Stella Nickells: Excedrin, Cyanide, and Murder

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This Week, Your Curator Zach has a killer story for y'all! 

A sealed bottle of headache medicine is supposed to mean safety, not a death sentence. When Susan Snow takes two Excedrin capsules for a brutal headache and dies within minutes, investigators find cyanide at the center of the case. Panic spreads fast because America has already lived through the Tylenol tampering nightmare, and no one knows if more poisoned bottles are sitting on store shelves waiting for the next victim.

We follow the investigation as it swerves toward Stella Nickell who calls police to say her husband Bruce died the same way after taking Excedrin. That single phone call becomes a turning point, pulling Bruce’s “natural causes” death back into the spotlight and raising questions about motive, life insurance policies, and whether this was a calculated attempt to make one murder look like a larger product-tampering spree. 

We also share a wild personal twist: Zach meets someone connected to Bruce’s family who may help us add new context in a future follow-up.

Listen now, then subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review. Where do you land on this one: airtight guilt or too many gaps?

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Transcript

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Welcome And Life Updates

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Welcome back to the Odd Hot Podcast, the podcast where we tell you creepy, odd, weird, strange, and bizarre stories from around the globe. I am your curator, Zach, sitting here with the most fantastic human being on the face of this planet, Miss Curator Kara. Although I guess it should be Mrs. Curator Kara. You are married. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Hi, I'm okay. Um, for our quick clip of this week, if I look like a drowned rat, it's because I am a drowned rat. I literally just got out of shower. My hair is wet. I just put a hat on. I look dead. I look half dead, wet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Half dead and wet. You got a twitchy.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

You got a twitchy eye.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

I of this twitchy eye. I texted uh my ophthalmologist, Lauren. And I said, Hey girl, hey, am I dying? Because the internet told me I might have MS, and here's what's happening. And she goes, Are you tired? Have you been drinking too much caffeine? Are you stressed? And do you have dry eyes? I'm like three out of four for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not dying. But I did make an eye appointment too, just in case it is like a eye strain thing. So I made two doctor's appointments on my own this week. And I always said without being prodded, but you definitely prodded. So what was the other one? I'm oh, I made a derm appointment. Good job, good, good job. If I will live out here where it's the sunny, I need to go get some moles checkout. Everybody got your moles checked out.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Um, but that was really funny when I was like, you you sent me that picture of or that video of us from like 10 years ago or something, and you had glasses on, and I just said, get glasses again. You're like, I just made it, or I will. And then you're like, I just made an appointment. Now you have to, now you have to find a dentist. I I already have one. Oh, that's right. Wow, look at you.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Well, anyway, what else is new besides all your doctor's appointments?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Oh, doctor's appointments. I ooh, I have finally taken all the people who've been telling me to do it forever. And I sold my well, I'm selling my Windows laptop and I am joined the MacBook world. And it is I do like it. I know I've I've said I would never do it.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

I was always a Windows boy, but and you were always so mean to me when I would even suggest it. No. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

I'm really happy.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I am too.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Oh, so happy for you.

unknown 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

I got a good feeling in though.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Good. Well, I'm trying to think what's new with me. Oh, so Sunday I went to I can never say the word artistrine artistrin. Artisan. Why can I never get that right? Artisan fair. So they do it every uh last Sunday of the month, like downtown Grand Blanc, and it's all these little pop-up vendors, and there's like tarot readings and crystals and plant ladies and all kinds of stuff. I don't pay for the tarot lady because I'm like, Zach just can read my tarot.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

I got you.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Nate's like, yeah, Nate's like, why the fuck would we pay? I'm like, right.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Oh, Nate, Nate has to pay me. Oh, okay. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

So anyway, uh, I got a I've always wanted to do the permanent jewelry.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Oh, yeah, yeah. Cute.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Yeah, and I wanted to do a bracelet, but then she's like, I can do a hand chain.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

So you on that up sale.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

No, actually, I saw it and she I was like, Oh my god, I want that. So it's like I showed Zach and he almost had a heart attack.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

