Stacey Castor appeared to have had a tragic life. She nearly lost her daughter to a suicide attempt and lost two husbands to mysterious illnesses.
But she was concealing a terrible secret behind her brave and strong front of grief. To hide her crimes, she attempted to k*ill her daughter and poisoned her husbands with antifreeze. The media dubbed her the “Black Widow” for her ruthless deeds.
A Deadly Marriage
In 1990, Stacey Castor wed Michael Wallace for the first time. They resided in Weedsport, New York, and had two daughters, Ashley and Bree. Castor was an ambulance dispatcher, while Wallace was a mechanic. They both had extramarital affairs, and their marriage was not happy.
Wallace began to feel ill in the latter part of 1999. He was experiencing swelling, unsteadiness, and coughing. He passed away at the age of 38 in early 2000. Castor refused to have an autopsy performed after the doctors informed her that the man had a heart attack. She received the proceeds from his life insurance and continued living.
A Second Chance
Castor wed businessman and owner of an air conditioning company David Castor in 2003. She was hired as his office manager and led a lavish life. She, too, was unfaithful to him, having an affair with a member of his staff.
She reported that her husband had locked himself in their bedroom after an argument and hadn’t emerged for a day when she called the police in August 2005.
David Castor was discovered dead on the bed by the police after they forced open the door, along with a bottle of antifreeze and a glass of a green liquid. Investigators were skeptical even though it appeared to be a suicide. Both in his stomach and the glass, they discovered antifreeze remnants.
On his computer, they also discovered a typed suicide note in which he accused his wife of kil*ling him. The note did not reflect his writing style and contained numerous spelling and grammar mistakes.
A Twisted Plot
The police started to believe that Stacey Castor had mur*dered and staged the suicide of her second husband. Her first husband’s body was also exhumed, and antifreeze was discovered in his system as well. They understood that she had poisoned them both for money.
The fact that she had altered David Castor’s will to leave everything to her and nothing to his son from a previous marriage was also revealed. She was detained and accused of forgery, forcible homicide, and mur*der.
Castor, however, had another strategy to elude the law. She made the decision to blame the k*illings on Ashley Wallace, her own daughter. She attempted to k*ill her daughter in September 2007 or coerce her into confessing to the crimes by giving her a cocktail of vodka and pills.
Additionally, she admitted to ki*lling Michael Wallace and David Castor in a second fake suicide note that she left under Ashley’s name. Ashley, though, pulled through the overdose and was brought to the hospital. She claimed that her mother had attempted to k*ill her and denied any involvement in the kil*lings.
A Convincing Verdict
Trial for Stacey Castor began in January 2009. Throughout the trial, she maintained her innocence while entering a not guilty plea. She asserted that Ashley tried to commit suicide because of guilt and that she had k*illed both of her fathers out of jealousy and resentment. She added that she had nothing to do with David Castor’s will and that he had written his own suicide note.
Castor’s account was refuted by evidence presented by the prosecution. They demonstrated that Castor typed the suicide notes on her computer and that they contained words that she frequently spelled incorrectly or incorrectly, such as “antifree” instead of “antifreeze” and “crystal light” instead of “Crystal Lite,” among other errors.
Additionally, they demonstrated that neither David Castor’s nor Ashley Castor’s fingerprints were present on the glass of antifreeze that was discovered next to David Castor’s body. Additionally, they played a taped phone call that Castor made to Ashley while she was hospitalized in an effort to get her to confess to k*illing her fathers.
On February 5, 2009, after four days of deliberation, the jury found Stacey Castor guilty of all charges. She received a prison term of 51 years to life. She persisted in denying her guilt up until her death at age 48 in 2016.
