Bonus Episode: Death By Delicious Chocolate - Cordelia Botkin was WILD

2021/12/30

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Cordelia Botkin, a woman with a bold and unconventional lifestyle, meets John Dunning, a prominent reporter, leading to a scandalous affair that would have dire consequences.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. Hi, friends. It's me, Bailey Sarian, and I hope you're having an amazing day today. In case you didn't know, I do a little thing over on my YouTube. It's called Murder, Mystery, and Makeup, where I talk about a true crime story. And now I've turned it into a podcast.

Since we don't have a dark history episode for you this week, I want to drop in one of my favorite true crime stories from Murder, Mystery, and Makeup about Cordelia Botkins. And it's kind of dark history because, like, let me tell you, she's from the past, and she was weird.

wild. She was wild, okay? If you like true crime and enjoy this episode, maybe you can go subscribe to the podcast Murder Mystery Makeup for even more true crime stories or check out my YouTube. Either way, thank you all and I'll be seeing you next time. Make good choices. Bye!

Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery and Makeup Monday!

If you are new here, hi! My name is Bailey Sarian and on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you would like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button 'cause I'm here for you. That's a fact.

I wanted to show you guys this. I thought this was a great quote, which pretty much sums up today's video, like perfectly. I don't know who like said it though. It says proverb. Does that mean it came from the Bible? No. Proverb? The quote is, "No one will have a greater wrath or vengeance than a woman when she has been wronged. Most men find out the hard way that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Ooh, deep.

And that my friends brings us to today's story, which is just this in a nutshell, okay? Let's talk about Cordelia Brown. Have you heard of her? She was born in 1854 in Kansas City, Missouri. There's really not much known about her upbringing or how her life was growing up. But what we do know is that on September 26th, 1872, 18 year old Cordelia married 33 year old,

Welcome Botkin, who worked as a wealthy grain broker. Yes, his name is Welcome. Welcome, get your ass over here, Welcome. Welcome, welcome. Okay, so Welcome. Welcome, he worked as a wealthy grain broker. So they get married and they're living in Kansas City, Missouri, and then they welcomed,

That was so dumb, but like I just... Anyways, they welcomed their son, Beverly, in 1874. So they lived the simple kind of life and then in the late 1880s, Welcome was offered a new job as a salesman for the armor packing company, so they decided to move out to Stockton, California for this new job opportunity. So who was Cordelia? Well...

Cordelia was described as a short and stout woman. I'm not trying to shame here, you know, I'm just making an observation, but she kind of looks like Agatha Trunchbull from the movie "Matilda", right? She kind of does. So with that being said, a lot of people would consider Cordelia to have a frumpy appearance. She was not the best looking, but Cordelia, she believed she was hot shit.

Like you couldn't tell Cordelia nothing, okay? She was God's gift to the world. Cordelia would brag to friends about being photographed in over a hundred different poses, which us, the selfie nation, may not seem like that big of a deal, but back then in the Victorian era, the 1880s,

Getting photographed was a really big deal. One of her favorite poses was her standing with her hands up behind her head and her elbows out. Having or posing with your arms behind your head makes your face and your boobs the focus of the image, which was a big no-no in the Victorian era. Being sexy? Mm-mm.

I mean, they would acknowledge sex, but you had to be more secretive about it. You definitely couldn't be overtly sexual, which Cordelia definitely was in some of her photographs. Now in 1894, Cordelia and her husband, Welcome, their marriage wasn't, it just wasn't working out okay.

Okay, "Welcome" was very proper and prim and Cordelia just liked more fun things in life like gambling and drinking. And because this is the 1880s or whatever divorce,

It really wasn't a thing back then, you know? You couldn't just, nope, mm-mm, you couldn't do that. So they just decided to go their separate ways, but still remain married because that was really their only option. So once they separate, Cordelia takes her son and then they move to San Francisco because there's more of a party life out there, a little bit more fun. Cordelia is single and ready to mingle.

Welcome stayed in Stockton where his job was and he would come out there to pay her alimony every month. He was...

involved in his own scandal. When he came out to pay Cordelia her alimony, he would meet with the landlady, her name was Clara, and they were having like their own affair that was going on between the two of them. So in 1895, Cordelia, who is now 41, she's living in San Francisco with her son. She goes down to the park next to the Golden Gate Bridge to meet with a friend and just like have a chat. While there, that's when a 32-year-old man named

John Dunning was riding his bicycle and his bicycle, it broke down. So he stops, he like fixes the wheel and then he notices a beautiful woman who's sitting on the bench. She's like, "Oh my God, you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen on this planet." The beautiful woman was Cordelia. Love at first sight. Back then, 'cause remember,

olden days. It was very scandalous for a man and a woman to interact without a formal introduction. But John said that there was just something about Cordelia's energy that he was attracted to, and John knew that he just needed to talk to her. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance. It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.

discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

This is an ad by BetterHelp. What?

