IDAHO WOMAN SLAYS SIX, CHARGE: GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE, MAY 13, 1921

The police in Honolulu were holding her as Mrs. Paul Vincent Southard, a sailor's bride of six months, and within a day the papers were printing her other names. On May 13, 1921, the Great Falls Tribune in Montana ran a banner across the full width of page 2 that put the whole accusation in five words: "IDAHO WOMAN SLAYS SIX, CHARGE." The woman was Lyda Trueblood, once a waitress in Twin Falls, whose parents still farmed at Kimberly. Her new husband, a petty officer stationed at Pearl Harbor, had already told the police something they wanted to hear: she had tried to get him to take out $10,000 worth of life insurance.

The case against her came out of Salt Lake City, from the prosecuting attorney of Twin Falls County, Frank L. Stephan. He had opened the graves of Robert C. Dooly, her first husband; Dooly's brother Edward; William G. McHaffie; Harlan C. Lewis; and Edward F. Meyer, whom she had married at Pocatello on August 19, 1920, and who was dead nineteen days later. State chemists in Idaho and Utah, Herman Harms and Edwin F. Rodenbaugh, had analyzed what was in their stomachs and found, Stephan said, the same deadly poison in every one. The first three husbands had been buried with ordinary causes on their certificates: typhoid bronchitis, influenza and diphtheria, gastroenteritis. A Dooly baby, the paper adds, had died at three or four of what was reported as typhoid fever.

The money was laid out next to the dead. Insurance had been carried on all five men with her as beneficiary, and she was said to have collected at least $9,500. Meyer's policy had been raised from $2,000 to $10,000 shortly before he died, and she never tried to claim it. Then came the detail that would matter most in court: a quantity of poison "such as is used for the extermination of insect pests" in the ranch house she had shared with Meyer, and the same kind of poison hidden in the house at Billings where she had lived with Lewis. Idaho charged her with one death, Meyer's, and six months later a jury in Twin Falls decided that one alone.

These are three dispatches under one banner, built from what a prosecutor and a deputy sheriff told reporters; none of it had been tested in court. The column disagrees with itself: the headline makes her 28 and the body 23 (she was 28), Robert Dooly dies on October 12, 1915, in one paragraph and October 1 in another, Meyer is "Edward M." once and "Edward F." elsewhere, and Southard serves on the Monterey and the Chicago and marries her on November 20 or November 28. Other records spell the family Dooley, date McHaffie's death October 1, 1918, and call Lewis Harlen, a car salesman. She was convicted of second-degree murder of Edward F. Meyer on November 4, 1921; the other five deaths were never tried.

This issue of the Great Falls Tribune came off the press in 1921, more than ninety-five years ago, and is in the public domain in its entirety. The scan is the Library of Congress copy held in Chronicling America. Because the banner runs across the whole of page 2, it was cropped as a separate image from the article beneath it; the citation and the Library's rights statement are given under the scan.

Every word below was taken from the scan, and the small type held up well enough that no word is marked illegible. The compositor's slips are left as he set them, among them the subhead "Falls in Two Cases," "Los Angeels," "Doolly," "Stephen" for the prosecutor Stephan, the doubled comma in "July 6,, 1919," and the puzzling "her position caused the death." The husband's name wanders between Meyer, Meyers and Myer, as it does on the page.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

IDAHO WOMAN SLAYS SIX, CHARGE

ARRESTED ON HONEYMOON WITH FIFTH SPOUSE; FIVE MEN AND CHILD, VICTIMS

Lyda Meyers, 28, Waitress of Twin Falls, Idaho, Held in Honolulu; $9,500 in Life Insurance Collected; Stomachs of Bodies Exhumed Reveal Deadly Poison; Billings Man Also Victim.

Honolulu, May 12.—(By The Associated Press).—Mrs. Paul Vincent Southard, also known as Mrs. Lyda Meyer, was held by the police here today on orders from Los Angeles in connection with the deaths of four of her husbands, a brother-in-law and a child of one of the men she married.

Paul Southard, whom she married in Los Angeles last November, told the police here she tried to get him to take out $10,000 worth of life insurance. He is a petty officer on the U. S. S. Monterey, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Mrs. Southard, police say, has agreed to return without extradition.

