On this day, the murder trial began for the “Long Island Borgia,” Mary Frances Creighton, for the poisoning of a woman whose husband was the lover of both Mary Creighton and her 15-year-old daughter Ruth.
Mary Creighton already had been accused of murder not once, but twice. She was tried and acquitted in the poisoning of her brother. Then she was tried and acquitted in the poisoning death of her mother-in-law.
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Twelve years later, police weren’t surprised when they found arsenic in the body of Ada Appelgate. But they were shocked by the tale that unfolded.
Everett Appelgate seduced Mary Creighton first, then turned his attention to young Ruth. “Uncle Ev” and Ruth flaunted their relationship around town, and everyone suspected they were having an affair. Mary Creighton wanted to make an honest woman out of her daughter, so Mary and Everett conspired to kill his wife.
Mary Creighton and Everett Appelgate were found guilty of the murder and executed on the same day, July 16, 1936.
