Sarah Whiteling

Claiming to have been born in Germany, Sarah was initially married to Tom Brown in Clinton, Iowa in 1868. At some point, the couple moved to Chicago. After the Great Fire, they moved to Philadelphia. A few years later, Brown was imprisoned in the Eastern State Penitentiary for highway robbery, and died serving his sentence.{{cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1888-11-29/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarahs+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=14&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=Philadelphia's Borgia|newspaper=St. Paul Daily Globe|date=29 November 1888}}

Sarah then had a child with a man named Thomas Storey, who kept an oyster saloon in the city, naming her Bertha. In March 1880, she married John Whiteling, bringing along her then 9-month-old daughter with them. In 1886, the couple had their own child, which they named William C. Whiteling, nicknamed 'Willie'.{{cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1888-11-29/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarahs+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=14&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=Philadelphia's Borgia|newspaper=St. Paul Daily Globe|date=29 November 1888}}

On March 30, 1888, John died suddenly, with the attending physician Dr. G. W. Smith evaluating that the cause of death was inflammation of the bowels. His life had been insured in two companies: the John Hancock Financial and the Benevolent Order of Buffalos, each paying Sarah $145 and $85 respectively.{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91068084/1888-06-22/ed-1/seq-7/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=11&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=A Woman's Crime|publisher=Fisherman & Farmer|date=22 June 1888}} When questioned about his death, she claimed that he had committed suicide.

On April 24, Bertha also died, with her verdict being typhoid fever. She, too, had been insured by the John Hancock Financial for $122. And a month after, on May 26, Willie also died. Since Dr. Smith abandoned the case, his colleague Dr. Dietrich determined the cause of death as congestion of the bowels. Like his sister and father, he too had been insured: for $30 at the John Hancock Financial, and for $17 at Prudential Financial. Sarah refused when asked if the bodies could be examined by the coroner, claiming that when one of her previous children supposedly died in an almshouse, doctors had started the post mortem exam process and realised, much too late, that the child was still alive.

The short intervals of the deaths proved suspicious to Coroner Ashbridge, and after an examination with the Health Office, he ordered that the case be investigated. With the assistance of Chief Det. Wood and Det. Gyer, the bodies were exhumed from Mechanics' Cemetery. Following an examination performed by Professor Leffman, large amounts of arsenic was discovered in the bodies. Sarah Jane Whiteling was arrested shortly after, and placed on suicide watch. Spending most of her imprisonment in prayer, suffering from a nervous prostration for a physician to be called in, she confessed to murdering her two children using "Rough on Rats".{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016025/1888-06-16/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=8&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=The Portland Daily Press General News section|publisher=The Portland Daily Press|date=16 June 1888}}

When questioned about her motives, Mrs. Whiteling claimed that she had murdered Bertha in order to prevent her from becoming a "sinful and wicked girl", as she had constantly misbehaved and stolen various items, such as pennies and pocketbooks, from her teacher and neighbors. As for Willie, he was apparently poisoned because he was "in the way". When it came to John's death, Sarah vehemently denied poisoning him herself, and instead claimed that while she had bought the poison, he had taken it by his own volition because of the family's extreme poverty. Apparently, she had planned to take her own life after the murders, but decided against it since the Bible states that those who take their own life cannot enter Heaven.

At her trial, Whiteling's lawyer tried his best to convince the jury that his client was insane, and had to be sentenced to life imprisonment. After deliberating on the issue, they returned and pronounced her guilty of first degree murder and received a mandatory death sentence.{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1888-12-22/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=16&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=A Woman To Be Hanged.|publisher=Washington Evening Star|date=22 December 1888}}{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88076679/1889-01-03/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=1&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2|title=Man's Wicked Doings. section|publisher=The Bottineau Pioneer|date=3 January 1889}}{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86075267/1889-01-05/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=2&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2|title=Sarah Jane Whiteling.|publisher=Great Falls Leader|date=5 January 1889}} While the verdict didn't faze Sarah at all, it shocked the contemporary public in Philadelphia, especially the female population, who went so far as to sign a petition for commutation of her sentence.{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024546/1889-02-21/ed-1/seq-6/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=15&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2|title=Significant Figures From the Reports of the Fire Insurance Companies|publisher=Pittsburgh Dispatch|date=21 February 1889}}

Despite this, Gov. Beaver did not change her sentence. Whiteling was only prosecuted for her daughter's murder, as there was insufficient evidence for the other murders.{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024546/1889-06-24/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=0&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=4|title=No Hope For Mrs. Whiteling|publisher=Pittsburgh Dispatch|date=24 June 1889}} While imprisoned, Sarah was informed that she had been left a fortune from a deceased relative back in Iowa.{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94053256/1888-12-24/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1888&sort=date&rows=20&words=Sarah+Whiteling&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=18&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=Sarah+Whiteling&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=Condensed News section|publisher=Waterbury Evening Democrat|date=24 December 1888}}

On the execution date, Sarah Whiteling appeared to be unmoved by her conundrum, as she believed that God will forgive her sins and that she will go to Heaven to be with her children. On June 25, 1889, at 10 o'clock, following a short prayer delivered by Rev. William D. Jones, the trap was sprung. Whiteling suffocated from the strangulation, although, according to physicians, her heart had continued beating for a little while after the drop. Her body was then sent for dissection to Dr. Alice W. Bennett, who examined her brain, before eventually being sent off to be buried alongside her murdered relatives.

• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of serial killers with the nickname “Borgia”

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2017/02/monster-or-maniac.html Murder by Gaslight Article]

• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iw4gIIKqrLEC&q=Sarah+Jane+Whiteling&pg=PA130|title=Engendered Death: Pennsylvania Women Who Kill|author=Joseph W. Laythe|date=2011|publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-1611460933}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W8wuPhgF9B8C&q=Sarah+Jane+Whiteling&pg=PA34|title=The Penalty Is Death: U. S. Newspaper Coverage of Women's Executions|author=Marlin Shipman|date=2002|publisher=University of Missouri Press |isbn=0826263054}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F1aQBQAAQBAJ&q=Sarah+Jane+Whiteling&pg=PA151|title=Women and Capital Punishment in America, 1840–1889: Death Sentences and Executions in the United States and Canada|author=Kerry Segrave|date=2008|publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0786438235}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiteling, Sarah}}

Category:1848 births

Category:1889 deaths

Category:American female serial killers

Category:American murderers of children

Category:Emigrants from the German Confederation to the United States

Category:Executed American serial killers

Category:Executed American women

Category:Executed female serial killers

Category:Filicides in the United States

Category:People convicted of murder by Pennsylvania

Category:People executed by Pennsylvania by hanging

Category:Poisoners

Category:Serial killers from Philadelphia