Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Murder Factory” Pt. 2 - Amy Archer-Gilligan

Episode Date: July 17, 2018

Amy Archer-Gilligan owned and operated a home for elderly residents in Windsor, Connecticut, but fell deeply into debt. Over time, she developed a deadly business model - stealing money from residents, then poisoning them - ultimately killing more than two dozen victims over a two-year span.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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In the fall of 1912, Franklin Andrews decided to move out of his sister's house. Andrews was 59 years old and in good health, but he still feared that he was a burden on his aging siblings. Luckily for Franklin, a saintly woman in nearby Windsor, Connecticut, was opening her home to residents who needed a place to call their own. Her name was Amy Archer, and she had the offer of a lifetime. If Franklin paid Amy $1,000 up front, she would take care of him for the rest of his life. It was too good a deal to pass up. So on September 12, 1912, Franklin checked into the Archer home in Winster's, or Connecticut. He expected to spend several decades at Amy's nursing home, but less than two years

later, he was dead. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson, and this is serial killers. Today, we're going to continue our deep dive into the life of Amy Archer Gilligan, a woman suspected of murdering dozens of the elderly residents who trusted her with their care. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory? It seems so simple, but it really helps us out. And don't forget to subscribe while you're there, because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast, and on Twitter at Parcast Network, or on our website, parkast.com. In 1907, Amy Archer Gilligan opened her home for elderly residents in Windsor, Connecticut. She took everything her residents owned, then poisoned them with arsenic to make room for fresh victims.

She was indicted for five murders after her arrest in 1916 and convicted for the murder of Franklin Andrews, but she is suspected of murdering dozens and transforming her home into a murder factory. Amy was a dangerous, manipulative woman motivated only by greed and self-interest. As we discussed in last week's episode, she demonstrated several hallmarks of antisocial personality disorder, sometimes known as sociopathy. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for this show.

Thanks, Greg. Christine Hammond, a mental health counselor based in Florida, explains that sociopaths, quote, frequently wear a variety of masks and have the ability to be chameleon-like in nature. This allows them to make commitments, which they have no intention of carrying out, while actually doing the opposite. Their ability to deceive is so excellent that even when caught, they're able to talk their way out of anything, end quote. This was certainly true of Amy.

She did everything she could to keep up her mask as a religious, upstanding member of the community. The Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids was a welcoming red brick building boarded by a white picket fence, and Amy took pains to portray herself as a devout, big-hearted woman eager to relieve the town of its burden of caring for their elderly and isolated family members. Amy's appearance only enhanced her grandmotherly persona. When she opened the home in 1907, she was barely in her 30s, but she appeared much older. She was tiny, at 5'3 foot 3 and a bony 110 pounds. Two bulging, wide-set eyes stared out of her gaunt face. Her lips were thin and pursed.

She looked stern, yet hard-working. Both her solemn appearance and serious religious demeanor convinced the townspeople of Windsor that she was utterly devoted to her residence case. She was so successful that no one took much note as a dozen of her residents mysteriously passed away during the boarding home's first three years of operation. But despite Amy's best efforts to maintain her benevolent persona, she began getting negative attention in 1909, after two of her residents complained that she was abusing and neglecting them. Sadly, the kind of abuse Amy's residents suffered isn't unique to her nursing home. The Archer Home is merely one of the first in a long line of senior living facilities

to cover up the neglect and abuse of their residents. This troubling pattern of concealed elder abuse continues in nursing homes to this day. The Inspector General for the Health and Human Services Department did an audit of a large number of cases involving alleged physical and sexual abuse of nursing home residents. Even though federal law says nursing homes must report it to police right away, what they found was more than a quarter of the cases in this sample were not immediately reported. There were no laws protecting Amy's residents from her abuse, but Amy was sued in the winter of 1909 over her treatment of elderly resident Teresa McClintock, and she was forced to settle out of court for a substantial sum. The lawsuit and ensuing negative publicity left Amy feeling defensive and worried about money. So in January of 1910, she killed her husband, James, after forging his signature on a new life insurance policy with a large payout.

