager, Kevin, she got a taste for life beyond Raymond. On January 23, 1985, Blanche's home in Burlington burnt down. When the fire brigade confirmed it was likely arson, she told them there had been a strange man loitering around her property. She called him a pervert and insinuated he had been watching her.

The police were unable to identify him. Blanche received an insurance check shortly after and purchased a trailer home nearby. A month later, that burnt down as well. She said it was the work of the same man as before, the pervert. She received another insurance check, but relied heavily on Raymond for financial support. Despite her other relationships, Raymond was still in the picture, and he always looked after her. At age 52, Blanche was thought of by many as friendly and kind, and by most men's accounts,

she was very attractive. She seemed to always have someone interested in her. Her love life so far had been a long stretch of men, often one in current favour, and someone else either fading in or fading out. She was still seeing Raymond, and if Gossett was to be believed, she was still seeing her regional manager Kevin Denton as well, but she didn't want to be tied down with either of them. Blanche had been very involved in church her whole life, but she was said to have lost

her faith after the fires. That didn't last long though. Just two months later, on Easter Sunday, Blanche went with a relative to the Sunrise Service at the Carolina United Church of Christ. The small, quiet community church was just outside Burlington, and was one she had never attended before. The service was delivered by a handsome, recently divorced pastor. The Reverend Dwight Moore.

Dwight had two children, and was very popular within his community. He noticed Blanche in the congregation, and at the conclusion of the service, Blanche introduced herself to the Reverend. Blanche left having made a strong impression on him. She started visiting him regularly at the church, and they began meeting for meals. Reverend Moore would call Blanche often, and stop by her house unannounced. If she wasn't home, he would leave carts on a doorstep. Blanche enjoyed the courtship, but said they were never physical during this time.

The Reverend never hid his affections, but Blanche kept him at a distance. She was interested, but she didn't want anyone else to know. One of Reverend Moore's letters, written on his personal stationery, was a page filled with the word Blanche. He had handwritten her name over 50 times, before finishing off with the following message. You are without question the most caring, giving, thoughtful, considerate, tender-hearted, loving, selfless, responsible, charitable, benevolent, merciful, patient, just, virtuous, faithful, sincere, trustworthy, and decent person I have ever known.

You are also quite attractive, and I like you. By this time, Blanche had worked at Kroger's for over 30 years. Everyone in the community knew her by name, and many admired her. Many customers picked her check-out line just so they could chat to her. But something was going on behind the scenes at Kroger's. Not everyone who worked with Blanche liked her. They felt there was another, more disingenuous side to her. Some called her vindictive and two-faced.

The affairs with other staff members and customers were also becoming a problem. It wasn't as secretive as Blanche would have liked. In October 1985, Blanche went to work an evening shift at Kroger's. During her shift, she was called upstairs for a chat by Roger J. Hutton, the mid-Atlantic marketing area zone manager. Blanche said that Hutton grabbed her from behind when she walked into the room, and he was naked from the waist down. He said to Blanche, are you ready for this?

Blanche looked down at the desk and saw Hutton's clothes folded neatly in a pile. She picked up his clothes, walked out of the room, and then ran from the store, leaving Hutton to walk out in a butcher's apron. Blanche never returned to Kroger's. Things with Raymond became difficult after this, not because she was seeing Reverend Moore, but because of Raymond's role within the Kroger company and his loyalty to his job. Blanche turned to Reverend Moore for comfort, and three months later, she filed a $13.8 million lawsuit against Roger Hutton and Kroger's for sexual harassment on the job.

Raymond paid her legal bills. Blanche claimed that this wasn't the first attack she had suffered. She said Hutton often made suggested comments and had also made numerous attempts to fondle her and other female clerks. On one occasion, he reached up her skirt and exposed himself. Her lawsuit cited four counts of assault, three counts of inflicting emotional distress, and one count of invasion of privacy. She sued for negligence, alleging that company officials were aware of Hutton's harassment

as they had received numerous complaints from other female employees, but they failed to do anything about it. Hutton was forced to resign. Blanche saw a psychiatrist whose notes described a woman angry and resentful of men. One note read, she could no longer stand the sight of men, has resentment of men, needs to go out with good men to counter this. The psychiatrist was able to illustrate the huge impact the harassment had on her life. The lawsuit had worn Blanche down and contributed heavily to her becoming depressed and suicidal.

