Sinister Mistress From Missouri is Most Notorious Criminal in USA

One of the most notorious serial killers in America was a wife, mother, and sister-in-law who killed all of her family.

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Lyda Southard born in Keytesville, Missouri in 1892 known as the "Black Widow" was just your "normal" everyday person. However, when her daughter and first husband died within a few years of each other and her second and third husband died suddenly as well things were starting to not add up to police.

Twin Falls County prosecutor Frank Stephen was the person who started putting the puzzle pieces together and determined that the victims had one thing in common. Lyda Southard and they all died mysteriously.

She was eventually caught for allegedly killing four husbands, a daughter, a stepdaughter, and a brother-in-law using arsenic poisoning. Why? To collect the insurance money. It's all about the benjamins.

According to 247 Tempo, Southard was arrested in Hawaii for the murders that happened in Idaho and Montana and sentenced to 10 years to life.

She escaped in 1931, remaining at large for a year before being returned to prison. Released on probation in 1941, she was pardoned by the governor of Idaho and died of a heart attack in 1958.

She married after she escaped prison, but it was her husband (Harry Whitlock) who helped the police find her and take her back to prison. It's been proven that she killed six people, but there could have been more.