What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

Visit betterhelp.com slash dark history today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash dark history. So he goes up to her, he introduces himself, and they begin chatting away. Now this John guy, he was a big wig reporter for the Associated Press. He had recently returned from an overseas assignment where he was reporting on the war that was about to take place between the U.S., Great Britain, and Imperial Germany.

over Samoa, I know. So a big typhoon hits this island, sank a bunch of ships. It was a whole situation. We could do like another video on it, but John's there and he's writing an article about it and it was hot gossip. Nobody could put it down. It was just, everybody read it. And because of this, it also promoted him to the superintendent of the Associated Press, their Western division,

which was in San Francisco. You get it, you get it. So John, he was married and he had a wife named Mary Elizabeth and the two of them had moved to San Francisco in 1891. Soon after they had a daughter who they also named Mary. Anytime I talk about the wife, I'll say Mary Elizabeth. So you know it's the wife and not the child. But Mary Elizabeth was, she was married

She was not adjusting to life in San Francisco very well. And she just really badly wanted to move back to Delaware. She was becoming frustrated in the marriage because her faith was really important to her. And it wasn't important to John

So their marriage is really rocky. It wasn't going great. What more can you say, really? So when John met Cordelia, they had this instant connection. They couldn't stay away from each other. The two of them would chat about their partners, their significant others, and how they just didn't understand them. They were bonding over how their partners

Sucked pretty much, which is never good. So John was smitten with Cordelia. And what he loved about her most was that she was like one of the guys. She liked to drink, she liked to have sex, and she liked to talk about sex. You would most likely find her hanging out with the boys down at the brothel.

She wasn't like a normal girl, she was a cool girl. Just one of the guys, you know? I'm just one of the guys. I just like beer and sports and stuff, like yeah. So Cordelia and John were hanging out like all the time, okay? Cordelia would bring John to some of her favorite hangout spots in San Francisco. And they were like not the most,

up and up places, I guess. She would take him to the gambling saloons, brothels, dark bars, and this was all like new to John. He had never seen this side of San Francisco. I'm assuming here, I'm not, I can't speak for John, of course, but it seemed like he was just

excited with it all because it was just all new. He never, he didn't like do this at all. And it wasn't long before the two of them were wrapped up in partying, drinking, and a gambling lifestyle. And that wasn't all that they were wrapped up in, wink wink, because they were also wrapped up in each other, aka they were having a lot of sexual relations with each other. They were getting down and dirty, which is fine, we're not judging, it's just that John's still married and

And that's not good, you know? In the neighborhood, Cordelia had quite the reputation. It was not a good one. It was a very bad one. Remember how I talked about like Cordelia hanging out with the guys and she was like a guy's girl? Well, the women, they didn't like that. And because it's the Victorian era, they were very strict and extremely judgmental back then.

Ooh, right? Ooh. Like when you brought up Cordelia's name, a look of disgust would come over everyone's faces. Like she was just known as, this is gonna sound mean, I didn't say it, but she was like known as the town whore, you know?

I'm sorry Cordelia, don't come for me from the grave. I didn't say that, your peers did. John was being sloppy. He wasn't trying to hide the fact that he was having an affair or hide the fact that he was hanging out with this new friend Cordelia, which led to people seeing them and everybody talking.

Rumors are swirling, you know? And it wasn't long until John's wife, Mary Elizabeth, found out about his affair. Mary, John's wife, she would stay with John for about a year and she was trying to figure out what exactly her plan was, you know, because she was feeling super embarrassed. Everybody seemed to know about this affair that her husband's having with Cordelia. She's humiliated. How dare you? Like...

With her?

So she's trying to figure out what her plan is. What is she gonna do? But I couldn't imagine how Mary was feeling because she moves to this new location for her husband's new job, right? She doesn't like it there. She's having a hard time struggling just finding her way in San Francisco. And she voices to her husband that she's unhappy. He's never around, he's always working. And then he has an affair on her with this woman Cordelia. And she's like, "Dude, really?"

Mm-mm.

So with all this, in 1896, Mary Elizabeth decides to leave him and she returns to Dover, Delaware to live with her mother and father. His name was John B. Pennington. He was a working congressman in Delaware. He's kind of like a big deal out there, you know? Man of importance. So Mary Elizabeth takes her little daughter Mary with her and she gets out of San Francisco, moves in with her parents,

and decides just to move on with her life. So now that Mary Elizabeth is gone, she's out of the way, right? John and Cordelia are like, hey, we're free. You know, they're getting it on like teens on spring break. Because there's lots of alcohol, there's gambling, lots of sex. John, who hasn't been living this party lifestyle as long as Cordelia has,

I think he just, or he does get really wrapped up in it all. He can't keep his shit together. He's going hard. You know those people who are like new to the party game and...

They're just being idiots, sloppy drunks, losing all their money. That was John. He's just like, "Fool, what are you doing? Calm down." John's gambling becomes out of control and he racks up a huge debt. So now debt collectors are on his ass and John doesn't have any money, so...