He was like, That would give me anxiety because it's I just like the I can't even wear a watch for three hours before I have to take it off.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah, you would hate this because it like, but see, I love hand chains and I've bought so many over the years and they snap instantly. So it was pricey, but not that pricey because it's gonna stay on for like five five years. It'll be on. And then I also got a ring on this side. Yeah, so that was just so much fun. And then I bought a little plant. I saw the girl that runs a little candle shop. I talked about her Christina. I saw her and I bought another candle from her, and I bought Nathaniel, a car freshener from her.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

So we just had a little fun day.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Now that I moved away, you have to buy gifts for other people.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

I know. What the hell? The Heli. Anything else new? Exciting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

I have shop. Do you have a shop talk? Because if not, I have a couple shop talks actually.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

I don't because I feel like last time we told them every all of our thoughts and feels.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

So to recap that one in case you did miss that, uh, there was not an episode last week because we are going down to two a month for now at least. We'll see what happens. Um, but I have I have two things for you. One, we have to give a shout-out to our bestie who has a six-part mini series on Stream Beacon TV, which if you don't know about it, it's a paranormal like streaming service. And Lauren, Lauren Hos or Helixon has hers. I've been to the first three episodes. It's coming out like weekly, and it's so good. I love her. I just like I was texting her while watching. I'm like, I'm so proud of you. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Uh, I was telling her how proud I was. I haven't watched it yet, um, but you gave me the login, so thanks. I very much appreciate that. And I will watch it. Um, I'm so proud of her and her new equipment. She's just too much of her little smarty pants.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

And then I have Shop Talk that you don't know about yet. Uh oh. I have been sending little messages and been talking with Shirley, and she knows for sure 100% that I will be flying home around major holidays. And whenever she wants, she's gonna have a chat with us to talk about events if it's not around major holiday. So at some point we are going back to Eloise.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yes, and I've been so badly wanting to reach out to her because I just miss ghosts, but I like don't want to do it without you.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Dude, I had a dream I went ghost hunting.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

No, like I would do it without you, but I don't want to do it without you. Because number one, I just don't think it works as well if we're not together. And number two, like, I want you with me.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

I know. Uh, I've been planning some spooky little adventures when you eventually come out here, but yeah, so stay tuned. We will figure that out. Yes. Um, anything else? Shop talk wise. Are you ready for a question to open show?

SPEAKER_02 6:46

I am ready. I think everybody's ready.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Okay.

Shop Talk And Spooky Plans

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Do you ever take Excedrin, Tylenol, or aspirin?

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Now, why are you gonna do this to me?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Do you ever think about the side effects?

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Of course. I'd think about the side effects of everything.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

What if you died?

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Zachary, we're all gonna die.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

When you took the aspirin, though.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Okay. What do you what is somebody who was just all worked up? Well, because why are you gonna do this to us?

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Because this is a fun story. Uh uh. It's a fun story because during my adventures out here, I actually met somebody related to this case who promised me if I write the story, she's gonna come and do some follow-ups.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Okay, you told me that you met somebody about a case and okay, but I don't know anything about it.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

So June 1986, Seattle, Washington, 40-year-old bank manager Susan Snow is at home dealing with a horrible headache that she woke up with. So she didn't go to work. She remembers that she had previously bought a bottle of Exeterin, and to get some relief, she swallows two capsules. Within minutes of taking the medication, she is in severe distress, and not long after that, she passes away. Investigators would eventually uncover the cause of her death was a lethal dose of cyanide, and the cyanide traced back to the bottle of excedrin.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Hmm. I'd be dead because I take so much excedrine. Actually, not so much. Now that all my organs are gone, I don't get as many headaches.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Ooh, that's good. They take a brain too.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

No, but a lot of times, a lot of times, you know, it's hormonal, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

So the worst part is though, is that Susan Snow was not even the intended victim. She was just collateral damage and a murder plot that began weeks earlier. Does this ring any sorts of bells for you?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