Another note from her psychiatrist read, completely alienated and antagonistic toward men and has not been able to maintain any meaningful social contacts with members of the opposite sex. Having a new romantic relationship with Reverend Dwight Moore was not the sort of thing Blanche wanted to be known, especially since it was a happy one. In order to win her lawsuit, she needed to maintain that she was suffering and unable to move on. So as 1985 drew to a close, Blanche continued to keep her relationship with Reverend Moore

a secret. According to Reverend Moore's sister, he wasn't aware that Blanche was still romantically involved with Raymond Reed at the time. On New Year's Eve 1985, Blanche was with Raymond Reed at his home in nearby Winston Salem. Blanche made potato soup as the pair celebrated the new year. The following day, Raymond woke up with terrible stomach pains. Blanche soon turned into severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Just as Raymond started to feel well again, the symptoms returned and he was unable to go to work. This continued on and off for the next few months and during that time, Raymond took four weeks off work, something he was not known to have ever done. By April 1986, Raymond had gone completely downhill and ended up in hospital. His believed he was suffering from shingles. Blanche, who was still sharing her time between Raymond and Reverend Moore, realized that Raymond's health was getting worse and he needed her care.

She was, after all, experienced in nursing sick people. She had nursed her father, her mother-in-law and her first husband as they lay on their deathbeds, so she was well equipped. The Reverend understood that Blanche had to go to the aid of Raymond and gave his blessing. She nursed Raymond through his illness and he actually improved and was able to return to work. But the following month, Raymond got sick again. One night after he and Blanche ate dinner, he began experiencing nausea, vomiting and

diarrhea. This time, he was so violently ill he was unable to recover. He became severely dehydrated and on May 30th, 1986, he was once again admitted to the Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro. He was seen by Dr. Norman Garrett Jr., whose admission diagnosis was acute gastroenteritis. Blanche expected that Raymond would make a full recovery like before, but his symptoms snowballed and Dr. Garrett revised his diagnosis to multiple systems failure. Raymond got a skin rash.

His blood tests revealed he had bone marrow damage and blood cell abnormalities. He was also suffering from progressive shortness of breath, respiratory failure, fast heartbeat, low blood pressure, kidney malfunction and shutdown, and a numbness and tingling in his hands and feet. He had also gotten an infection which meant he would require a circumcision, but the doctors felt all of these issues were treatable and they were proven right. Within five days, Raymond's condition stabilized and Dr. Garrett said he should only need up to five more days in hospital and then he would be right to go home.

With Raymond improving and feeling like eating again, Blanche began making him home cooked meals, including Jell-O and peanut butter milkshakes, so he wouldn't have to eat the hospital food. After three days, as the hospital staff were expecting Raymond to be rapidly improving, they were all shocked to see his condition worse and again. His previous symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea returned so seriously that Dr. Garrett was unable to find a satisfactory diagnosis for Raymond's multi-system failures and his condition became life-threatening.

Raymond was transferred to the North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem. There, Raymond and Blanche were seen by Dr. Robert Hamilton, a specialist in internal medicine and nephrology. Dr. Hamilton noted that upon admission, Raymond had a raspy voice, severe swelling in his lower extremities, a rash over his lower extremities, anemia, low white blood cell count, white patches in his mouth, very poor bowel sounds, difficulty breathing and signs of kidney failure. His condition deteriorated so seriously that it resulted in a cardiac arrest to code blue emergency, but doctors and nurses acted quickly and Raymond was revived.

Following resuscitation, he required mechanical ventilators and over the days that followed, he became virtually paralyzed. Raymond was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, also known as French polyo at the time. It's an autoimmune disease where the body's immune system begins to attack the peripheral nervous system. It can be very difficult to diagnose in its early stages, which is why it was initially missed by doctors.

Raymond improved slightly after a procedure called plasma pharesis, where they removed the blood from his body, separated the red blood cells from the plasma, and returned the red blood cells back to his body. He was kept in intensive care, and to make sure his body was handling the procedure, doctors kept up toxicology screening with blood and urine tests. Some of the blood test results returned showing he was progressing well, but the urine tests sat unopened. Although still needing a respirator, Raymond gradually recovered the use of his arms and

legs and was able to breathe on his own. The nurses thought Blanche was a saint for her constant bedside vigils and her thoughtfulness to bring Raymond home-cooked food, things she knew he would be able to eat like banana pudding, iced tea, frozen yogurt, milkshakes and soups. Two days later, Raymond fell once again into acute respiratory distress. Stephen Reed, Raymond's son, was with Blanche at the hospital. Raymond became so bloated his skin was splitting, his eyeballs were bulging, and he was once again no longer able to breathe on his own.