John's thinking, "If I can just take some money from my job and gamble that money, then I could probably make money, pay off my debts, put the money back, and nobody will know." Great plan. Always seems to work, right? And like how usually most gambling addictions go, you dig yourself into a deep, deep hole.

So, John ends up stealing about $4,000 from his job, which in today's money would be about $126,000 to pay off of his gambling debts. But it didn't take long until his place of work found out that he was indeed stealing money, and then John gets fired.

I know, I'm surprised he didn't go to prison for this, but I don't know. The relationship between John and Cordelia would end up lasting almost three years. And then in March of 1898, the Associated Press, they were looking for a top notch reporter to do an excellent reporting because the United States was on the brink of what was about to become the Spanish American War. So they need someone to report on this. And John is like the best of the best.

So John gets hired for the job and he has this moment of clarity where he's like, okay, I got this great job opportunity. I got to stop partying, this lifestyle, Cordelia, like all of this just isn't for me anymore. John realized that he missed his wife and he realized that the new job opportunity was a way for him to get out. So John goes to Cordelia and he tells her, hey,

"I'm going away on assignment and things are over between us." He also went on to say that when he's done with the assignment, he's gonna go back to Delaware and try and win his wife back because he missed her deeply. Typical. Now you want me back? Cute.

Mm-hmm. How do you think that's gonna go over? I'm sure it's gonna go over smoothly. This news to Cordelia was devastating. She's begging him not to go, but he tells her like, "No, he has to do this, I'm leaving. This just isn't for me anymore." So John ends up leaving and he goes to Cuba for his new job opportunity and Cordelia,

She was not having a good time. She was having a very difficult time. Her life was now like at a standstill. She was depressed. She didn't understand why John just up and left her. How could he do this? She...

She gave him a place to live, she gave him everything. Now as the days go on, her depression now turns into anger. So Cordelia is thinking, "If I can't have John, then I guess nobody can have John." I don't know you guys, I think he has like beer flavored nipples or something, 'cause she wants them bad. Now back in Dover, Delaware, Mary Elizabeth, John's wife, she starts receiving handwritten letters detailing about the affair John was having in San Francisco.

The letters said John was constantly seen around with an extremely attractive woman, and that Mary Elizabeth should not take John back if he ever tried to come back to her. Now Mary Elizabeth is extremely upset by these letters, but she just like didn't know what to do with the information, so she takes all the letters and she stuffs them in a drawer. Out of sight, out of mind. So Mary Elizabeth had been getting these letters for about four or five months,

And then on August 9th, 1898, she gets a knock on the door. She opens the door and she finds a gift of chocolate bonbons wrapped in brown paper with a pink satin ribbon. She's like, oh my God, chocolate, yay.

So Mary opens up the box and sees that the chocolates are sitting on a lace handkerchief with the price tag still attached. And the note reads, quote, with love to yourself and baby, Miss C, end quote.

So Mary's thinking that the Miss C stood for Miss Corbally. It was one of her friends that she made back in San Francisco. So she's like, "Oh my God, that is so sweet of her. "I'm gonna save these chocolates for after dinner." So she puts the chocolates away and she's like, "I cannot wait to enjoy these treats." She had a lot more self-discipline than I do because I would have just eaten the whole box right then and there.

Good for her. So Mary Elizabeth and her family sit down to have dinner. Her sister and niece also came over to have dinner with the whole family. They had trout and corn fritters for dinner. Mm, so delicious. So again, olden days, no AC.

So when you cooked, especially with like a stove and stuff, it would get brutally hot in the house. So again, because it's so freaking hot, they go and they sit out on the front porch and they try to just sit there, cool off with the nighttime breeze. While sitting there, you guessed it, Mary was like, "Oh my God, I should go get those chocolates right now. We can enjoy them while we sit here on the porch." Great idea.

So she goes, she gets the lovely gift of chocolates and she, before going out to the porch, she has three pieces for herself.

And then she offered some to her family. She's like, this is my box, I'm having three pieces. You guys can only have one, okay? Now Cordelia's older sister also loves chocolate. So she helped herself to a couple pieces. And then the neighbors, their kids came over and they're just hanging out and they took one piece each.