No, it doesn't. But here's the thing I would be so pissed off if I was the collateral damage of somebody else that's was supposed to get murdered. Like, and you're all like, Carrie, you're dead, you're not gonna be pissed off. Oh, I would be pissed off dead.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

As we always say, you're coming back to poke some booty holes.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

So we know that's oh, I'm gonna do more than that if I was collateral damage. Like you couldn't come up with a better plan so that no one else would like or whatever. I don't know anything about this.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, you'll you'll find okay, okay, okay. I just had to put that in there for this to work. There had to be random victims.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Oh, that makes sense. Okay, I kind of I okay, okay, okay, okay. Let me shut up.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Let's go backwards. Okay, so Stella Maudine Stevenson, she was born in Colton, Oregon in 1943. She spends a lot of her life in the Pacific Northwest. She grew up poor, pretty ordinary, nothing, you know, super special about Miss Stella.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

In 1959, she has a daughter. Her daughter's name is Cynthia Hamilton, and just after that, she moves to Southern California where she marries and has another daughter. Okay. Uh, it's here she runs into several legal issues, um, including a fraud conviction in 1968, uh, child abuse in 1969 for hitting Cynthia with a rod. Oh. And let's just remember what she did to Cynthia. Okay. So her marriage falls apart and she moves to Auburn, Washington, back to the Pacific Northwest around this time. Okay. A few years later, at the age of 32 in 1974, she meets a man named Bruce Nickel. Um, and the two are married two years later in 1976. And she just has the two daughters, right? Two daughters, yeah. Okay. And I'm pretty sure one was no marriage, the other one was from a marriage that fell apart. Right. And now she needs to marry Bruce Nichols. Got it. We really don't know a whole lot about Bruce. Um, but we know at the time we met, he's about four years old. So eight years older than her. Um, and he was a happy.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

I thought you just said four years old. I was like, what are you talking about? Forty. Forty.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

It's also very likely that he had a history of drinking. He he liked to drink.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

So the two lived a pretty low-key life. Um, again, not much is known about their early days. But into the 1980s, they lived together for a few years. Friends described them as just ordinary working class people. And like most ordinary people,

The Excedrin Death That Sparked Panic

SPEAKER_00 11:12

life isn't always smooth and relationships are not easy. Okay. So Bruce's alcoholism leads to tension at home. Money is often tight, financial issues are always plaguing them. And we don't know if it was like a truly unhappy marriage or if it was just like a little bit more complicated than most marriages.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

I just want to backtrack for a second.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

I don't want anyone to be like, damn, that came for me. If you're just live an ordinary life and not like there's nothing wrong, that doesn't mean that you're married.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

No, there's nothing wrong. I'm just saying, it's like we they weren't like, yeah, she had some crime, but she wasn't like the same. I know. It was just the way you said it.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

You're like, and we know with ordinary families, like like the what just the way you said it.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

They're just like normal people with normal problems, is what it seems like.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Okay. All right. But the way you're like, okay, he's an alcoholic, she might be abusive. You're like, you know, ordinary people. Ordinary, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

We all have an aunt Stella and an uncle Bruce. Okay.

unknown 12:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

I just wanted to clarify. Here, here's a positive note. Bruce does eventually get sober. Good job, Bruce. And you think this would help their issues, but it almost makes sense. Oh, I'm sure it got up. Yeah. So Stella was a little bit upset that she couldn't visit the bar as much.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Um, because then she stopped, like, she couldn't do what she the same types of things.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

She finds Bruce annoying and boring. And she begins to take evening shifts at a security job at CTAC Airport just to like have something to do at night. Um, she also starts to spend more time on her aquarium than with her husband.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

All right.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Aquarium hobbies are important to Stella. Let's just also remember that. We need to remember child abuse and we need to remember aquariums.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Child abuse doesn't she abuse her children. Yes, she abused. Okay, I just wanted to make sure I understood. Cynthia, correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

So around 1985, we get some red flags in our little ordinary folks' life because Stella starts to do what every good wife does, and she takes out life insurance policies on Bruce that would pay out even if he died unexpectedly. And she is, of course, the beneficiary.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Which I mean, it's not he's a machine operator.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Yeah, I mean, that's not that like here's where I would say it might be a little bit it's not policy, it's policies.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Okay, yeah. Which I still don't can't why can you take multiple?