He was fed by a feeding tube. By this time, Raymond was only able to communicate by nodding and squeezing people's hands. This was helpful when Blanche realized it was time for Raymond to sort out his will, something which he hadn't done yet. Blanche asked one of the nurses at the hospital if she wouldn't mind helping to take down some notes of what Raymond wanted. She then took these notes to a lawyer to draft up a will and power of attorney. The lawyer accompanied Blanche to the hospital to see Raymond and have the will confirmed

and signed. Reed was unable to speak, but nodded his head and squeezed the nurse's hand who then gave the lawyer Raymond's answers. The lawyer was satisfied that Raymond understood everything, and he returned the next day when the will and the power of attorney were both signed. Raymond's estate would be separated into thirds, between his two sons, and his lifelong friend Blanche. Blanche also became the executor.

Only days after this, October 7th, 1986, Raymond died from complications of Guillain-Barre syndrome. Blanche was devastated. Just moments after Raymond was pronounced dead, she said to the doctors, quote, We cannot have an autopsy, he is being through too much. He wouldn't want to be cut on like this, we just, we cannot have one. Blanche, her two daughters, and Raymond's two sons mourned and prepared for the funeral. Blanche felt lucky she had the reverend Dwight Moore to help her through losing Raymond, whom she had been with for 25 years.

The year following Raymond's death, Blanche was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent radiation and chemotherapy, and as a result lost her hair and fingernails and the feeling in her lower legs. She had to use a walking frame throughout her recovery, but through it all, Reverend Moore was there, forever supporting her. Blanche approached Raymond's son shortly following her treatment and told them she was undergoing reconstructive breast surgery, and she needed financial help. She requested they support her with some of their own inheritance, which they both agreed.

Blanche and Reverend Moore went public with their relationship shortly after Raymond's death. Also around this time, Blanche's lawsuit against Krobius settled out of court, and she received $275,000. Blanche's relationship with Reverend Dwight Moore was moving fast. It wasn't long before the reverend was standing in front of Blanche with a diamond and ruby engagement ring. Blanche said yes.

They planned a small, intimate wedding just after Thanksgiving in 1988, which wouldn't be long after the one-year anniversary of Raymond's death. Blanche had always been a devoted Christian woman and was looking forward to her future as a pastor's wife. Before their wedding, the reverend decided it was time to explain to Blanche the reason why his first marriage had failed. He sat her down and confessed that he had strayed in his first marriage. He had a 16-year affair with one of his parishioners, and his wife eventually found out.

Blanche burst into tears and ran from his home. She confided in a family friend and said she wasn't sure if her engagement could continue. She was bothered by Reverend Moore's previous affair, and she couldn't move on from it. But with the help of mutual friends, Blanche decided to try and make it work, and the engagement went ahead. Just prior to the wedding date, Reverend Moore became suddenly ill. He was vomiting, had stomach pains, and was unable to perform his church duties. The reverend was so sick he and Blanche had to postpone their wedding.

Reverend Moore ended up in hospital, and doctors were unable to work out what was wrong with him. He recovered, but shortly after, he was violently ill again. He had two intestinal operations, after which he was well enough to get married. On April 19th, 1989, Blanche and Reverend Dwight Moore finally married. There was a small gathering at his church, witness by just two fellow parishioners. Blanche wore a white-patterned dress, and the pair were beaming according to one of the witnesses.

Immediately following their wedding, they spent a long weekend in New Jersey, before returning home to spend a relaxing week working around the small home that Dwight had purchased for he and Blanche to live in. Just five days into their marriage, Dwight was doing some work in the garden. He was spraying poison on some weeds which had become overgrown in their yard. Blanche brought her new husband a chicken sandwich, smiling from ear to ear as he happily worked on their new home. Later that afternoon, Dwight wasn't feeling well.

His stomach was playing up again, and he started vomiting. Blanche cared for him thinking it would subside, but it didn't. He got worse and worse. She took her husband to the emergency room, and he was admitted to Alamance County Hospital. When the reverend's daughter Debbie phoned the hospital, Blanche informed her that her father was merely undergoing tests. There was nothing major, and there was no need for her to attend. But this wasn't true.