Mary's mom and her dad passed on the chocolate. They were like, "We don't want any, it's okay, thank you." So they eat their chocolate and just enjoy the evening with each other's company. Then a couple of hours go by and everyone who ate the chocolate started getting really bad stomach aches.

and then all of a sudden start barfing, throwing up, oh God. Now everyone is puking, okay? Except for dad, Mary Elizabeth's dad, he calls the doctor because everyone is puking and he's the only one who wasn't sick. So the doctor comes out and he thinks that everybody has food poisoning. Yeah, food poisoning. You know, it must be the corn fritters. Corn fritters were probably bad food

food poisoning. But Mary Elizabeth's dad didn't think so because he had corn fritters and he wasn't throwing up. After a couple hours of some intense puking, everyone seemed to get better except for Mary Elizabeth and her sister. Both of them were just getting worse. So in addition to vomiting, they were also just

experiencing severe stomach pains, like gripping your stomach, Jesus, I'm coming home kind of pains. You know what I'm saying? The first doctor thought that their illness was coming from the corn fritters and Mary Elizabeth's dad, he knew better. He was like, it's not the corn fritters, okay? 'Cause I'm not sick, I should be sick. And he goes with his gut feeling and he calls another doctor to come and like check on his daughters. So this doctor, he didn't think that it was food poisoning, nay nay.

He thinks it's a poisoning, poisoning. The doctor tells the family that he believed they had been badly poisoned. And they're like, "Oh my God, like what do we do with this information that you have just given us?" And the doctor's like, "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do to save you. Have a good day." And then he takes off. I know, it's definitely useless other than telling them that they were poisoned, but there was literally nothing that he could do for them. He was like, "Good luck, bye." Their death,

that these two experienced was pretty hardcore. In addition to the severe stomach pains, they were also experiencing intense bloody diarrhea and delirium, which is basically a fancier word for saying that they were hallucinating. After a few days of this illness,

"Both Mary Elizabeth and her sister die a slow and awful death." So Mary Elizabeth's dad, he now just lost two daughters and he's out for blood. He is angry. He wants to track down who did this to them. He's thinking the common thing was that mysterious box of chocolates that showed up, right? Mary Elizabeth and her sisters were the ones that ate most of them and they were the ones that died. So he's thinking that can't be a coincidence.

You know? So what does dad do? So he's a smart man and he takes the few remaining pieces of chocolate and he sends them out to be analyzed by a local chemist by the name of Dr. Wood. Now Dr. Wood, his report came back and said that the chocolates tested positive for arsenic. Arsenic is a chemical element that is on the scientific table posted in your high school chemistry class.

but it's a heavy metal element commonly used in car batteries and ammunition, and it's also found in pesticides. But in the Victorian era, it was mixed with vinegar and chalk, and it was used as like a skin lightener by high society ladies who just wanted to, you know, look very pale as if they did not work out in the fields, 'cause that was the look back then. You don't wanna tan, you wanna be white as...

But one of the more famous uses of arsenic was as a poison. And arsenic is not a poison you wanna mess around with. You will suffer greatly.

greatly. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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Your cash back really adds up. So with Mary Elizabeth dead, dad knew that he had to tell his son-in-law, John Dunning, that his wife that he planned to come back to had died. So John was obviously no husband of the year, but the dad felt that he deserved to know his wife was dead. John, who remembered he still loved Mary Elizabeth very much and wanted to fix his marriage after he got back from Cuba, decided

He was devastated by this news. He packed his bags and he headed straight to Dover, Delaware as fast as he could. So he gets there in like 10 days. When John gets to Dover, Mary Elizabeth's dad tells him about the chocolates. Oh yes. So the dad is also cleaning out his daughter's things, right? And he finds those strange letters that were shoved in a drawer. Now, since John was obviously the topic of conversation in the letters,

The dad, he shows them to John, he's like, "Look what I found, these weird letters, someone was writing my daughter, and your name is mentioned practically on every page. It's saying here in this letter that you're having an affair, that you've been seen around town with some beautiful woman who is not my daughter. Explain yourself, like what is this situation?"

John takes one look at the letters and he knows exactly who wrote them. So he tells the dad, "Look, I know whose handwriting this is. I was seeing this woman named Cordelia Botkin, but I broke up with her because I missed Mary Elizabeth too much. I told her I was gonna come back, try and fix my marriage, and I guess she just didn't take the news so well." Dad then hands John the card from the box of chocolates and asks if he thinks

Cordelia, this Cordelia woman, was the one who wrote the card too. Now John takes a look at this and he's pissed because the card has the same handwriting as the letters, which means Cordelia most likely wrote the note herself, which means Cordelia probably sent those box of chocolates

Which meant that Cordelia most likely murdered his wife. So John tells his father-in-law that he remembered telling Cordelia how much of a crazy sweet tooth Mary Elizabeth had, and she must have like stashed that in her noggin, you know, filed that away, and used it against her.

