Murder victim. Born circa 1846, 18-year-old Lydia Struck was the second 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. Unlike her younger siblings, the teenaged Lydia was not initially considered a burden by her self-absorbed widowed mother. A sweet, pretty girl, she was employed as a clerk in a Harlem dry goods store and had attracted the attentions of a suitor named John Smith. Unfortunately, however, she was forced to give up her job to nurse a younger sister in fragile health, as her mother was pre-occupied as a nursing assistant to a local physician. Though young Lydia worked at home sewing bonnets, the inevitable loss of household income caused her mother to resent her as much as her ailing younger sister. Predeceased earlier that same year by her father and five younger siblings---all victims of arsenic poisoning---and an elder sister Josephine, who'd died in infancy in the 1840's, probably of natural causes, Lydia became the last of her mother's children to die at her hands. The deaths, though considered tragic, did not raise suspicion in an era when half of all children born did not survive to adulthood, and diseases such as tuberculosis and typhoid were both common and fatal, and to all outward appearances her seemed an upstanding woman and admirable nurse. Horrifyingly, she went on on to poison 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 1846, 18-year-old Lydia Struck was the second 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. Unlike her younger siblings, the teenaged Lydia was not initially considered a burden by her self-absorbed widowed mother. A sweet, pretty girl, she was employed as a clerk in a Harlem dry goods store and had attracted the attentions of a suitor named John Smith. Unfortunately, however, she was forced to give up her job to nurse a younger sister in fragile health, as her mother was pre-occupied as a nursing assistant to a local physician. Though young Lydia worked at home sewing bonnets, the inevitable loss of household income caused her mother to resent her as much as her ailing younger sister. Predeceased earlier that same year by her father and five younger siblings---all victims of arsenic poisoning---and an elder sister Josephine, who'd died in infancy in the 1840's, probably of natural causes, Lydia became the last of her mother's children to die at her hands. The deaths, though considered tragic, did not raise suspicion in an era when half of all children born did not survive to adulthood, and diseases such as tuberculosis and typhoid were both common and fatal, and to all outward appearances her seemed an upstanding woman and admirable nurse. Horrifyingly, she went on on to poison 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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