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Because I don't think they talk to each other.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

It's like can you still do that now?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. It's just like going to different brain banks and opening up different.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

I guess. Yeah, I guess. Okay, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

So that was 1985, and June 6th, 1986. Bruce returns home from work. Uh, he's not feeling very good. He complains of a headache and just general illness. So he takes a couple, etc. In a very short time, he deteriorates pretty rapidly. He collapses, Stella calls for help, and emergency responders arrive and rush him to the hospital. And shortly after getting to the hospital, Bruce passes away.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Okay. So doctors. Oh, go on.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

I was just gonna say, but I guess I want to I'll put my question out here. You're not gonna be able to answer it or don't answer it, but I just have to get off my brain. It's like, did he have this many headaches that like it was just known that he's gonna take Excedrin? Because to me, Excedrine isn't the one that you take a lot, it's more of like a Tylenol or Motrin, like you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Like, okay, see, that's coming from a woman's point of view. The man's just gonna grab whatever is there.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah, but Excedrin's like for your head. So to like to me, anyways, continue on.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

So doctors and officials, as they always do when somebody dies, right? They look for the cause of death, they investigate. Really? Um, we don't, but they don't find any foul play or anything. He has a history of health issues, including respiratory problems. Oh. So they the doctors originally cite emphysema as his cause of death. Oh. So shortly after the Miss Stilla gets her insurance payout, it's about a hundred thousand dollars in 1986, which would be about $300,000 today.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

I think you can kind of put together where this is going.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah.

Stella Nickel And A Marriage Turns Dark

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Right now, Bruce's death is ruled medical tragedy, but then something happens that makes people start to question. And that is where we started this episode with the story of Susan Snow. So Susan simply dealing with a headache.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Many other millions of people. She takes a over-the-counter extra strength, etc., a widely trusted pill, and she becomes violently ill and dies, as we've previously discussed today. Okay. Okay. So this is a this death is also examined, right? The body is looked over, and the examiner catches a scent of bitter almonds. Which, by the way, there is a book about this whole thing, and it's called Bitter Almonds. Oh. Bitter almonds is an odor that is distinctive from cyanide.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

I feel like I I've heard of that, yeah, because that just sounds like the bitter almonds one sounds familiar. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Wow, okay. So police start an investigation. The house is scoured. This is Susan's house. Um, and it turns out they find that the excedrant she had in her home was laced with cyanide.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Okay, hold on. I'm so sorry. I I know I was listening, but I think my brain was just going too fast. So, how did we get to the bitter almonds part?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

So it was just like when Bruce died, right? Medical examiners are checking out her body and they catch the smell. Oh, they smelled it. Yeah, they smelled it. This is on Susan.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Yes, yeah, you know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

So he already died.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Yep, so they smell it on Susan, but then so then they investigate the house.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah, because the examiner's like I think because she was noble health issues before she was healthy.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

I just missed that part. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Yep. Okay. So it it's obviously a poisoning, right? So Susan's story immediately strikes fear across the country. Not only because, like, hey, she bought a pill at a store and it was poisoned, but four years earlier in Chicago, at least seven people died when Tylenol had been uh laced with potassium cyanide. Okay. The worst part is though, is nobody was ever caught for the Chicago murders. Which that one would just make another good episode that I should get into at some point. Now, right, there's a murder, and people already have this fear of pharmaceuticals from somebody who was never caught before, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:03