The reverend was gravely ill. So ill, he was soon transferred to another hospital, the North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston, Salem, where Raymond had once been. Reverend Moore started to improve a little, and Blanche rarely left his side. When he was well enough to eat, she brought him food from home that he liked and good stomach. The nurses thought she was the most thoughtful, caring woman. Before long, Dwight became extremely ill again.

He was transferred to intensive care at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. His heart, liver and kidneys were failing, and the doctors didn't think he was going to make it. His illness was baffling, but when Blanche explained that the day Reverend Moore had become ill, he was spraying weed poison and then ate a chicken sandwich. The doctors immediately called for the hospital toxicologist. They believed he may have had accidental herbicide poisoning. On May 13, 1989, at 56 years of age, Blanche was facing the possibility of having to say

goodbye to her new husband of less than a month. That day, the doctors called the family in, including the reverend's sister, Nola, and daughter, Debbie. Everyone gathered around as the doctor explained the results of the trace and toxic metals test. With the look on the doctor's face, they thought it must be true. Reverend Moore had been poisoned by the weed killer. But they were wrong.

The family listened as the doctor explained that it wasn't herbicide poisoning at all. The reverend's system showed something else. Twenty times the lethal dose of arsenic. How the reverend had survived, the doctors didn't know, believing he must have had a seriously robust body. His arsenic levels were far beyond anything they had ever seen in a living patient in the hospital's history. He would survive now that they knew what was going on, although he would likely never

regain the sensation he had lost in his hands and feet. Blanche confided in Reverend Moore's sister, Nola, that she was worried she would be looked at. Both Nola and Blanche went to their family pastor, Reverend James Rosser, to discuss their concerns. Nola said, Blanche is afraid they're going to think she had something to do with it. To which the pastor replied, Blanche, that's just crazy. No one would ever think that about you.

The hospital alerted police, who arrived and questioned Reverend Moore. As he lay in bed, which only days earlier was looking like it was going to be his deathbed, it told police all he knew. They began to ask questions about his new bride and her past. The reverend explained how her former partner, Raymond Reed, had died in 1986 of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an immune system disorder. And thinking back, the symptoms Raymond had possessed were very similar to those he had just experienced.

The police continued questioning family and friends, as well as medical staff at both hospitals Reverend Moore and Raymond had been in. They discovered a long list of similarities in their conditions. When studying Raymond's medical file, police came across the urine toxicology test Raymond had almost three years earlier. They found it had been looked at by the new resident doctor at the time, but that doctor, not aware of its significance, didn't pass the result up the chain of command. Raymond Reed's urine, in the lead up to his death, showed a high level of arsenic, and

no one knew about it. Investigators from the Allamance County Sheriff's Department notified the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and they started digging into Blanche's history. They re-interviewed the reverend and asked him about poisonous household products that contained arsenic. He told police that before their engagement, and possibly before Raymond became seriously ill, Blanche had asked him to purchase an ant killer named Anty Ant. Anty Ant contained arsenic.

The police were yet to alert Blanche that she was a suspect in Dwight's poisoning, but she already knew people were looking at her, and she was worried. Reverend Moore was still in the hospital, and she arrived one morning to give him a haircut, telling him it would be best if she cut it all off. When police arrived to take care samples from Dwight for further testing, they found his hair was all gone, something Blanche clearly anticipated. But what Blanche didn't realize was that his pubic hair was just as good for testing. Police asked Blanche if she would be interviewed, and she agreed.

They were met with a friendly, demure grandmother, a devout Christian who nursed the many sick lovers in her life as they lay on their deathbeds, gasping for the last breaths of life. They were particularly interested in Raymond Reed. Investigators wanted to hear from Blanche how Raymond's illness came about, and how it progressed to the end. Blanche wasn't aware of the medical file they had seen. They asked about Raymond's estate, and were puzzled by the explanation of the humble inheritance she said she had received.

They had already spoken with Raymond's sons, and what Blanche was saying greatly differed from their story. Their investigation showed that Blanche had received around $50,000 from Raymond's estate, but also an extra $46,000 from his life insurance. The contents of a safety deposit box kept at the local bank was accessed and emptied shortly after Raymond's death, and the person who visited the bank was a Mrs Blanche tailor. In addition, there was another small safe Raymond kept at home. When his sons accessed it, they found most of the contents gone, with no explanation.