Amy, of course, was the sole beneficiary. Carlin Gosley, a part-time reporter for the Hartford Current, became suspicious of Amy after James' death in February of 1910. and spent the next year investigating Amy. In June of 1911, he uncovered that 24 of Amy's residents had died in the four years since she opened up her home. Horrified, he reviewed Amy's purchases at the local W.H. Mason drugstore. Amy was buying large quantities of arsenic, ostensibly for killing rats. But in reality, she was mixing it into lemonade and killing her residence. But Gossley was fighting an uphill back.

trying to convince the town that Amy was a murderer. Few in town believed that a saintly woman like Amy was capable of killing her husband. And when Amy found out through town gossip that Gosley was investigating her, she did everything in her power to undermine him and turned the town against him. Amy's penchant for vengeance makes sense, given her antisocial personality traits. Hammond warns, quote, the danger in confronting ASPDs is that they are highly revengeful. and will stop at nothing until a person is completely destroyed."

Gossley was left stymied by Amy Smear Campaign. Since he couldn't convince his editors to publish a story about Amy, she was free to keep on killing. And in 1912, Amy ratcheted up the body count. In that one year alone, 15 people died. Remember, the Archer Home was only supposed to hold 12 to 14 people at any given time. It could only house 21 people at max capacity. That means in one year, at least 70% of her residents had died.

And the more Amy killed, the more confident she grew. Her poisoned lemonade flowed freely in 1913, and 13 more residents died. That's 28 dead in two years. Nursing homes with four times the capacity of the Archer home didn't have this level of mortality. As each resident passed away, Amy kept their money and property. But even with the income she gained for the residents she murdered, Amy was still struggling financially from her lawsuit settlement back in the winter of 1909. She needed someone wealthy enough to pay off her debts,

and she found the perfect target in Michael Gilligan. Michael Gilligan checked into the Archer home in the summer of 1913. He was 57 and sturdy, making him one of the archer, home's youngest and most attractive male residents. His friend later remarked, quote, why he was a man, I should say, in the neighborhood of 5'10, rather stout in build, probably weighed 180 or 190 pounds somewhere around there, end quote. Michael had five grown children, but he was now conveniently divorced and available.

Amy needed someone to do repairs, and Michael needed somewhere to live. It seemed like a perfect match. Michael quickly began making some much-needed repairs after he moved in during the summer of 1913. Just a few weeks later, Michael and Amy began dating. The relationship served a useful purpose for Amy. Carlin Gosley had been circulating rumors about her for years now that she was killing her residence. Coupling up with Michael proved that she was really a kind, lovable woman. According to author and alleged sociopath M. E. Thomas,

Sociopaths know that it's in their best interest to blend into society. Amy needed to use Michael as a shield to protect herself from the scrutiny of her neighbors. And it worked. According to biographer M. William Phelps, quote, Neighbors were happy for Amy and Michael. Maybe Michael was the answer to all of Amy's problems. Perhaps she wasn't a killer after all, end quote. But Amy had other uses for Michael.

She wanted his money. Michael described himself as a farmer and wore shabby clothes. But he had a tidy $5,000 tucked away. That was the kind of money Amy needed to finally put that old lawsuit settlement behind her. Amy married Michael on November 25, 1913, just a few months after they met. But Amy's new surname, Gilligan, would last longer than her new husband. We'll return to our story in just a moment. And now back to serial killers.

On November 25, 1913, Amy Archer married Michael Gilligan after a whirlwind romance. Michael had no idea that his new wife, the saintly woman running a nursing home for the elderly, had already poisoned dozens of residents with her homemade lemonade. The pair married at St. Joseph's Parish, down the street from Amy's nursing home in Windsor, Connecticut. the whole town was happy for them. Even reporter Carlin Gosley, who had long suspected Amy of murder, found his suspicions mollified by Amy's marriage to Michael. After all, Michael Gilligan was a well-liked man with a good head on his shoulders.