We're for sure saying it's a murder. They don't think it was something that accidentally happened to the Excedrine or like in the making of it. Like I'm just saying, like they're not they're automatically jumping to because of what happened just four years ago, and nobody was ever caught.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Okay, people are just like, Yeah, it got it. You don't accidentally lace excessive.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Um, so pe and people already have a fear of this, like it's embedded in the culture. And now, right, people are like super fearful it's gonna happen again. Like all these people are gonna start dying. So Susan's story breaks, public fear breaks out, no one knows if there's more bottles that have been tampered with, where she bought hers, or like where any more poison is. Anybody could be a victim, at least kind of what the thought was. Um, so folks start avoiding taking medication, they're returning them, they're demanding answers from the pharmaceutical company. So public fear turns into crisis, and police are like, we gotta get to the bottom of this. Okay. So Stella does something a little bit surprising here, though. Okay. Upon hearing about Susan's death on the news, she calls the police. She claims that her husband died of very similar symptoms when he had returned from work. And upon hearing about Susan, she went to go check the medicine cabinet and found that he had also taken excedrin extra strength. So she produces two bottles. Why would she say that?

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Why would she say, Oh, what did she count the goddamn Excedrins to know that he took it that day?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Well, she knew that he took some medication. Okay. And it seemed very similar. So she called the police, right? Okay, gives him the two bottles she bought from the store, and that's tested, and his remains are tested, and they both come out positive for the case.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

The way you worded it, I straight up thought she was like, I my like, I thought she like was like, upon examining my cabinet, I believe he took the ex like you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Like the way you said it was the shit. I that's kind of how she called it in. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

When we get further into this, you're gonna find out just how fucking crazy it is. So a massive

Insurance Policies And Bruce Dies

SPEAKER_00 21:06

recall is now done by the FDA. They pull all the Excedrin products from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and a total of two more bottles are found in stores, uh, both in the areas between Auburn and Seattle, Washington.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

You mean two more bottles that are laced? Yeah. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah, so of all the bottles, they find two more.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

They have five total bottles.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

One in Seattle that Susan bought. Yep. Two that were in Stella's house.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Oh, two in Stella's were laced.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

And two more that were still on the shelves in the areas between where both of them lived.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Now, how did our girl get so lucky to get two laced bottles?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Exactly, which is why the police start to get a little suspicious of our friend. What a freaking ding-dong. Okay, so remember Stella really likes her fish.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

So when these bottles are tested, oh no. They also find some green flecks in cyanide powder. These flecks were determined to be an algae side used in home aquariums and sold under the brand name the algae destroyer. So whatever she was using to crush up, allegedly, her algae killer, she also allegedly used to crush up some etc. So, right now, we got Bruce dying, right? A random death later, Stella calling the cops to say, I think my husband took the et cetera. Now you see why that call sounds weird. But why would she do that anyway? What do we think her thought process was? She has the fish tanks and she got her insurance payout. She's bored of her sober husband.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I know why she did that. I'm asking, what is her why would she fucking call the police after?

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Because the Chicago killer was never caught. So? No, if they had already ruled his death natural causes, I have no idea why.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

That's what I'm saying. I don't give a shit if who was caught or not. She got away with it. Shut your fucking mouth.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

I I think part of it might have been what if they start to look into these weird deaths, you know, and then I didn't say something. I I don't know why she did.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Obviously, I'm glad she. She did because we wanted her to be a good idea. Allegedly.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Yeah. Allegedly.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Well, but you get what I'm saying. Like when I say stupid, like what? You moron, you got away.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

The these things are all linked, but there's no definitive proof that she messed with sedrum. Like it's like, you know, she could have been at the crime scene, but her fingerprints aren't on the knife, sort of deal. Like they don't have they they have a sort of thing. But but they don't have like the smoking gun. You know, right. They start to look into her more. Investigators do discover that she had checked out a book from the library, a toxicology-related reference book. Girl. Among that material that she checked out, there was information involving poisonous substances, including cyanide.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

This is so effing funny that the lot your library books got you like instead of your search history on your computer or your phone nowadays, the library, the books you check out. That is so funny. I love this.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

So they're building the case. They keep wanting her to take lie detector tests, and of course, she is refusing them multiple times. What's her reasoning?

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Do you know?

SPEAKER_00 24:22

It was always some excuse for she's also lawyered up at this point.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Well, now because she's got money.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

She does fail the lie detector tests, and questions regarding purchasing cyanide when she finally takes it. Yeah. Oh, okay,

Susan Snow And The Bitter Almond Clue

SPEAKER_00 24:37

okay. So we're still waiting though for the smoking gun. Now, she had charges before. Do you remember the one I told you to remember?

