Murder victim. Born circa 1858, 6-year-old Martha Ann was the fifth 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 the little girl's death was listed as "remittant fever", but she and her young siblings, baby William and 4-year-old Edward, were actually poisoned in July 1864 by their recently widowed mother, who considered them a burden. They died within hours of each other. Predeceased by their father two 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, their deaths did not raise suspicion in an era when half of all children born did not survive to adulthood. Horrifyingly, little Martha's mother went on to poison her three surviving full-siblings and two subsequent husbands, among others, before being apprehended. The Struck children are buried here with their father in Trinity Cemetery in upper Manhattan.
Murder victim. Born circa 1858, 6-year-old Martha Ann was the fifth 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 the little girl's death was listed as "remittant fever", but she and her young siblings, baby William and 4-year-old Edward, were actually poisoned in July 1864 by their recently widowed mother, who considered them a burden. They died within hours of each other. Predeceased by their father two 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, their deaths did not raise suspicion in an era when half of all children born did not survive to adulthood. Horrifyingly, little Martha's mother went on to poison her three surviving full-siblings and two subsequent husbands, among others, before being apprehended. The Struck children are buried here with their father in Trinity Cemetery in upper Manhattan.
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