If he loved and trusted Amy, then who was in any position to say otherwise? Amy's new husband, Michael, became fast friends with one of the Archer Holmes' other middle-aged residents, Franklin Andrews. In December of 1913, a month after Amy's and Michael's marriage, Franklin wrote to his sister about his new friendship with Michael. But he also had some disturbing news. In the year since Franklin had moved in during the fall of 1912, 18 residents had died. In his letter, he noted, quote, she expects some more before long. They come and go, one after another, end quote. It may seem strange that Franklin didn't suspect Amy, especially since she was outright predicting future deaths.

But like other killers with sociopathic traits we've investigated on this show, Amy was incredibly adept at manipulating others and maintaining a false, benevolent persona. We can see just how good she was at manipulating Franklin through the letter she sent to him on January 6, 1914. She recognized that Franklin and Michael had become good friends. and wanted to leverage their friendship in order to get even more money out of Franklin. In the letter to Franklin, Amy wrote, quote, I think you will be surprised to hear from me in this way,

and it is with a heavy heart, I assure you. Mr. Gilligan's bills I went to pay at once, and I'm writing to ask you, as I consider you my dearest friend in need, as you have proved so thus far, could you, or rather, will you please let me take a few hundred dollars as near to a thousand as you can, for a few months until I can get money I have loaned."

Note that Amy referred to Franklin as her dearest friend, though she'd only known him for a year and in a professional capacity. This was yet another effort to play on Franklin's sympathies and manipulate him. As for why Amy supposedly needed the money, she claimed that Michael's father had died, and legal technicalities had placed Amy and Michael in a terrible financial situation. And now, Amy desperately needed Franklin's help to keep the Archer home from going under. Yet strangely, Amy didn't want Franklin to tell anyone about her dire straits, not even Michael.

She wrote, quote, I would rather you would please not speak of this to anyone. I appreciate your confidence, or I would not ask you, as I have friends whom I know would lend it, but I would rather not ask them. Please let me know if you could get it tomorrow morning. I could use it in the afternoon, and I assure you on my honor, you won't be sorry. I will give you my note so there can be no possible way for you to lose. Please let me know by note tonight, and kindly say nothing about this to anyone."

Franklin likely thought it strange that Amy didn't want him to talk to Michael about the loan. After all, Amy was only in this bad situation in the first place, because Michael's father had died. But Amy had a very good reason for insisting on secrecy. Everything she said in her letter was likely a lie. There are no records of Michael's father putting Amy and Michael in financial debt. We know that Amy spent her entire life lying about her history. It wouldn't have been a stretch for her to lie to Franklin now. And if Franklin tried to confirm Amy's story with Michael,

he would have discovered that she was nothing but a greedy, calculating woman spinning tall tales. Despite Amy's attempts to manipulate him, Franklin refused to give Amy the loan. But although Franklin was savvy enough to resist Amy's pleas for money, he apparently honored her request for secrecy. As far as we know, he never told Michael about Amy's loan request. If Franklin had confided in Michael, it might have saved both men's lives. One month later, on February 13, 1914, Michael Gilligan told him, took his 27-year-old son Frank to the train station to see him off for a business trip. Frank recalled that his father was in good spirits and in good health that day.

Meanwhile, across town, Amy bought 10 ounces of arsenic at M.W. Mason's drugstore. She was ready to murder her second husband and seize control of his $5,000. Over the next several days, Michael's health abruptly deteriorated. When Michael and his son had parted ways at the train station, Michael told Frank that he felt fine. But just six days later, by the evening of February 19th, he felt terrible. He was pale, sweating, and feverish. Even though he wasn't feeling well, Michael was shocked when Amy brought him into the kitchen and asked him to sign a last will and testament.

Amy, manipulative as ever, assured Michael that she was only making sure his affairs were in order, just in case. Michael reluctantly signed over his $5,000 worth of assets to Amy. The next morning, on February 20th, Michael fell violently ill. He was dizzy, confused, and vomiting. His stomach was an agony. All symptoms consistent with arsenic poisoning. Instead of calling a doctor, Amy telephoned Michael's friend Robert Frost, a hotel manager and part-time undertaker. When he learned how dangerously ill Michael was, Robert rushed over to the Archer home. Robert couldn't understand how Michael was so sick.