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Yeah. Beating her child.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Mm-hmm. Cynthia comes forward.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

It was like my mom's a nut bag.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

In 1987, so a year after, uh, Cynthia approaches the police with information. She says her mother had reportedly spoken to her numerous times about wanting her husband dead, stating that she had grown bored with him because he had quit drinking. She even states on record that her mother had confessed to her that she tried to poison Bruce many times. Uh, once with a substance called foxglove, but all it did was cause him to be really drowsy.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Uh you know what's so funny is that I was gonna say earlier, there's no way that this plan just like happened. Like she hadn't tried this many times. That's so funny. Cause I was gonna say that. Like, cause it's like the excedrin thing to me is like one of those things where it's like so specific, to me at least. Like, I'm not grabbing an excedrine. Like, it's very rare that Erin grabs her excedrine. So, like, if I'm trying to kill him, I would not poison the excedrin.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Guarantee you she offered him the excedrin when he said he had a headache.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Maybe, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

But like it's just so guaranteed allegedly, because we're gonna we're gonna poke some holes in this too.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

It's just funny though, because it's like clearly yeah, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

So her daughter goes on further to say her mom had even discussed with her going to the library to learn about other methods, and that the two of them had had conversations on how they were going to spend the insurance money.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

You know that old, not really old, but that wonderful saving saying from our favorite gals see something, say something. For real. Like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 26:24

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Did she say that she thought her mom was like kidding?

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Here's the thing, though. Uh, let me put a pin in it. I'll come back.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Okay. So prosecute prosecutors, prosecutors are now they're building their case, right? So it goes to trial. Uh, this is now the summer of 87. Stella with her lawyers, right? She she's already put it together. She's the prime suspect, but when they're building the case, she knows. So by December 9th, they do come and arrest her for the two deaths. But now the job of the prosecutors, still without any definitive proof, is to convince the jury she's guilty beyond reasonable doubt. So they argue she needed financial relief. She killed her husband to get it after taking out the policies. She studied the poison, spoke to family about it, and went as far as to tamper with three additional bottles to make it look like an earlier myrrh. Okay. So this move obviously it leads her to kill an innocent person. Yeah. To make her alibi stronger. And potentially two more. Yeah. And that's who knows how many people could have taken it, you know? Well, yeah. Um, because like you and me, we'd pop open a bottle after a night, I wouldn't just down it. Right. So Stella's defense tries to argue there's no eyewitness, there's no confession, there's no confirmed source of the cyanide, and that the timeline is just coincidence amplified by panic, and because the Chicago one went unsolved, they're trying to quickly point fingers.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Which, I mean, that's a really good point.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

It's a good defense because they they don't have definitive proof. It's an easy, it's an easy one for a lawyer to defend, right? So Cynthia does testify at the trial. She talks about the research and the talks with her mom, and even says that at one point they had discussions of hiring a hit man.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

What the hell is going on?

SPEAKER_00 28:09

It's a very lengthy trial. And in 1988, the jury reaches a verdict and finds Stella guilty of both murders, and she receives a 90-year sentence.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

No. Come on. Well, you go first.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

I okay. I'm just saying if if we weren't going off of like the Cynthia thing, right? Like her talking about her mom saying all this stuff, I would probably be like, I don't know. Because it just and like I know the fish stuff is like that's pretty, but like still, I don't know. She wasn't the only one who had a fish tank. Well, right. So it's like that's a common brand. Right. So it's like, okay, whatever. And then I don't know. I don't know anyway. But I just like it's like, does she did she actually do it? Because it's like to me, it sounds so ignorant that I would call up the police though and be like, hey, you know, my husband actually passed away, blah blah blah, like whenever, and it's kind of seems the same thing. Like, I think he actually took a bottle of et cetera, and like I have

Recall Fallout And The Aquarium Evidence

SPEAKER_02 29:13

them still. Like, I why would you do that? Like that that makes no sense to me at all.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

My thing is this I don't think she ever thought that they would have ruled it natural, but it was already done with her husband. So she had the plan, right? But if the other bottles start getting and more and more people start having these deaths, what if they looked into her husband and then she never called?

