On this day, Dec. 24, in 1967, Georgia grandmother and church lady Janie Lou Gibbs was arrested on charges of poisoning three sons, a grandson and her husband to collect on the life insurance policies.
Gibbs was considered a pillar of her church in Cordele, Ga. In 1965, when her husband died suddenly after enjoying one of Gibbs’ home-cooked meals, the show of sympathy for her was so overwhelming that Gibbs gave part of the life insurance money to her church.
Tragedy struck repeatedly over the next two years as Gibbs lost three of her teenage sons.
When her healthy newborn grandson died, Gibbs’ daughter-in-law asked for an investigation. Tests showed that the baby and his father had died of arsenic poisoning.
Gibbs was arrested Christmas Eve. Police exhumed the other bodies. She admitted to killing her family but never said why.
She was found guilty and sentenced to life for each of the five murders.
In 1999, at age 66, she received a medical release from prison because she was suffering from the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease. She lives in a nursing home in Douglasville, Ga.
– Scott McCabe
