Cordelia Adelaide Brown-Botkin: Murderess

Cordelia Adelaide Brown was born 1854 in Missouri to Richard John Brown Jr. (1822-1900) and Lenning "Lemina" Alderman (1823-1916).

Her father was an adventurer, He was a slave owner of 3 slaves in 1840 and 1850 in Missouri. He then moved and become a trader in 1860 in Brownville, Nemaha, Nebraska Territory. In 1870 he was a Real Estate Agent and in  1880 he was a farmer. On 30 Aug 1900 in Healdsburg, CA at 1pm Richard was kicked by a horse, knowing he was going to die he summoned his attorney to make his will out, he died at 9:45 pm. 













Some impressive information I found on Richard John Brown Jr.


Him and his wife Lemina had 3 daughters Cordelia was the oldest, Dora and Ada.

Cordelia married 26 Sep 1872 to Welcome Aplin Botkin (1839-1904) they would later divorce. They had a son named Beverly Brown Botkin (1872-1905). He was born in December, which means she was pregnant for six months before they married, maybe he's not the father. 

In the beginning of Aug 1898 Cordelia purchased a box of candies and Arsenic Poisoning and poisoned the candies and placed them in the mail to Mrs. John P. (Mary Elizabeth) Dunning in Dover, Delaware. Mary Elizabeth on or about the 11th of August eat the candies and died. A Mrs. Deane also eat the candies and died that was discovered later.

Elizabeth was the daughter of a congressman Pennington







Inmate #21632 San Quentin
Rec: 19 May 1906
Crime: Murder 1st Degree
Term: Life
Age: 52

While she was being held in jail for the trial her x-husband Welcome died and she pleaded with the judge to let her go to his funeral and he refused to let her because they were divorced. He had a bad heart and died of heart attack.





Her son:
Beverly Brown Botkin married Zadia Hope Ewell (1878-1905) her father was Luther Jerome Ewell was the founder of X L Dairy. She would die 16 May 1905.











Later her son Beverly would die of a heart attack on 30 April 1905 and she was granted by the sheriff to go to her son's funeral.





Her trial was a circus and lasted for over a year or more. I found these newspaper clipping and photos from newspapers depicting the craziness. 





https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25234773/cordelia_botkin/








https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25234572/cordelia_botkin/




 Her last public photo taken before they took her away to prison.


More Newspaper clippings:






Cordelia died in San Quentin Prison 7 Mar 1910 and was buried in the Oak Mound Cemetery in Healdsburg, CA. Her Find-A-Grave Memorial is #65486684.



It was proven that Cordelia and John P Dunning had an affair, as far as I could tell the rest was circumstantial evidence at best. The police had found numerous love letters and used them as motive for her killing Elizabeth Dunning.  

I found the follows newspaper article written many years later in 1924.





As the story above points out, John P was going to the West Indies to never return to San Francisco and she pleaded with him not to go. That's why she purchased the candies and poison. Upon examination of the leftover candies it was found to have arsenic poisoning in large quantities. The package it was sent in was examined and John P Dunning identified the writing as Cordelia's  . The ladies that worked at the candy store identified her as purchasing the candies. Then John P Dunning gave the police the letters from Cordelia so the handwriting could be inspected. A Mr. Frank Gray from the drug store identified Cordelia as the women who purchased 2 ounces of the poison. The person working at the post office also identified her as mailing the package.  1908 it went to the Supreme Court and that was her last hope snuffed out. She applied for parole in February of 1910 but was denied. She died from softening of the brain caused by melancholy, says her death certificate. It also states her mother and a sister died while she was in prison.



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