Just a few days ago, Michael had seemed as well as ever. Now he appeared to be dying. Robert furiously told Amy to call a doctor. It wasn't until later that Robert chillingly realized why Amy had called him the Undertaker rather than Dr. King. Amy didn't want to save Michael. She wanted to dispose of his corpse. With Robert watching her every move, Amy finally called in Dr. King.

It took only 20 minutes for the physician to make his way over to the Archer home, but there was nothing he could do. Michael died just as Dr. King arrived. Michael had been in perfect health in the months before his death. But Dr. King wrote on the death certificate that Michael had died of valvular heart disease. It's unclear whether he was actively helping Amy cover up the murder of another. husband, or whether he was still taken in by her manipulative, kindly persona.

Franklin Andrews was devastated by his friend's sudden death. He wrote to his brother a few days after Michael died in February about his sadness and his suspicions. Quote, Michael died last Thursday morning with indigestion. He had not been married three months. Died very sudden. Was buried last Monday. Was taken to the Catholic Church. I went to. to the funeral, was a large funeral. It seems very sad. He was a very nice kind of man. So there they go, one after another. That makes 21 that's died since I came here. Don't know who will be next, end quote. Franklin had no idea that he was about to become Amy's next target. The death of her healthy and well-liked husband reignited local suspicion that

Amy was a killer. Amy's manipulative tendencies were failing her. She somehow foolishly believed that she could allay the town's suspicions by acting like she had nothing to hide. So in March 1914, a few weeks after Michael died, Amy wrote a letter to state's attorney Hugh Alcorn, daring him to investigate the Archer home. Alcorn declined. Amy was lucky that Alcorn did not take her up on her offer. This enabled her to focus on her next victim, 61-year-old Franklin Andrews. Although Franklin was struggling with his grief over Michael's death in the spring of 1914, his health was better than ever. He wrote several missives to family members, assuring them how well he was doing. But in April of 1914, Franklin's health mysteriously took a turn for the worse. He wrote to his

cousin. Quote, I'm getting along quite well now, but I've had a hard cold, but I'm coming on all right, I think. End quote. But Franklin wasn't doing all right. He was sometimes dizzy and lethargic, and his throat kept burning. He would get better, but then these strange symptoms would come right back. He had no idea that these were symptoms of arsenic poisoning. As Franklin grew ill, another resident, Charles Smith, succumbed to Amy's arsenic lemonade on April 9, 1914. Dr. King was on hand as always to supply Amy with a natural cause of death. He wrote that Smith died of old age and epilepsy.

Franklin seemed to be doing better in May of 1914 until Amy decided she needed his room. On May 26, 1914, two prospective residents, Alice and Lauren Gowdy, asked if Amy had any beds available at the Archer Home. Amy happily showed off a spacious room that would suit the couple nicely. Strangely, the room Amy showed Lauren and Alice was filled with someone's possessions. The couple mentioned to Amy that the room was clearly occupied. Amy said ominously, quote, this will be vacant very soon, end quote. Lauren Gowdy pointed out again, puzzled by Amy's assurances, quote, this room is occupied, ma'am. end quote.

Amy's response was chilling. Quote, I can fix that all right. End quote. Amy needed to get the Gaudy's cash as quickly as possible to settle her mounting financial debts. Amy was not doing a good job of running the Archer home, and she took out too many loans that she couldn't pay back. After Franklin had refused to give Amy the loan she wanted in January,

she'd been counting on inheriting a substantial sum from her husband, Michael. After killing Michael in February, Amy had filed paperwork in March to request an immediate $1,500 from his estate, which was worth a total of $4,500. Her lenders were hounding her to pay back her loans, and she desperately needed that cash. But Michael's children took Amy to court in May of 1914 to fight her over the inheritance. With Michael's estate tied up in a legal battle, she needed another source of money. money fast to pay back her creditors. And the quickest way to increase her income was by murdering Franklin Andrews. On May 29th, 1914, Franklin was feeling superb. A friend later remembered, quote, there were no signs of sickness or emaciation about him on that day. But early the next morning,

on May 30th, Franklin's roommate awoke to discover Franklin violently ill and covered in vomit. The roommate woke up Amy, who promised to call Dr. King. But Dr. King didn't show up until the evening. Once again, he was too late. On May 30th, 1914, Franklin died in agony. As usual, Dr. King agreed with Amy that Franklin's death was natural. He wrote down Franklin's cause of death as stomach ulcers. Amy quickly wrote to the Gaudies to let them know that Franklin's spacious room was now available, It seemed as though she had gotten away with murdering for profit once again. But Franklin's murder would finally be the key to Amy's undoing. Our story will continue in a moment after a brief message.