He also might have mentioned that Mary Elizabeth had a friend named Miss Corbally, who lived in San Francisco, and that's maybe where she got the name Miss C from that was on the letter. So after all of this, dad is obviously mad, he's pissed off, because he knows, or he thinks he knows 100%, like who killed his daughters, and he wants justice.

and this dad is also a congressman, so he knows that he can't go committing revenge murder. The next best thing that he can do is call the police. So he does. So he calls the Dover police, and the Dover police department calls the San Francisco police because they needed help. The box of chocolates was purchased in San Francisco, and San Francisco police would have a better chance of hunting down where Cordelia was at.

than the Dover police, right? Since they don't, they're different cities. A detective from Dover hand delivers the murder evidence to the San Francisco PD. This included the remaining candy, the paper it came in, the handkerchief, and the San Francisco police chief, Isaiah W. Lees, he wasted no time and immediately gets to work building a case against Cordelia. Fun fact, Isaiah Lees, this guy, he's basically the godfather of the modern day mugshot. He didn't

necessarily invent the mugshot, but in a way he kind of did because he was the first police officer to make it a regular thing. When criminals were arrested, right, he started collecting pictures of these criminals starting in 1854 and by the time that 1898 rolled around, his police department had the largest collection of criminal photos. I thought that was cool.

Anyways, we don't know if Cordelia had a lengthy rap sheet at all, but based on her behaviors, you know, one could assume that she may have, which meant that they may have had a photo of her. And this would be super useful. And it's funny because maybe that's what Cordelia meant when she said that she had over a hundred photographs taken of her. Anyhow, back to the case. So the first thing Isiah Lees did was figure out where the box of chocolates came from.

That wasn't so hard because the brown paper and pink satin bow the box was wrapped in was pretty well known around San Francisco. Those were the wrappings that George Haas Confectionary, a popular candy store, used to gift wrap their chocolate. Now this chocolate,

George Haas Confectionary. They had four locations, which was like a big deal back then. First of all, everyone recognized the ribbon, but most of all, it was gonna be a little bit more challenging to track down the exact store that the box was sold at. But finally, after going to question everybody at the different candy stores, the chocolate stores, they find the store clerk who remembered selling half a box of chocolate bonbons on July 31st,

to a woman who was short, stout and kind of frumpy looking. And they're like, hey, that kind of sounds like Cordelia. And the clerk remembered that it was weird that the woman only wanted half a box of candy. So he asked her, why do you only want half? Like who gives half empty box of chocolate?

as a gift and the woman buying the chocolates told the clerk that she planned on adding in her own homemade chocolate to the box, which is weird because if you're gonna go out of your way to buy like top notch chocolates as a gift, unless you're an amazing baker, why would you put in your own homemade ones?

Okay, Cordelia, sure, you know. Also, it was found that on the handkerchief that was left in the box, it had a price tag left on it. So this led the investigators to the City of Paris department store, which at the time was San Francisco's most important department store,

So they go down to the department store and they talk to a saleswoman by the name of Miss Grace Harris. Now she remembered the customer who purchased the handkerchief because she thought that the woman looked just like her dead mother. This saleswoman also had like a picture of her mom with her and she's like, "She looks like my dead mom." And let me tell you, this woman's dead mother was like a dead ringer for Cordelia. They could have been

They could have been sisters. She wasn't wrong, but she remembered her because she told Cordelia, you look just like my dead mom. Wow. And she just remembered her. Now, there weren't many post office locations in the same area as the stores, so it wasn't too hard to find the post office attendant who helped a woman ship a box that was wrapped in brown paper with a pink bow.

The clerk, a man named John Dunnigan, he had no problem remembering the package sent to Miss John Dunning because he thought, oh my God, it sounds just like my name because his name is John Dunnigan. I know this is getting confusing, but he just remembered the box being shipped out and the detective is like, okay, can you tell us what the woman looked like? And he's like, oh yeah, it was this stout frumpy looking woman. And they're like, it's not looking good for Cordelia.

So they had three clues down and they had one to go. The last piece of the puzzle was the arsenic. Where did it come from? And this one seemed to be the hardest part for police to figure out because it wasn't wrapped up in a nice pretty bow like everything else was. And they couldn't find any leads as far as the arsenic went, but they did find a clue.

Right before they were about to give up, they finally talked to a clerk at the Owl Drugstore who remembered selling arsenic to a woman who, surprise surprise, also resembled Cordelia. Now it was really looking like Cordelia bought the chocolates and poisoned them with arsenic before mailing them to Mary Elizabeth. But the San Francisco Police Department had two more leads that they needed to follow up on.

They obtained a search warrant for the room that Cordelia was staying at in the Victoria Hotel to see if they could find anything else. So they get into Cordelia's home, she's not there, great. We already know like Cordelia is kind of sloppy with her killing job. So when they go inside, they see that she left the leftover string and wrapping paper that matched the box of chocolates in her room after she left.

Like she didn't throw it away. So she practically left like the smoking gun in her hotel room is what I'm getting at. Like girl. The final lead that the San Francisco Police Department needed to follow up on were the letters that were sent to Mary Elizabeth. So a local handwriting expert, he analyzes the handwriting on the note that came with the chocolates and the anonymous letters that were sent to Mary Elizabeth.

Now in the expert's opinion, there was no question. The note and letters were written by the same person. And when compared to the love letters that Cordelia had written to John, it seemed like a pretty open and shut case. Cordelia was the killer and they had caught her red handed.

