Murder victim. Born circa October 1863, baby William was the youngest of seven children born to Edward Struck, a former member of New York City's Metropolitan Police Force, and his second wife, the former Lydia Danbury--- eventually to become infamous as the Victorian era serial killer Lydia Sherman. The cause of 9-month-old William's death was listed as "bronchitis", but he and his young siblings Edward and Martha Ann were actually poisoned in July 1864 by their recently widowed mother, who considered them a burden, and died within hours of each other. Predeceased by their father months earlier, also a victim of arsenic poisoning, and their eldest sister Josephine, who'd died in infancy in the 1840's, probably of natural causes, the deaths did not raise suspicion at a time when half of all the children born did not survive to adulthood. It was not until after baby William's mother went on to poison his three surviving full-siblings and two subsequent husbands, among others, before the law caught up with her. The Struck children are buried here with their father in Trinity Cemetery in upper Manhattan.
Murder victim. Born circa October 1863, baby William was the youngest of seven children born to Edward Struck, a former member of New York City's Metropolitan Police Force, and his second wife, the former Lydia Danbury--- eventually to become infamous as the Victorian era serial killer Lydia Sherman. The cause of 9-month-old William's death was listed as "bronchitis", but he and his young siblings Edward and Martha Ann were actually poisoned in July 1864 by their recently widowed mother, who considered them a burden, and died within hours of each other. Predeceased by their father months earlier, also a victim of arsenic poisoning, and their eldest sister Josephine, who'd died in infancy in the 1840's, probably of natural causes, the deaths did not raise suspicion at a time when half of all the children born did not survive to adulthood. It was not until after baby William's mother went on to poison his three surviving full-siblings and two subsequent husbands, among others, before the law caught up with her. The Struck children are buried here with their father in Trinity Cemetery in upper Manhattan.
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