Salt Lake City, May 12.—Lyda Meyer, charged with the murder of her fourth husband, Edward M. Meyer, at Twin Falls, Idaho, September 7, 1920, was arrested at Honolulu Thursday, according to a dispatch received by the Salt Lake Telegram. V. S. Ormsby, deputy sheriff of Twin Falls, at present in Los Angeles, said that he was awaiting extradition papers being prepared at Twin Falls to bring her back to Idaho for trial. The deputy sheriff also informed the paper that Mrs. Meyer married Vincent Southard of the U. S. S. Chicago, November 20 last.

Prosecuting Attorney Frank L. Stephan of Twin Falls county, Idaho, said Mrs. Southard's matrimonial record was investigated for the purpose of determining the causes and fixing the responsibility for the deaths of three other former husbands, an infant child by Robert Dooly, her first husband, and Dooly's brother Edward.

Insurance Motive, Belief.

Insurance in which Mrs. Southard was the beneficiary was carried on the lives of all five men, Stephan said, and of which she is said to have collected at least $9,500. Mrs. Southard, who is 23 years old, worked for a time as a waitress at Twin Falls, after Meyers' death. She departed for California last winter. Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Trueblood, who live on a farm at Kimberly, Twin Falls county.

Prosecutor Stephan said he had in his possession evidence which would establish that her position caused the death of Robert C. Dooly, McHaffie, Harlan C. Lewis and Edward F. Myer, respectively, first second, third and fourth husbands, and Edward Dooly, brother of her first husband. Stephan said the bodies of these men had been exhumed and the contents of their stomachs analyzed by Herman Harms and Edwin F. Rodenbaugh, state chemists, respectively of Idaho and Utah, and that a deadly poison had been found. The poison in each case was said to have been the same.

Matrimonial History.

The woman's arrest on a charge of murdering Meyer was made as a result of the chemists' report, Stephan said.

Mrs. Southard's matrimonial history and the dates of her husbands' deaths as given out by the authorities follows:

Married Robert C. Dooly an Idaho farmer at Twin Falls March 17, 1912; died in Twin Falls hospital October 12, 1915, typhoid bronchitis as the cause.

Married William G. McHaffie, Twin Falls waiter, at Twin Falls in June, 1917, died at Hardin, Mont., October 22, 1918; death reported to have been from influenza and diphtheria.

Married Harlan C. Lewis, automobile mechanic of Billings, Mont., at Denver, Colo., March 10, 1919; died at Billings July 6,, 1919; cause of death reported as gastroenteritis.

Married Edward F. Meyer, foreman Blue Lake ranch, Twin Falls County, Idaho, at Pocatello, Ida., August 19, 1920, died at Twin Falls hospital September 7, 1920. Autopsy revealed traces of poison.

Falls in Two Cases.

In two cases the prosecuting attorney said Mrs. Southard failed to collect insurance on her husbands lives. The policy on McHaffie's life, he said, was allowed to lapse through non-payment of a premium. Meyer, the fourth husband, carried $10,000 insurance which was increased from $2,000 shortly before his death, but no attempt was made by his wife to collect it.

Not long after this Prosecuting Attorney Stephen said that the Dooly brothers jointly assumed an insurance policy on their lives for $2,000 naming Mrs. Dooly as the beneficiary. This was in addition to the $2500 policy carried by the husband, Robert C. Dooly, in favor of his wife.

Baby Also Slain.

Edward Dooly died August 9, 1915 after an illness of ten days and the insurance was paid to the surviving Dooly and his wife. On October 1, 1915, Robert C. Doolly died and insurance on his life was collected by Mrs. Dooly.

The Dooly baby lived to be 3 or 4 years old and its death was reported to have resulted from typhoid fever.

An examination of the ranch house occupied by Meyer and his wife in Twin Falls county is said to have revealed a quantity of poison, such as is used for the extermination of insect pests. The authorities also reported the presence of the same character of poison concealed in the house occupied by Harlan C. Lewis and his wife at Billings, Mont.

Los Angeels, May 12.—Marriage records here show a woman giving the name of Edith Eva Myers believed by the police to be Lyda Meyer, reported arrested in Honolulu on a murder charge and Paul Vincent Southard, petty officer on the U. S. S. Chicago, were married by a justice of the peace here November 28, last. Southard left for Honolulu late in December, his wife following a few days later.