So on October 28th, 1989, Chief Lees presented his case against Cordelia before the grand jury. He was pretty confident that they would charge Cordelia with murder, but he also knew his case had two super large holes. The first hole was that not all the chocolates tested positive for arsenic. This could be potentially a huge problem because the second hole was about the size of two graves.

meaning no one bothered to do an autopsy on either Mary Elizabeth or the sister before they were buried. So technically, Lee's had no concrete proof that the two of them died from arsenic poisoning in the first place. So remember, Mary Elizabeth's dad was super on top of stuff, so why he didn't have an autopsy done on his daughters is kind of like, why didn't you do that?

but this one was a little more out of his jurisdiction because the doctor in charge of the hospital morgue believed that the girls vomited so much that they had most likely purged the poison out of their system, so there was no point in doing an autopsy because the doctor was confident he wouldn't be able to find any traces of it.

Today, we know that the doctor had no idea what he was talking about. I mean, most doctors at the time didn't because let's face it, medicine at that time, it was like the stone ages, you know, people were just kind of guessing. But a toxicologist today would have known that traces of arsenic

would have remained in the bones, fingernails and hair, but 1898, they didn't have that knowledge yet. So they probably barfed it up. So Lees was super concerned that this no autopsy report thing was going to be a deal breaker for the grand jury, but,

They surprised him. It turns out that the grand jury felt that the San Francisco Police Department had done enough of their homework that not having this piece of evidence was really not that big of a deal. They barely blinked an eye when they indicted Cordelia on two counts of first degree murder. Police found Cordelia at her sister's house in Helzberg, California, and they arrested her.

Now this arrest didn't go quite the way that the police anticipated. They were hoping she would just confess to the murders and they could all skip the trial. And the mountain of paperwork that was probably gonna come along with it, they could skip that too, you know? But Cordelia surprised them. Not only did she refuse to confess, but she decided to fuck with the police who came to arrest her.

When the police showed up, they're like, pack your things, you're going to jail. And Cordelia said, you know, sure thing. Just wait right here and I'll go pack. And boy, did she pack. She packed her trunk so heavy that it took two police officers to carry it out of there. I guess she figured that she was probably going away for a while and she needed every outfit she owned or she was stalling. Now this case is interesting because it was the first case of murder by murder.

Oh yes. But it was also the first American prosecution for a crime that took place in two different jurisdictions. The state of California and the state of Delaware battled it out for a hot minute over who was going to oversee the court proceedings. Now Delaware argued that Cordelia should be tried in Dover because that's where the actual murder took place.

but California said, "No way, you can't extradite a person to a place where they've never been before." And California ended up winning that argument and Cordelia's trial began on December 6th, 1898. Now it was no big surprise when Cordelia pleaded not guilty before the San Francisco judge, but what was a big surprise was how fascinated the city of San Francisco was by the whole thing and it turned into a media circus.

So this case was getting a lot of attention. People were packing the courtroom to the gills. They were just eating up all this drama. They were fascinated, fascinated by Cordelia's private life and her sexual indiscretions.

The newspapers reported on Cordelia's excessive vanity, they called it. They also talked about her love for posing for photographs in a very sexually suggestive way. Of course, they're mainly in the media focusing on how she looks and her sexuality and all of that because you know,

She was the villain you love to hate and they wanted every salacious scandalous detail about her. Now, Victorian era, remember? No TV, no trash TV, no reality TV, right? None of that. The People, they had to rely on the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner for their hot gossip. They essentially were the People magazine of back in the day.

In the beginning of Cordelia's trial, the prosecution laid out a pretty solid case. They presented the handwriting analysis that they had done, and they had witnesses speak about the different items that Cordelia bought, and they also pulled out the string and the brown paper that were found in Cordelia's hotel room. Now during all of it, Cordelia just pretty much sat there, it was said that she was just...

Emotionless, nothing. Now Cordelia would show up to court very dramatic. She was dressed in like an all black dress. She would have a white lace handkerchief in her hand and it looked like she was going to a funeral. I just can't imagine how judgmental it was back then. Oh God.

The media though, they would describe her as a quote, smug, self-satisfied, cunning little woman, end quote. But they really painted her as the villain, which I guess she was, but I mean, most of all, it was selling newspapers more than anything else. They needed this villain to sell papers.

Now people were so eager to get a glimpse of John Dunning. They wanted to know what is so special about this guy that it was worth murdering over, you know? Like we have to see what he looks like. Who is he? This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

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Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. So people are just excited when it was his day to, like, come into the courtroom. He must be super hot if he's worth murdering over, right? Well, when John showed up, people were very disappointed when he entered the courtroom.

The newspapers described him as whiny and the papers also mentioned that he had a good cleft chin, which I guess is a good thing.

but the newspapers also said that John had narrow shoulders and thinning hair, and they were just going in on John and Cordelia's looks. Not much has changed, huh? So John ends up taking the stand, and the defense questioned him about the number of women that he had slept with in San Francisco. They really wanted to show the jurors that John had many lovers, and any of them could have been the one that murdered Mary Elizabeth.