SPEAKER_02 29:36

No, I actually I changed my mind. I know exactly what her thought process is, because then you can sue Excedrin, potentially.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Potentially, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

She probably actually honestly, because that's the only that's the only thing I could think of. Now, here's the other scenario that I go to, though. If I'm Cynthia and I've got a crazy mom who beat me, I might lie to the cops about some shit that she said.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

I want you to hold on to that because that's the point we're gonna come back to. Okay. So right now we have circumstantial evidence, right? Prosecution argued pattern was too specific to be a coincidence. The defense said, uh, you kind of use interpretation to fill in the gap. How did they say that she distributed the rest of these? Uh that she just went to random stores between Seattle and where she lived and threw them on the shelves. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

But there's no camera, there's no no I mean, I guess that's where in the 80s. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

And and really, depending on how you look at it, like you've we've been saying, both sides really feel plausible. It's very plausible she did it, but it's also very plausible she did it, right? Right, right, right. Okay. Um, so that and that's why this case is still discussed. In fact, this is a huge one that they talk about in a lot of law schools and stuff because like it makes sense. Now, I I do think that Stella more than likely did this, but Cynthia Hamilton was paid a reward of $250,000 for her help in the case against her mom. The reward money came from a drug manufacturer's trade association. We have a vendetta against them for the way she treated us.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Wait, why did they give her that?

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Uh, for helping them catch the real killer. But like you said, right, if she was planning to sue Excedrin and Excedrin was really behind this somehow, why wouldn't they pay off the daughter?

SPEAKER_02 31:25

I mean, I guess that does make sense.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Mm-hmm. To offer whatever then there's some detectives who have dug into this and they uh discovered an FBI memo that seems to play down some things found among a thousand pages and that were turned over to the defense. And in these documents, there are reports about all their possible suspects and mysterious fingerprints on Sue Snow's bottle. Who were the suspects, or we don't know? We don't really know. Wow. Um it's weird to write that Stella had two out of the five bottles, but both her bottles were bought from the store, same store at the same time. So if it was random, she very easily could have gotten both.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Yeah, no, for sure. I'm just thinking because the other bottles were spread out distance-wise from where those are, you'd think that if that was the case, two two bottles wouldn't be put at the same place, but who's to say it wouldn't?

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Who's to say it's all circumstantial? Then let's go back to the algae piece for a second. So she had a hobby, right, where she could have to ask us the product. The product was never found in your home.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Let me ask about this product. Because to me, I thought like the algae stuff is like liquid that you put in the algae killer, but you're saying she had to break it up.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

This particular product was a solid that would dissolve.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

But I still don't know if you're breaking it up. Wouldn't you just put it in the tank? Because you were like what you said is like who like maybe she used the same item to break up the crush up that that you'd crush up the um excedrin.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

It it seems like this was like a concentrate, like a big piece you had to like break it off. So the product was never found in her home. Stella's neighbor, Sandy Scott, she becomes a spy piece for the FBI. Well she was paid $7,500 to search Stella's home for the allergy destroyer, which she never found.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

They just paid her to go into her house. I didn't know that was a thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

So a lot of this stuff is covered in the book Bitter Almonds, which seems at times to be a defense for Stella. Okay. The person who wrote Bitter Almonds is one of the few who got a lot of interviews with her in person. Okay. Um, so uh there's this case is wild because it's just there's so much circumstantial, there's so much evidence on both sides of people who paid off and this and that. And it's just I I I totally think Stella is the killer here. Um But I think it's important to even in something that seems cut and dry, that the way the narrative plays out and what evidence is produced and what's hidden can change a case.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

