Thriller Thursday: Family Poisoned by Buttermilk

Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA)
12 July 1903

FAMILY POISONED BY BUTTERMILK

Fredericksburg, VA, July 11 -- Mrs. W. N. Tansil[l] and two daughters, Misses Lucy and Mattie Tansill, and Mrs. George E, Cole and daughter, Miss Annie Taylor Cole, had a narrow escape from death by poison from drinking buttermilk, which had been brought from the country in a tin vessel, which was exposed to the sun.  Soon after drinking the buttermilk, the ladies became violently sick, physicians were summoned and worked on them for two hours before they were finally relieved from pain.  All of them recovered.

[Anna Louisa Cole, the daughter of Horace Cole and Martha Taylor Cole, was born in Prince William County on 20 October 1850.  She married Wallace Norman Tansill, the son of Samuel Tansil and Theodocia Norman Tansill, on 6 February 1868 in Prince William County.  Many of her original letters from Fredericksburg to and from family in PWCo can be found in the Library of Virginia's Personal Papers collection (Accession #38438). ~cgl]

Thriller Thursday: Moxley Poisoning

Evening Star (Washington, DC)
January 4, 1859

CRIME AND TRAGEDY. -- We are grieved to learn that the family of Dr. Moxley, near Greenwich, in Prince William county, Va., were poisoned on Friday last, by the cook, by mingling arsenic with the soup.  Mrs. Moxley, the aged mother of Dr. M., soon died, and several other members of the family are reported to be very ill.  Some of the servants also partook of the poisoned food, and are among the sufferers.  The atrocious being by whom the deed was committed will of course meet the penalty of her awful crime. -- Alex. Sentinel.

Evening Star
January 7, 1859

The family of Dr. Moxley, in Prince William, Va., are recovering from the late attempt to poison them -- none dying except the aged mother of Dr. M.  The criminal is now in jail.