And you know what? John tells the courtroom that he could not remember who he slept with or any of their names. He would go on to say that he could remember three names in addition to Cordelia's, but he wasn't going to say who they were and what their names were. The prosecution, they weren't having any of that.

So they decided to teach John a lesson and threw him in jail for the night. They were like, "Hey, maybe sitting your ass in jail will jog your memory." But nope, John still refused. So the judge figures, let's put him another night in jail, maybe that will make him speak. At first I couldn't figure out why they wanted that information so bad, like why does it matter? But it makes sense, like they wanted to pin it on somebody else.

But John refused to give anyone's names. He did not want these people, these women, to be dragged into this whole mess and get thrown into the middle of all of it and then have a murder pinned on them. So John just, he didn't reveal who they were. He kept his mouth shut. Bravo, John, honestly, that's

'Cause like it would have went completely south. Those poor women would have been brought into it. It would have been a hot mess. So good for him. The defense team, they realized we're not gonna get any answers from John. So let's just let it go, I guess. Now, when it was Cordelia's turn to take the stand, it was like her whole presence was scripted. We know Cordelia thought that she was hot shit, but her legal team wanted her to tone it down a little bit. So she spoke with like an up and down voice.

upbeat and pleasant tone that the defense team thought the jury would find endearing. They also wanted her to sound intelligent and independent, right? So they're like telling her, "Here's what you're gonna say. "Here's how you should talk. "Here's how you should sit. "You know, it's hard to convict a woman you like."

Right? During questioning, Cordelia did admit to purchasing arsenic back in June, which was like, what? At this time, they didn't know that. So she admits to this, but she said she bought it because she wanted to clean a straw hat with it. She loved her straw hat. It needs to be cleaned. She was upset because she didn't see how this pinned the murder on her because she purchased powdered arsenic, not the crystalline type that was found in the chocolates.

So Cordelia also claimed to have an alibi that could prove that she did not purchase the chocolate or mailed the package on the days in question. But when they told her, "Okay, what's your alibi? Like bring them in here, let's have them questioned." No one ever came forward to support her alibi. Go, you're a mess, get it together.

The trial only lasted about three weeks, and on the day of closing statements, a line of over 500 people formed outside the courthouse. Everyone wanted to be there for the grand finale, right? Everyone's trying to get inside, and of course, the courthouse can't fit that many people.

So the examiner came up with a brand new idea. Instead of taking the time to collect the news, run back to the printing press, lay out the type and print of the trial results, the newspaper executives decided to do something super innovative for this time, live news.

I know, good for them. They essentially like invented Twitter during this time, but they didn't even know it, you know? And they didn't, I'm exaggerating. But they built this big billboard out of wood in front of the courthouse and the reporters, they would rotate running in and out of the courtroom with minute by minute updates that were posted onto this board, which was large enough for everyone who was standing outside was able to read this.

Now, so they're updating this board and people are able to get like what's happening. Great. On December 30th, after four hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Cordelia of murder. And on February 4th, Judge Cook sentenced her to life in prison. Now when they updated that little board outside, the crowd erupted. Everyone was so excited. It was like New Year's Day.

They had nothing else going on, you know, it was exciting to them. So Cordelia is carted off to the San Francisco jail, but she doesn't seem to stay there that long. So a couple of months later, it was like a Sunday, the judge, Judge Cook, he's out doing some shopping in downtown San Francisco, and while he's out doing some shopping, he spots who he believes is Cordelia out shopping as well. He's like,

She's supposed to be in prison. You know, why is she running around shopping? What is going on? He was super confused and he needed to get to the bottom of this. So instead of approaching her, because he doesn't want to tip her off that he knows and then she could potentially run for it, he doesn't say anything and then he decides that he's going to launch his own investigation as to why Cordelia was wandering out and about free as a bird. Ma'am.

You killed someone, no! So he discovers that Cordelia was up to her old tricks again. Cordelia was exchanging sexual favors for shit, you know? She managed to get her own private jail cell, a more comfortable mattress and pillows, and the freedom to leave the prison grounds whenever she wanted. She must

have had a magical hoo-ha, if you know what I'm saying. Like she was getting all sorts of stuff. The judge tried to get a case against the guards because they're obviously like working with Cordelia here, they need to be fired. And then Cordelia needs to lose her privileges, but literally nothing.

Nobody would admit about this little trade that was going on between Cordelia and the guards. Nobody said a word. So it was like they couldn't do anything because they didn't have any, they don't even know who's doing it. And then word got to Cordelia that she was spotted out shopping and she used this to her advantage. She's like, oh my God, look, I haven't left the prison. So whoever the judge saw out there in the city, it must've been the real murderer.

