26 Facts About Lizzie Halliday

Lizzie Halliday killed a nurse while institutionalized and is speculated to have killed her first two husbands.

Lizzie Halliday, originally Eliza Margaret McNally, was born around 1859 in County Antrim, Ireland.

Lizzie Halliday's family moved to the US when she was young.

In 1879, Lizzie Halliday married a Greenwich, New York, man known by the alias Charles Hopkins; his real name was Ketspool Brown.

Lizzie Halliday went on to marry George Smith, a war veteran who had served with Brewer.

Lizzie Halliday married Vermont resident Charles Playstel, but she vanished two weeks later.

Lizzie Halliday was sentenced to two years at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary.

Lizzie Halliday was acquitted of the crime on the grounds of insanity.

In May 1891, the Lizzie Halliday house was burned to the ground, killing Lizzie Halliday's intellectually disabled son John.

Lizzie Halliday was again suspected of setting the fire since she was known to have disliked John.

Lizzie Halliday claimed that he died trying to save her from the flames, but his locked bedroom door was discovered in the rubble, and Halliday was in possession of the key.

Lizzie Halliday attempted to run off with another man, but was arrested and sent to an asylum.

Lizzie Halliday was transferred to another asylum, but was then declared cured and released, returning home to Halliday.

Lizzie Halliday claimed he had gone to a nearby town to do masonry work.

The women were later identified as Margaret and Sarah McQuillan, New York residents who were part of the family Lizzie Halliday had stayed with in Philadelphia.

Lizzie Halliday was kept in custody, and some thought she was merely faking insanity.

Lizzie Halliday was charged with the murders and held for trial at the Sullivan County jail in Monticello, New York.

Lizzie Halliday was covered by the World's Nellie Bly, who eventually managed to get an interview with Lizzie in which she revealed her previous marriages, facts Bly was able to confirm.

The Sullivan County Sheriff started a new round of speculation when he told the press that Lizzie Halliday was probably connected to the Jack the Ripper murders, although no connection was ever made.

The revelation that she had been married five times before she wed Paul Halliday, that two of her husbands had died less than a year after their weddings and that Lizzie had tried to poison a third led the press to speculate that she was responsible for at least six deaths.

On June 21,1894, Lizzie Halliday was convicted at the Sullivan County Oyer and Terminer Court for the murder of Margaret McQuillan and Sarah Jane McQuillan.

Lizzie Halliday became the first woman ever to be sentenced to death by electrocution, via New York State's new electric chair.

Lizzie Halliday was sent to the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where she spent the remainder of her life.

Lizzie Halliday became a model patient and was trusted with sewing privileges, giving her access to tools, including scissors.

Lizzie Halliday grew close to Nellie Wicks, one of the attendants at Matteawan, but she was deeply upset by Wicks's plans to leave the institution.

Lizzie Halliday died of Bright's disease on June 28,1918, after spending nearly half her life in the asylum.