On top of all that, police learnt that as Reverend Dwight Moore lay in hospital, Blanche had tried to get his pension changed, so she would be the principal beneficiary. At every question that was asked of Blanche, she had an answer for. She was calm, and her demeanour was cool. She seemed unfazed. She talked about both Raymond and Dwight being depressed. She believed they were both capable of taking arsenic to end their own lives. She said she had also tried to tell the Reverend's daughter Debbie that her father was depressed

and suicidal, but Debbie knew this to be untrue. Before he got sick, Reverend Moore was on top of the world, planning his life with Blanche. Blanche's claims were dismissed by investigators and medical staff, as the levels of arsenic were shown to rise throughout the time the Reverend was in hospital, indicating ongoing dosing of arsenic, something that would be near impossible for him to do himself. Investigators couldn't shake the feeling that Blanche had something to do with the death of Raymond Dwight, but they needed a way to prove it. So in June 1989, they obtained a court order to exhume his body.

When news broke, the Allamance County Sheriff's Office was inundated with calls from people who knew Blanche, many of them remembering the strange circumstances surrounding James Taylor's death, her first husband. When investigators looked into James's medical records, alarm bells rang out. His death, a heart attack in his own bed after violent vomiting and nausea, was too similar to ignore, and approval was granted for his body to be exhumed as well. Excavators arrived at Burlington's Pine Hill Cemetery, and as media and some nosy locals watched on, they dug up the two men.

The press had a field day as locals whispered that bodies were being dug up at, quote, Blanche Moore's landfill. His body was exhumed first. He was taken to the medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and an autopsy was performed. The autopsy revealed a concentration of arsenic in Raymond's liver tissue 30 times higher than normal. The concentration of arsenic in his brain tissue was 67 times higher than normal.

The chief medical examiner concluded that Raymond died as a result of the complications of arsenic poisoning, not from Guillain-Barre syndrome. The arsenic levels indicated that Raymond was subjected to multiple injections of arsenic over a long period. The doses were shown to have increased daily as he lay on his deathbed in hospital. When James Taylor's results arrived, the medical examiner concluded that he did in fact suffer cardiac arrest, but his cardiac arrest was caused by him having levels of arsenic in his system 60 times higher than normal.

The Alamance County Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation concentrated on Raymond Reed's case, as they had no doubt they had enough evidence to prove Blanche had poisoned it. And if they could prove Raymond's case in court, it would be much easier to prove James Taylor was poisoned as well. Reverend Dwight Moore found it impossible to believe that Blanche had anything to do with his poisoning, and he continued to have her visit his bedside. As he struggled to regain the use of his hands and feet, he defended Blanche and was

devastated by the rumours. But when investigators visited the Reverend and told him the results of the exhumations, he was no longer able to deny it. He knew then that his new bride was not the woman he thought she was. When Blanche next visited the hospital, he told her their marriage was over. Blanche ran outside crying. On July 18th, 1989, detectives arrived at the mobile home Blanche was living in with her daughter.

She was arrested for the murder of Raymond Reed in 1986, the murder of James Taylor in 1973, and for the attempted murder of Reverend Dwight Moore, all by arsenic poisoning. The crimes had occurred in two different counties. Raymond Reed died in Forsyth County, and James Taylor's murder and the Reverend Moore's attempted murder were both committed in Alamance County. The counties had to work together, but when it came time to labour charges, prosecutors opted to only charge Blanche with murdering Raymond Reed. They felt their case regarding Raymond's poisoning was much stronger, and they didn't

pursue the James Taylor or Reverend Moore cases at that time. When news broke, everyone was baffled. It was the talk of the town, and many refused to believe it could be true. Blanche's family didn't believe for one second that she was capable of such a thing. But as the townspeople continued to discuss everything they knew about Blanche, who is now being called the Black Widow, they began recalling things from her past that seem strange. The Alamance County Sheriff's Department in particular received countless calls from members of the public and even family members of Blanche.

People wanted them to investigate other deaths of people who had been close to Blanche over the years. One officer said, quote, There was a good bit of hysteria going on. It seemed like anyone that had a family member dead who at some point knew Blanche thought that Blanche had something to do with the death. Forsyth County District Attorney Warren Sparrow said that he would consider seeking the death penalty. Blanche's attorney Mitchell McIntyre said that Blanche denied the allegations, and she

wanted the public to know that she was not guilty. Following Blanche's arrest, investigators and the state's chief medical examiner held a meeting where they poured over the medical records and reports of other people who knew or were related to Blanche who had died. At the conclusion of this meeting, there was a long list, upwards of 30 people whom the team were concerned about. It was decided that exhumations would begin for the bodies of Blanche's father, Parker Kaiser, whom she reconciled with only weeks before his death, her mother-in-law, James