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Kayak, got that right. And now, back to serial killers. On May 30, 1914, Amy Archer Gilligan murdered her latest victim at her nursing home in Windsor, Connecticut. She needed 61-year-old Franklin Andrews out of the way, so she could give his room to two new prospective residents. But Franklin was relatively young and healthy when he died. His sister Nellie was both heartbroken and suspicious. She interrogated Amy about her brother's final days,

but none of Amy's defensive answers made any sense. Nellie went to see her brother's corpse. She noticed he didn't look particularly ill. He looked more like someone who had been murdered. Nellie took her story to Clifton Sherman, a reporter at the Hartford Current. He was intrigued by Nellie's suspicions about her brother's death. By the spring of 1914, several reporters at the Hartford Current were investigating Amy,

Clifton Sherman, Robert Thayer, and Carlin Gosley, who had suspected Amy of murder for years. As Sherman promised that the reporters of the Hartford Current would help investigate her brother's death, Amy was busy luring new victims into her home. On June 1st, Amy sent a letter to the Gaudi's. apologizing for the delay in getting their room ready. As usual, she utilized her benevolent persona to justify herself. Amy wrote, quote, I was about to get your room ready and call you at once, but one of our loved ones here was taken ill and I had to be with him. You may know he needed me when I tell you he passed away, with ulcers in his

stomach. He was very, very dear to us and you must try to forgive me if I am causing you any unpleasantness." Not only did Amy murder Franklin so the Gaudies could move into his room, she used Franklin's death as a way of manipulating the couple for sympathy. On July 14, 1914, the Gaudy signed up for Amy's $1,000 upfront payment plan. Around the time that the Gaudies moved into the Archer home in the summer of 1914, the Hartford Current reporters decided it was time to take all the evidence that they had gathered to the police.

Investigators were flabbergasted when the reporters told them their suspicions. They believed Amy had murdered at least 40 people between 1908 and 1914. The police weren't sure they believed the reporters, but nevertheless, they agreed to bring state attorney Hugh Alcorn on board and launch an investigation. In early December, just five months after she moved into the Archer home, Alice Gowdy began suffering from the same symptoms that had felt so many of the home's residents. Her stomach ached, her throat burned. She was vomiting profusely, but she had no fever. Instead of relying on Dr. King, Alice requested the assistance of Dr. Thompson, a man she'd known and trusted for years.

Under Thompson's watchful eye, Alice immediately improved. But the moment Dr. Thompson left, Amy resumed serving Alice, poisoned lemonade. And this time there was no chance to call a doctor. Alice died on December 9, 1914. But with this death, things were different. Amy had no idea she was being spied on. Zola Bennett, an undercover private investigator, had been living in the Archer home for weeks

as part of the state's investigation into Amy. She obtained a room by posing as a wealthy, friendless widow. And when Amy poisoned Alice Gowdy in December, of 1914, Zola was watching her every move. Zola continued her investigation into 1915, interviewing residents and looking into Amy's financial documents for clues as to her motives. But Alcorn and the police needed more evidence

than Zola could provide. If they really wanted to prove that Amy was poisoning her residence, then they needed to examine the corpses of some of her victims. And the longer the investigation took, took, the more time it gave Amy to kill her residence. By the time Alcorn received the approval he needed to exhume Franklin Andrews in May of 1916, several more residents of the Archer home had died. On May 2, 1916, the paperwork was finally in place. That night, State Attorney Hugh

