On This Day in Murder... April 1st, 1935

Tyrell Tilford is Poisoned by his Wife, Who Went on to Become the First Woman Executed in Canada in 62 Years

Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Tilford

 

When 35 year old Tyrell Tilford passed away in his home on April 1st, 1935, his death was initially attributed to 'myocarditis', which is the inflammation of heart muscle, which he had been suffering from for some time. His death registration also noted that contributory causes were the flu, and catarrhal jaundice, which is more commonly known as hepatitis A.

Death Registration Record for Tyrell Tilford

Tyrell Tilford was born November 10th, 1899 in Shardlow, Derbyshire, England, the 2nd youngest of 15 children born to James William Tilford & Mary Butcher. He first came to Canada in 1919, arriving in New Brunswick at the age of 20, with his sixteen year old sister Alice. In 1926, some of their family would come to join them in Canada; siblings, nieces and nephews, and also their parents.

At the time of his death Tyrell, a teamster, was living at 37 Cronyn St. in Woodstock, Ontario with his wife of five years, Elizabeth Ann, who was almost 20 years older than he. After he passed away, it wasn't long before the rumours about his death started, and it would seem for good reason; this was not the first time that Elizabeth Tilford, mother of nine children, had been married, or for that matter had become a widow - it was, in fact, the third time.

Grave of Tyrell Tilford, buried with his parents, in Woodstock (rootsweb)

Though three dead husband's does not a murderer make; it could not have helped her case any, especially coupled with the rumours that started before he was even dead; mostly stories that she was a bit too 'friendly' with other men. Other rumours that swirled around were of strange comments made by Elizabeth prior to his death; she had been complaining that she no longer received the widow's allowance from her previous husband's demise, and that she had inquired about the amount of insurance on her husband about six weeks before his death. She was also accused of making comments to another woman about how she could get "rid of" her husband - with poison.  The rumours came from somewhat unreliable sources (the woman who testified that she made that comment was a notorious gossip and busybody, and in fact the conversation had taken place before Elizabeth and Tyrell were married), yet they seemed hard to just ignore.

Three dead husbands by the time she was 55 years old; was it just bad luck, or was there something more sinister behind Elizabeth's tragic life story? Despite not much more than rumours and circumstantial evidence, the police believed the later. It was reportedly a phone call to police by a neighbour, who said that Elizabeth has called her after Tyrell's death, and asked her not to mention to anyone that she purchased arsenic, that convinced police to take another look at the circumstances of her husband's death. Tyrell Tilford's body was exhumed secretively during the night on April 25th, less than a month after his death. Analysis of the contents of his stomach revealed trace amounts of arsenic. On June 6th, 1935, police officially announced that there was an inquest into his death, and by June 11th, they had officially charged Elizabeth Tilford with the murder of her husband.

Another photo of Elizabeth Tilford

Though I have been unable to confirm all of these facts, her story was reported as follows:
Elizabeth Tilford was born Elizabeth Ann Kaye in 1879 in Yorkshire, England, and married her first husband, Fred Yaxley, at the age of fifteen, in approximately 1894. She said she married him after "a challenge from an older woman"; he left her for another woman 6 months later. She admits that she did not get a divorce prior to marrying her cousin, William Walker in 1911. Fred passed away sometime after she had remarried. It is with her second husband that she first came to Canada in 1928. Unfortunately, shortly they arrived, William went blind, and was unable to work. He passed away in 1929. She then met Tyrell Tilford, who was to become her 3rd and final husband, in Woodstock, where they both sang in the same choir. Tyrell came from an honourable and well respected family, though some sources mentioned that he was not a very ambitious or bright man.

The more police learned about Elizabeth, the more suspicious they became.  On June 14th, 1935, the body of William Walker, Elizabeth's 2nd husband, was exhumed from the Baptist Cemetery in Woodstock, on special order by the Ontario Attorney General's Department. When he had passed in away in 1929, his cause of death was certified as a brain tumor. Police were now suspicious of his death as well, so his organs were removed and taken to Toronto for analysis, and he was re-interred. No poison was found in his system, though that didn't convince many people in town that he wasn't indeed murdered.

Death Registration record for William Walker, Elizabeth's 2nd husband.

When she went on trial that all, Elizabeth did not have a lot to say in her own defense; in fact, not one witness was called to testify on her behalf. Instead, the entirety of her defense relied on convincing the jury that Tyrell Tilford had poisoned himself, possibly unintentionally, as he was apparently taking a medicine, for his already ill health, that contained some arsenic. The defense claimed that the arsenic that was found in his body was not enough to have killed him, and that it might only have contributed to his delusional state of mind before he passed from natural causes. A delusional state in which he was said to have made some damning claims against his wife to members of his family, including that she was trying to poison him.