And I don't know if I would say that this is cut and dry. I mean, I I think that she did it only because there's major factors, right? The life insurance, like multiple policies, the you know, claims against her daughter in the past, like, you know, her daughter saying this, like, okay, we don't have to take that, but whatever. She does love for fish tanks, that this product she could have used at a time, got rid of it. Who's to say she didn't at one point

Trial, Doubt, And Conviction

SPEAKER_02 34:25

have that in her home? So, I mean, to me, all of those are just like too coincidental. But then also, it's just one of those things where it's very strange, also to me, if my mom was talking all this nonsense, really truly, like saying I'm gonna hire a hitman, I want to kill Rich, I want to do all of these things for a while prior to this. I would literally tell somebody.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

But remember, too, the daughter at one point says we were talking about how we were gonna spend the insurance money. But then why would you tell them? Stella is really this much of a monster. Who's to say Cynthia didn't far fall that far from the tree?

SPEAKER_02 35:03

I know, but like to just I don't know. I don't know. Now, do we know? Sorry, do we know if that money was offered like as a reward for like, hey, if anyone could come forward, was that like a public thing? Like where she would have read about that and been like, ooh, I'm gonna try to like you know, I'm gonna be honest with you, I didn't do to look at that. That's okay. I was just curious if you knew that would be good to know because that would be something else, too. That it's like, okay, there's this reward money. I'm gonna lie and say my mom fucking did it.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Could be something we could learn more about because the final coincidence in this story, and I started talking about it, is I was out shopping in my new neighborhood. I went to this vintage store. We met this lovely, lovely woman named Tabitha, um, who gave us a ton of free stuff. She gave us some hot honey almonds and some.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Oh, I heard about all of this, and I'm so jealous.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

So I was telling her about the podcast, and she goes, My uncle was killed. Mmm, it was her uncle. Have you ever heard of Stella Nichols? So I have met the niece of Bruce Nichols, who told me that I need to write the story because some things point Stella in a really good light, others in really bad light. But she would be able to give some pretty personal follow-ups after I write it. So my next one.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

So she so you don't know anything.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

I told her I didn't want her opinion. I wanted to go into it totally blind. I love that. And uh now I'm gonna send Miss Tabitha a message, or maybe I'll go see her this weekend.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

And we're gonna get some more details. So I don't know yet. She might call in, she might stop by. We'll see. We'll see the best way to have Tabitha come and talk to us.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Okay, and what is her business?

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Her business is called Shack to Sheik L L C. Oh my god. Um, and so we're here in Phoenix, Arizona on 7th Avenue in the Melrose District. If you're nearby and you want to check it out.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Shack to Sheik.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

I love Shack to Sheik. Yes. Cute. So yeah, we'll be hearing more from Tabitha, hopefully.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

That's so fun. I'm excited. I also just spilt my drink absolutely over all of my electronic cart. So I'm panicking. No, it's okay. We're good. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

You're good. I wanted to give the listeners an inside scoop.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

So yeah, but sounds crazy on her end. Kira's spilling. Anyways, though, I I thought that one was super interesting. I remember hearing about it a long time ago, and uh, she was telling me one time, Tabitha, that because this was on Unsolved Mysteries in like the late 90s, that she was on a date and this episode came out, and she was like mortified. She used to be mortified about it, and now she like Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

Yeah, I'm so sorry. You and I are such like opposite people where we'd be like, if we were on a date and that came out, we'd be like, dude, that's my uncle.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Right. I mean, hey, it was sad. This was also before true crime was like as popular too, and like yeah, so anyway, so we'll get to more details for this episode. I think is there a fishbowl? I think fishbowl emoji for the the algae killers because I don't know if there's like medicine, but yeah, fish fish bowls, cute. With that, I do have a little follow-up of Reddit stories for us. So if you are a paid Patreon, oddball, head on over. We'll have a little fun follow-up for you guys. I don't know, it's getting late. It's time to do some side work, shut this place down for the evening. What else do we need to do before we close the shop up for the day?

SPEAKER_02 38:27

Rate and review, share us with your friends, family members, all the things.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Don't take a sedron if the seal's been broken.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

And and the most important thing you can do for us is to creep it really, little outballs. Bye.