Portal:Oregon/Selected biography/56

Stella Nickell (born August 7, 1943) is an American woman who was sentenced to 90 years in prison for product tampering after she poisoned Excedrin capsules with lethal cyanide, resulting in the deaths of her husband Bruce and of Susan Snow. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence were the first under federal product tampering laws instituted after the Chicago Tylenol murders. She was born Stella Maudine Stephenson in Colton, Oregon, and by age sixteen, she was pregnant with her daughter Cynthia. Nickell then moved to Southern California, married, and had another daughter. She began to have various legal troubles, including a conviction for fraud in 1968. In 1974, she met Bruce Nickell and the two were married in 1976. On June 5, 1986, Bruce came home from work with a headache and took four Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules from a bottle in their home, then collapsed minutes later. Bruce died shortly thereafter, but his death was initially ruled to be by natural causes. After the death of Susan Snow within a week, an investigation was launched and cyanide was discovered to have caused both deaths. After a long investigation, Stella was tried and on May 9, 1988, she was found guilty of all charges.