Alcorn, Superintendent Thomas Egan, a few police officers, and the state pathologist Dr. Arthur Wolfe went to the local cemetery. They exhumed Franklin Andrew's corpse and carried his body to a tool house on the cemetery grounds. Dr. Wolf inspected the body by candlelight. In order to avoid tainting his findings, police did not tell Dr. Wolf that they suspected Franklin was poisoned. Instead, they waited to see what conclusions he came to on his own. As Dr. Wolf inspected Franklin's body, he found no boils or injuries, even though Amy had previously claimed that Franklin suffered from boils. Dr. Wolf and his team bottled Franklin's organs and took them to his lab for examination. That's when Dr. Wolf made the discovery that would be

Amy's undoing. There was arsenic in Franklin's organ tissue, enough to kill several men, and Dr. Wolf could tell the poison had entered Franklin's organs while he was still alive. The next night, on May 3rd, investigators exhumed Alice Gowdy's body. Dr. Wolf found arsenic in her organs as well. He also found arsenic in the organs of Charles Smith and Michael Gilligan. The police finally had the evidence they needed. On May 8, 1916, they marched to the Archer home and arrested Amy Archer Gilligan for murder in front of the gathered townspeople of Windsor.

They took Amy to the courthouse where she waived examination, which meant she didn't offer a plea of guilty or not guilty. But it didn't take long for Amy to start fighting back against the charges. She quickly hired a top defense attorney named Benedict Holden to represent her. Amy needed all the help she could get, given the stories being published about her. On May 9th, the Hartford Courant was finally able to publish the story that its reporters had been preparing for years. The front page headlines screamed, quote, Police believe Archer Home for Aged, a murder factory. As the news spread nationwide through the spring and summer of 1916,

states finally began passing laws to regulate the burgeoning nursing home industry. Ironically, the deaths at the Archer home improved the rights of the elderly in nursing homes across America. Investigators spent the remainder of 1916 preparing more testimony and evidence. By June 18th, 1917, they were ready for trial. Given the overwhelming evidence they had gathered against Amy, Alcorn thought he had a slam-dunk case. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be easy to convict Amy. The jury members couldn't understand the medical examiner's explanation about arsenic and how Amy slowly poisoned her victims. Amy's defense attorney

Benedict Holden was also able to persuade jurors to doubt that. most of the evidence against her. He used Amy's carefully crafted reputation as a religious, benevolent woman to persuade jury members to sympathize with her. Things were going so badly at trial for the prosecution that they had to drop four out of five of the murder charges against Amy. They were only able to try her for Franklin Andrews' murder. Fortunately, that one murder charge was enough. On June 18, 19, 1917, the jury deliberated from... for four hours and found Amy Archer Gilligan guilty. She was sentenced to die by hanging.

But Amy wasn't just going to give up and accept a death sentence. She was still able to use her persona as a devout, kindly woman to manipulate people into taking pity on her. Just a few days after she received her sentence on June 18th, she swayed the governor into granting her a stay of execution. It probably didn't hurt that her lawyer Holden was good friends with the governor. Holden also found an additional way to help Amy escape the noose. He was able to get her a new trial based on a technicality. When the state dropped the other murder charges against Amy during her initial June trial,

the judge ruled that the prosecutor, Alcorn, was only allowed to present evidence supporting Franklin Andrew's murder to the jury. But Alcorn disobeyed the judge's ruling. During Amy's trial, he told the jury about evidence connected to the death of another resident, Maude Lynch. Because Alcorn introduced evidence that he wasn't supposed to bring up, Amy's lawyer was allowed to request a new trial, set for the summer of 1919. This time, Amy decided to try pleading insanity. In the pretrial during June of 1919, Amy's lawyer, Benedict Holden, called in witnesses to prove that Amy was mentally ill. and suffering from a drug addiction.