And this is just a case of a mistaken identity. So she's trying to milk it like, "I have a twin out there who's committing murders and it's not me." She thought someone was gonna believe it, but no one believed her bullshit, you know? She tried. So you're probably wondering what happened to Cordelia's son. Yeah, I know. You probably forgot she had a son 'cause honestly, so did I.

There's really not much said about her son, Beverly, his feelings towards his mother after the outcome of her trial, what happened to him, where was he during all this, you know? I don't know, nothing, zip, zada. But after Cordelia is found guilty of murder, her husband, Welcome, finally had the ammunition he needed to be able to file for divorce. Because being charged with a felony is a major no-no in Victorian society. Well, being charged with a felony is still a no-no today, but back

Back in the Victorian society days, it was a way for you to be able to get out of a marriage. So, Welcome wanted a divorce because Cordelia was found guilty of murder. He was able to get out of the marriage. Do you see what I'm saying? You get what I'm saying. Because she went to prison, that was his way out. So, Welcome was happy because he was trapped in this loveless, useless marriage and Welcome was finally free. You're welcome.

Now Mary Elizabeth's father lived just long enough to see justice served. He would go on to die on June 1st, 1902, and then two years later Cordelia's lawyer tried to file an appeal and get her conviction overturned. She tried her best, but once again, everyone saw right through her. They did a retrial and she was convicted again on August 2nd, 1904. And once again, Cordelia was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The second trial didn't get nearly the same level of newspaper attention as the first go round, so not much is really said about the read trial and not much is out there about the read trial because unfortunately all the original trial records were destroyed in the San Francisco 1906 earthquake and fire. Iconic earthquake that destroyed San Francisco.

This earthquake also destroyed the jail that Cordelia was living in, so she was transferred to San Quentin State Prison. Now that prison is no joke, okay? That's like, that's like real prison. That's where all of the death row inmates go and hang out together.

So it must have been no picnic in the park, because in 1908 she applied for parole on the basis of bad health, but her request was denied. She remained at San Quentin until her death on March 7th, 1910 at the age of 56.

which was considered still pretty young back then. The official cause of death was softening of the brain due to melancholy. So essentially she died of depression. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

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Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. It's not hard to understand why she might have died from depression. The last few years of her life were very rough for Cordelia. Aside from being at San Quentin, first of all, she lost just about everyone she was close to.

Her father died in 1900 after being kicked by a horse. Her now ex-husband, Wellcome, he died on May 2nd in 1904 from heart failure. And then their son died the following year also from heart failure. So for Cordelia, it was just loss after loss after loss after loss, and they believe that's what led her to die.

So remember John, John Dunning, the lover? Poor John, he could not escape this whole situation without it just destroying his life. Let me tell you, it just destroyed his life because this whole like relationship and affair with Cordelia came out during the trial, right? And other details about him drinking, gambling, whoring around with a ton of different women.

This is all like public information during the trial. So aside from being associated with Cordelia and being wrapped up in all that drama, John, he became an undesirable man, is what he was considered. Nobody wanted to be associated with him, nobody wanted to hire him, and so once again, his career was destroyed. Poor guy. He really didn't deserve it, to be honest. He just got wrapped up in some bullshit, okay? And they destroyed his life after that. I mean, luckily for him,

He didn't suffer that long because John died in Philadelphia in 1908. So poor guy. I don't know, I was trying to make it positive. At least he died so he's not humiliated. So Cordelia's story is kind of a sad one. You have to give her credit for taking charge of her own life. Look, talking about sex and being sexual is just completely

like hell freaking no, something you did not do back then, right? The fact that Cordelia was brave enough to be like, "Eh, you guys think I'm ugly? Not me though. I'm hot and I got tits. Like I'm gonna show 'em, okay?" Like she just did her thing and that I can respect for sure.

Good for her. Unfortunately, she would go on to make some terrible decisions, bad choices. She snapped from heartbreak. But again, I'm gonna give her a little bit of credit here 'cause she did get creative and she poisoned some chocolates. Like that, again, not really heard of, not a thing. Death by mail, murder by mail, not a thing. It's a shame that she put all of this energy towards being a bad person instead of just being a good person because she had some ideas.

In the end though, Cordelia was just a very insecure woman who wanted John all to herself and murdered a woman who lived 6,000 miles away so she could have John. At the end of the day, she's a pretty fucked up lady. And that my friends is a story of Cordelia Botkin. Very interesting woman. Murder by mail. So what did we learn here today? I think what we learned here today is that nobody is worth murdering over, okay?

I don't know what else to tell you. Nobody is worth it. And I hope that's what you learned today. Oh, also another thing we can take away here is like, if you're ever fighting over a man with somebody, just let fucking let it go. Like it's not worth it. Let someone else have them. Your day will come. Anywho, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Make good choices. I'll be seeing you guys later.

Bonus Episode: Death By Delicious Chocolate - Cordelia Botkin was WILD 49:35 Share

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Bonus Episode: Death By Delicious Chocolate - Cordelia Botkin was WILD