Taylor's mother, Isla Taylor, whom she nursed and fed on her deathbed, and Joe Mitchell, who had worked with Blanche at Kroger's as a butcher and died under mysterious circumstances the year Blanche left her job. The rule they came up with was, when someone was assumed that didn't show signs of arsenic poisoning, they would stop the exhumations altogether. Others on the list who investigators were concerned about were Mabel Parsons, another former Kroger's co-worker, Fred Vaughn, a salesman for American bakeries, Ina Vincent, a Kroger's customer, and John Reber, a member of Reverend Moore's church.

They also wanted to investigate people who had become ill but survived, two of those being Reverend Moore's sons. Investigators got to work, assuming the bodies. News outlets across the state of North Carolina brought back memories of when serial poisoner Velma Barfield, known as Granny to her fellow inmates, was sentenced to death by poisoning her fiance as well as others. Her poison of choice was arsenic, and her execution in 1984 made national news. Now in 1989, North Carolina had a new poisoner, another sweet, well-mannered grandmother,

another deeply religious woman well thought of in the community. A new black widow. According to Dr. Paige Hudson, a forensic expert who worked on the case, the South was where most of the poisoning cases in the US stemmed from at the time, in particular, poisonings with arsenic. North Carolina was home to many of them. Dr. Hudson believes this might be purely because there was public awareness about poisoning. It was a method that had caught the public's imagination as a way of killing someone that

could go largely unnoticed. The press made jokes about Blanche and companies cashed in on the hype surrounding the case. Local chocolatiers made and sold Blanche's homemade chocolates with the taglines, you're only one bite away from heaven, and the taste you'll die for. On the packaging was a sketch drawing of Blanche with the words, it's that one secret ingredient that makes all my recipes special. Radio stations played a song called A Ballad of Blanche More, and Blanche's family and friends and all the victims' families were hounded by the press.

Meanwhile, the black widow sat in jail, awaiting news of the next body to be exhumed. When Blanche's father, Parker Kaiser, was exhumed from Oakwood Cemetery, the results showed evidence of arsenic poisoning over a sustained period of time. Although arsenic was not deemed to be his cause of death, it was a contributing factor of his heart failure, just like in James Taylor's case. Isla Taylor, James' mother, and Blanche's mother-in-law was not much different. Arsenic was found to be a contributing factor in her death as well. The body of Joseph Mitchell, Blanche's former co-worker, showed no signs of arsenic.

And at that point, the exhumation ceased. Even though there were other cases investigators had concerns about, they believed that they had enough evidence to succeed a trial for the murder of Raymond Reed. But the case wasn't without its problems. The defense was requesting all discussions regarding any other alleged victims be suppressed, and without that context, the state's case would suffer. The Judge William Freeman ruled in a pretrial argument that prosecutors could discuss the arsoning poisonings of James Taylor, Reverend Dwight Moore, and Parker Kaiser in the trial

of Raymond Reed's murder. That decision laid the foundation for the state's case. They could now show a pattern of premeditated and ongoing poisonings. Raymond's case was not an isolated incident, or an accident. But the state had another problem, a big one. No one saw Blanche Taylor Moore poison anyone. The evidence was purely circumstantial. There was a mountain of it, but there was nothing really tangible to prove it was her.

It would be up to the jury to decide. The trial opened in Winston-Salem, Forsythe County, on October 21st, 1990, before Judge William Freeman. The prosecution confirmed they were seeking the death penalty. At the time, most trials in the Forsythe County Courthouse were allowed to be videoed, and in the courtroom was what was known as a pool camera. This meant that any station could go live from its feed each day. Blanche arrived every day of the six-week trial immaculately dressed.

She wore a combination of brightly coloured tailored suits, silk blouses, and a string of pearls. She always wore big reading glasses, and had perfectly set hair. Throughout the entire trial, she barely showed any emotion, only buckling once or twice when talking about her childhood. The state was represented by prosecuting attorneys Janet Branche, Warren Sparrow, and Vince Rabel. As Janet Branche described the victims dying as they were spoon fed their favourite foods by the woman they believed loved them.