Amy's 19-year-old daughter, Mary, defended her mother and insisted that Amy was addicted to morphine tablets. Amy's sister, Catherine Duggan, corroborated Mary's testimony. She further insisted that Amy was struggling with her addiction to morphine when Franklin died. Catherine argued that Amy couldn't possibly have murdered Franklin since she was living in a drug-induced stupor at the time. But not everyone was fooled by Amy. insanity plea. Louise Cowles, a staff member at the local prison, had observed Amy's supposedly

insane behavior over the past several months. Cowles knew Amy well and could tell that she was manipulative, not crazy. She testified, quote, I think she is simulating insanity, end quote. Nevertheless, the onslaught of testimony from relatives, childhood friends, and neighbors who all insisted Amy was mentally ill, was enough to make Alcorn nervous. He realized Amy and her supporters were putting on a good enough show that she might be able to escape the death penalty. Alcorn didn't want to endure yet another trial where he would now have to try and disprove all of Amy's new witnesses,

so he decided to compromise. On July 1, 1918, Amy was offered a new plea deal. If Amy pled guilty to murdering Franklin, and Andrews in the second degree, she could now spend the rest of her life in prison. This wasn't quite what Amy wanted. She had hoped that by pretending to be insane, she would get to live out her life in a mental institution. But the judge wasn't fooled by Amy's act. He knew she was a manipulative killer, and he wanted her to serve hard time for her crimes. Prison was the best offer she was going to get. So Amy took the plea deal. She had no

intention of spending the rest of her life in prison, though. For several years, she bided her time. Then she came up with a new tactic. Amy had worn many masks over the years in order to get what she wanted, religious do-gooder, grandmotherly caretaker, and even morphine addict. But in July of 1924, she adopted a new persona. She pretended that she had lost touch with reality and acted like she couldn't understand what anyone was saying to her. It was as though she could no longer speak English. Once again, Amy's manipulative tactics got her exactly what she wanted. In July of 1924, she was sent to Connecticut Valley Hospital, a mental institution. She never had to spend another day in prison. As Amy remained locked away in a state hospital, news of her murders spread across the nation

over the ensuing decade. A playwright named Joseph Kesselring was so intrigued by Amy's story that he convinced Alcorn to show him the court documents from Amy's trial. Kesselring then used those documents as fodder for a Broadway play inspired by Amy's murders. On January 10, 1941, Kesselring

opened his Broadway play to rave reviews. He called it arsenic and old lace. In the play, two sisters, Abby and Martha Brewster invite elderly men into their boarding house and supply them with elderberry wine, secretly laced with arsenic. Hugh Alcorn, the state attorney who prosecuted Amy Archer, attended their premiere on Broadway in 1941. He was dismayed to see that Kesselring had transformed the agonizing deaths of Amy's dozens of victims into a comic farce. Apparently, no one else minded. The play ran for over three

1,300 shows on Broadway, had a run in London, and was adapted into a film directed by Frank Capra. Both the play and the film received rave reviews. Meanwhile, Amy Archer Gilligan lived out the remainder of her life at the Connecticut Mental Institution, until she died on April 23, 1962, in her late 80s. But even after Amy's death, her legal battles continued. A man from East Hartford, writing a book about her late 80s. Amy requested her medical and dental records from the 38 years she spent at the Connecticut Valley Hospital. This could have given him and us new insights into her psychology and mental

state. The hospital refused to release the records, and in 2017, the case made it all the way to the state Supreme Court. Assistant Attorney General Jacqueline Hull argued before the justices that Amy's records should remain as confidential as any other patients. files. She noted, quote, legitimate public concern for how someone is treated is not the equivalent to curiosity, and that is essentially what we have in this case, end quote. Unfortunately, the judges sided with the assistant attorney general, and the court ruled that Amy's psychiatric records needed to remain sealed. But perhaps one day, the ruling will be overturned, and Amy's records will be opened to the public, and will finally uncovering.

the last remaining secrets of Amy Archer Gilligan's Connecticut Murder Factory. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes of serial killers, you can find them on Apple podcasts, tune in, Google Play, Stitcher, and Spotify, or on our website, parcast.com. Spelled p-ar-c-s-a-s-st-com. If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review or tell us what you think on social media were on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. It seems simple, but it really helps our show.

Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Ron Shapiro, with production assistance by Joel Stein and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maxxas and Maxxie. Maggie Admire. Serial Killers is written by Nick Adams and stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an

exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcast this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow. Follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed and there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday.

Listen on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.