Eleven witnesses were called to testify against her, including those members of Tyrell's family who claimed he had made comments about his wife wanting him dead, and expressed worry over being poisoned. The prosecution attempted to paint a picture of Elizabeth as a cold-hearted, manipulative, gold-digging murderess. They were seemingly successful; on October 2nd, after six hours of deliberation, Elizabeth Ann Tilford was convicted of capital murder in the poisoning death of her husband Tyrell Tilford. The conviction came with an automatic sentence of death; the jury did not recommend mercy.

Still proclaiming her innocence, Elizabeth Tilford appealed her conviction to no avail, seeking a new trial, or better yet, clemency. When informed that her final appeal had been denied, Tilford reportedly said in a message to her lawyer, "It's better to go innocent than to stay here guilty". While she waited for her death sentence to be carried out, Tilford was said to able to hear the scaffold to be used for the hanging being erected outside in the courtyard of the jail below her cell.

Elizabeth Ann Kaye-Yaxley-Walker-Tilford was judicially hanged at 1am on December 17th, 1935 in the Woodstock County jailyard. She was the first woman to be hanged in Canada in 62 years, and she maintained her innocence until the very end. None of her family were present at the hanging. She was said to have appeared very weak, was noticeably trembling, and was close to collapse as she walked up the scaffold in the falling snow to meet her fate. A small funeral and burial at Woodstock's Baptist Cemetery, with 13 people in attendance including some members of the press and a prison matron, followed her hanging.

Death Registration Record for Elizabeth Ann Tilford

Grave of Elizabeth Ann Tilford, Baptist Cemetery, Woodstock (rootsweb)

On This Day in Murder... March 16th, 1938

Lillie Mae Curtis Murders 6 of her 9 Children

On the night of Wednesday, March 16th, 1938, in Center, Texas, 38 year old Lillie Mae Curtis kissed her children goodnight, and then sat in a chair nearby watching them, waiting with a .22 caliber pistol on her lap for them to fall asleep.

Lillie Mae Curtis

After she determined they were all sleeping, she went from the oldest to the youngest child, shooting each one in the heart. First was Thomas "T.O", who had turned 13 just 3 days prior, followed by Gloria Gene, 11; Billie Burk, 9; Robert, 8; Margie Dee, 7; and Marcia Jack, 5. The only child in the house that night that she spared was 15 year old Travis James. It was to him that she immediately confessed the crime, and he promptly called police. Her other two children were thankfully not in the house; her oldest child, Opal, 18, was married and living with her husband, and her son Vance, 17, was visiting his grandparents at the time of the crime. Gravesite photos courtesy of http://www.findagrave.com.

Graves of Thomas "T.O", Gloria

Billie Burk, Robert Jr,

Margie Ree & Marcie Jack.

Lillie Mae describes the killings in her own words; "I kissed them all good night and sent them to bed and then got my gun out of my dresser".  She continued, "I went back into the kitchen and sat down with the gun across my lap. I waited to be sure that all were asleep. Then I went to the bed of T.O and shot him first. Then I killed the others according to their ages, leaving the baby until the last".  She went on to describe that although none of the children woke up before being shot, several of them struggled after they were shot, while the others died immediately without ever realizing what had occurred.

She was found alone in the woods about 400 yards from where the bodies of her children lay, all 6 dead of gunshot wounds, and was arrested. She readily admitted to the murders, "I have no money and they are better off dead", Lillie is quoted as having said to Sheriff Sample. "Last night I decided to kill them because we had no money and I was unable to support them. They were too young to support themselves and were better off dead".

Another photo of murderer Lillie Mae Curtis.

Surprisingly, this was not Lillie Mae's first murder.  Three years prior, in an eerily similar fashion, she had murdered her husband, 41 year old Robert Curtis, in 1935 by shooting him in the head while he slept. She was tried for the murder, and given a 5 year suspended sentence by a jury. Perhaps the jurors felt that, with 9 children depending on her, she should be given a break. One can't help but realize that if they had given her a stiffer sentence, Lillie Mae Curtis would not have had the opportunity to murder six of her children just three years later.  Then again, perhaps if she had not killed her husband to begin with, she might have been able to better cope financially and emotionally with raising her nine children. The entire family can be seen (minus the 2 youngest children, who were not yet born) below on the 1930 United States census, family #8:

1930 US census record courtesy of The National Archives.

As for what happened to Lillie Mae Curtis; she was tried for the murder of his six children in April of 1938, and apparently showed no emotion when the verdict was read, and she was found guilty on all counts. Newspaper accounts vary, some saying she received one total sentence of 99 years, some saying she was sentenced to 99 years per murder (for a total of 594 years). Either way, she served only 42 years of her sentence, and was released in October of 1970. She was 70 years old.  She was reportedly released early for good behaviour. She moved in with her eldest surviving child, her daughter Opal, living with her in East Texas until her death 10 years later.

The Grave of Robert R. & Lillie Mae Curtis.  Photo courtesy of Findagrave.com.

Lillie May Curtis died February 3rd, 1980 at the age of 80, and was buried with the husband that she had shot and killed 45 years earlier, in the same Cemetery as the graves of the six children she brutally murdered only three years later while they slept.