She broke down in tears, twice. Janet Branche, quote. Raymond Reed, laying in Baptist Hospital, flat on his back, bed sores on his back, completely unable to move, tears in his eyes on the days that the woman who was killing him doesn't come. He's crying because his murderer isn't coming to see him. Can you imagine anything more pitiful in this whole world? And he loves her with all his heart, but she's running around on him, and she's sleeping

with Dwight Moore. Blanche's defense requested a mistrial due to Janet's emotional outbursts, but it was denied. Second prosecuting attorney Vince Rabel, said, quote. A person who is loving, caring, trustworthy, and kind is exactly the kind of person who would be able to give someone arsenic-laced food brought from home, because if they weren't that way, the victim wouldn't dare eat it. The prosecution said Blanche had financial motive, opportunity as she had a close relationship

with each victim, and means as she had knowledge of and access to anti-ant, which contained arsenic. Medical evidence suggested that multiple doses of arsenic were administered to the victims over a long period of time, as opposed to one large fatal dose. In each case, Blanche was frequently alone with the victims, often feeding them food and drink she had made herself. Medical testimony also showed that a certain number of Blanche's visits in which she fed the victim corresponded perfectly with the onset of symptoms characteristic of arsenic

poisoning. The state star witness was reverend Dwight Moore. He was slowly recovering, but was still unable to have full use of his hands and legs, and was aware that use may never come back. Dwight testified that during the summer of 1985, Blanche showed him a bottle of anti-ant. This was while the reverend and Blanche were courting, and while Blanche was still in a relationship with Raymond Reed. She wanted the reverend to purchase some anti-ant for her.

He agreed, assuming it was for eradicating ants. The witnesses also recounted times Blanche had spoken about the ant killer. Leonard Woof, a former coworker, who now owned a small convenience store, recalled a day when Blanche came into his store in early April 1989, asking if he had any anti-ant in stock. This was confirmed as being during the timeframe Reverend Moore was ill. Brenda Green, a former coworker at Kroger's, recalled hearing Blanche recommend anti-ant to a customer. Blanche's defense attorney, Mitchell McIntyre, presented Blanche as a typical Southern grandmother,

demure and devoted to God, a preacher's daughter, a preacher's wife, the epitome of wholesomeness. He told the jury that she had nothing to do with any of the poisonings, stating there was absolutely no evidence to prove otherwise. The defense also had something up their sleeve. Mitchell McIntyre explained that when Blanche was in the Alamance County Jail awaiting trial, she got support in the form of letters from the public. On May 29, 1990, she was sent a letter by a man named Garvin Thomas. In the letter, Thomas confessed to the murder of Raymond Reed and the attempted murder of

Reverend Moore. He told her he would kill for her and claimed he had dressed up as a minister and entered the hospital rooms with the sole purpose of poisoning the victims. The letter itself ended with, my darling, how I would like to hold you in my arms and kiss your lips, take off your clothes and lude sexual content followed. Back when the letter first arrived at the jail, the police were informed and investigators went to find Garvin Thomas. They found that the ex-con and terminally ill drug addict had died just days after the letter

was dated so he couldn't be interviewed. He had severe diabetes and had lost the use of 80% of his pancreas by the time he died. Carolyn Hinshaw, a jailer with the Alamance County Sheriff's Department, testified that a man carrying a teddy bear and signing his name as Garvin Thomas attempted to visit Blanche in jail. He said he had done so much wrong in his life and hurt so many people that he wanted to start doing some good to right the wrongs. The man claiming to be Garvin Thomas went on to say that Blanche Moore had not done

the things she was accused of doing and he knew he had hurt her and her family and he was sorry about all that. The prosecution questioned claims that Garvin Thomas had visited Blanche. No one could recall the severe speech impediment that Thomas had, something which was hard to ignore when you met him. His impediment meant that his tongue hung outside of his mouth and it made it difficult to understand his words. No one who spoke to the man who was claiming to be Garvin Thomas could remember this at

all. Garvin Thomas's half-sister, Janie, stated that Garvin had told both her and her husband that he was writing letters to Blanche in jail. He admitted to being in love with her and having an obsession with her for many years, even though he didn't know her and had never met her. He had also developed an idea. He thought he would write her love letters and hoped she would write love letters back to him.

