Tuesday, May 8, 2018

The Excedrin Killer, 30 Years On: Her Federal Release Date Doesn't Arrive Until 2040... She Is 74 Today.


In truth, find myself in a strange mood this morning -- as the matter at the bottom of this post has suddenly (much as my cream swirled in the piping hot coffee, just now) been blended into. . . the former.

So I will re-edit an old graphic, and drop in a link -- even though I had considered making an entirely new one solely on the Excedrin murderer. And so, I guess I am asking you to just bear with me, dear readers -- as we first visit the (likely non-availing) parole possibility for. . . one Stella Nickell. Her crimes were largely responsible for a completely new set of packaging precautions related to over the counter (but still FDA-regulated) drugs.

Do read all of it, in Canada's Globe and Mail, this morning -- with a bit, here:

. . . .May 8, 1988: Bruce Nickell was initially thought to have died of natural causes. But when a woman named Susan Snow, who also lived in Seattle, died the same month from taking Excedrin capsules laced with cyanide, investigators grew suspicious. Nickell had also taken the headache-pain reliever before being rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The sensational case caused several drug companies to offer a $300,000 reward to find whoever had poisoned the pills. Stella Nickell, Bruce’s wife, swore she was innocent, but the FBI discovered she had recently taken out two insurance policies on his life, including one that would pay out $100,000 if he died accidentally.

In court, Stella Nickell’s 28-year-old daughter testified that her mother had discussed killing Bruce Nickell. A jury was convinced she had tampered with pills and put them back on store shelves, killing her husband and Snow. In May, 1988, Nickell became the first person to be convicted of causing death by drug tampering in the United States. She was sentenced to 90 years in prison under a federal law that was created after seven people died in 1982 in the Chicago area from taking Tylenol laced with cyanide, a crime that remains unsolved. She is eligible for parole this year. . . .


I don't think she will ever be paroled. I expect that she will die in prison, sometime before she turns 96 -- and the arrival of her mandatory release date (should she survive the abominable health care afforded at, and generally austere conditions in FCI Dublin -- in rural Alameda County, California).

Onward -- as apparently, I just had a taste for the. . . macabre, this morning -- with George Zimmerman being re-arrested. Of course, he shot and killed young Trayvon Martin, in a case we followed closely -- just five years ago, here.

नमस्ते

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it is you, at 6:44 pm... smiling at the unwasted grace...

Anonymous said...

Yep... g’night!

Anonymous said...

If you’ve something to say... feel free to say it here... saw you yesterday aft., here...

Anonymous said...

So did she get paroled?

condor said...

Nope. Her next parole hearing would be in late 2022.

If she serves her full sentence, and she’s still alive by then, her regular release would be in late 2040... still 20 years off.

Namaste....

Anonymous said...

What’s up — snowing there? It is here... smile...

Anonymous said...

Once again at 4:02 am — smiling... and again snowing here — very rain-soaked, there... thee are ever present in my thoughts....

Milton's Stars said...

Once, at 7:18 am... in reply?

Ssnow coming here, again -- smiling...

Anon.Beethoven said...

In New Orleans, twice at 10:25 pm on 16th?

Smile — via an iPad...

Frogstomp said...

Hope she dies

Unknown said...

Hopefully her life in prison is hell.

Anonymous said...

Hard to believe she even has a chance at parole, let alone a release date.

condor said...

Well. . . her release date won't come before July 10, 2040.

She is presently. . . 78 years old, and housed at FCI Dublin, California.

So, at 18 years still to serve -- it would be very unlikely that she will ever breathe free air, again.

She'll be. . . 96 in 2040. Previously (2005), Minnesota held a 91 year old woman for attempted murder, for six years. She is now long dead.

Moreover, I bet there are fewer than ten female inmates in the all of the US prison (states, and federal) system older than 85.

And at 78, I'd bet she's one of only about 20, nationwide today.

She is very likely to die in prison, as is Sirhan Sirhan -- as we've long discussed.

Namaste. . . .

Unknown said...

Her own vices caused her to get caught. They missed the poisoning in the death of her husband and she was "home free". The insurance would have paid out $76,000. But no, she had to go after an additional $100,000 if the death was listed as "accidental". She therefore placed cyanide in a number of other bottles causing the death of another woman to make it look like a company error so she could collect. Not only did she have no regard for her husbands life, she couldn't care less who else died when she went further. Pure greed and now she will only get out of prison in a body bag. What a legacy!! She must have been a nasty person when even her own daughter squealed on her.