He could then sell the letters to the newspapers. Janie had evidence of her half-brother's handwriting in signature and there were stark differences between his writing and that of the confession letter supposedly written by him. Tom Curran, examiner for the State Bureau of Investigation, was called to the trial to testify on the confession letter. He believed that Garvin Thomas didn't write the letter at all. There were some very unique things found in Blanche's handwriting that also showed up

on the confession letter apparently written by Garvin Thomas. Blanche had the habit of double-crossing her t's and double-dodding her eyes. These two unique characteristics appeared in the confession letter. Likewise, another thing Blanche naturally did in her own handwriting was abbreviate the word received to REC, Apostrophe D. This also appeared in the confession letter. Tom Curran testified there were enough similarities to suggest that Blanche wrote the confession letter herself. She used Garvin's name as he had been sending her love letters in jail and when she found

out he had died, she decided he would make for the perfect scapegoat. She wrote the letter and signed it in his name. Blanche took the stand in her own defence. She was quiet and composed. She didn't hesitate on any question asked of her. She answered them as if she had heard them before. When asked whether she poisoned Raymond Reed, her father, and both of her husbands, Blanche said, quote,

I've been in jail for 16 months. I've cried myself to sleep every night. I did not kill Raymond Reed. I don't know anything about Auntie Ant. I know there was arsenic in those men, but I didn't put it there. She denied having anything to do with the making of Raymond's will, contradicting statements of numerous witnesses. She also denied taking food or drinks into hospital for Raymond.

The hospital records and the witness testimonies of several nurses who had been on duty contradicted Blanche's story. According to nurses, Blanche taking Raymond food was a daily occurrence. At the conclusion of the trial, the prosecution ended on the following words, quote, This is about a woman who weighed of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and who became as a God, taking upon herself the power of deciding who shall live and who shall die. When Blanche's lawyer, Mitchell McIntyre, gave his closing statement, he reminded the

jury, quote, Even the judge will tell you that good character, a good name that's built by good character traits is to be considered by you, because the law allows that a person with good traits and a good name is less likely to engage in criminal conduct. After the six-week trial on November 14, 1990, the jury took six hours to reach a verdict. With the court's pool camera rolling, the verdict was shown live with TV channels breaking from their regular schedules to broadcast it. As the court was about to begin, the doors were locked, something that was always done

during a death penalty case. 12 guards with guns lined the rows of seats and the doors. As the unanimous guilty verdict for the first-degree murder of Raymond Reed was read out, Blanche Taylor Moore sat expressionless. The jury gave their recommendation for sentencing, and the judge agreed with them. On January 18, 1991, Blanche Taylor Moore was sentenced to death by lethal injection. As the words echoed across the courtroom, the camera focused firmly on one person. Blanche closed her eyes, tilted her head back slightly, and mouthed something to herself.

One jury member stated afterwards, quote, I don't see how anybody could have sat in that courtroom, saw the evidence given, heard the defense, and come up with anything different than we did. I don't care if it was us 12, the next 12, or 112 people down the road, I think the decision would have been the same. Blanche never stood trial for the deaths of her father Parker Kaiser, her first husband James Taylor, her mother-in-law Eilertaylor, or for the attempted murder of her second husband Reverend Dwight Moore.

Authorities decided not to try her because they felt it wasn't worth the effort to win more verdicts against someone already sentenced to death. What role she played, if any, in the deaths of several other speculated victims is unknown. Blanche was sent to the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. She appealed numerous times. She argued that the judge was wrong to allow evidence pertaining to the other cases to be heard in the trial for Raymond's murder. It was also alleged that Judge Freeman socialized inappropriately with jurors.

She lost age appeal, but the appeals process held off her execution date. Almost three decades later, Blanche still remains on death row. One of Blanche's brothers, Sam Kaiser, stood by her during her arrest and trial. Of his sister's guilt or innocence, Sam said, quote, I know some people believe she's guilty and got what she deserved. I understand how they feel. We had a family member exhumed, too. It's easy to form opinions on what we read when all those bodies were being exhumed.

I've told her I want the truth. In my natural experiences with her, she couldn't have done it. I have never had her hesitate when I asked her if she did it. She told me, if I did it and kept covering it up, that's a sin, too, and I won't get on that gurney with a lie on my lips. In a 2010 interview with WXIII12TV in Winston-Salem, Reverend Dwight Moore, who went on to remarry, said he still suffered tremors in his hands and weakness in his legs. He also said he had no objection to his ex-wife seeking to have her death sentence overturned.

Reverend Dwight Moore died of natural causes in 2013. Blanche Taylor Moore is now 84 years old. She still maintains her innocence to this day. The people of Burlington were left wondering if there was more to Blanche Taylor Moore than they ever knew. Questions of those other suspicious deaths still haunt family members, even all these years later.