The L'anse Sentinel

One Woman Like Tillie One Too Many

CHICAGO.—Tillie Klimek, the squat little Polish storekeeper, who poisoned three husbands and placed arsenic in Kupczyk's food and also in the "moonshine" he drank, carried her poison vial to the county hospital to fight a battle against death, enacted the last role of her "four act play" in Judge Marcus Kavanagh's courtroom.

Dressed in a new black dress and wearing the same black silk hat she wore on the day she followed the coffin containing the body of her third husband to the cemetery, the little woman stood against the bar and heard Judge Kavanagh sentence her to Joliet penitentiary for the remainder of her life.

Not a sign of emotion passed over her face as the court pronounced the dozen words that takes away her liberty and gives her a gray cell and iron bars. When the judge ceased talking she turned her face upwards and smiled. Then she passed out of the room, across the "bridge of sighs" and back to her cell.

Mrs. Klimek was found guilty of a charge of murdering her third husband, Frank Kupczyk, by a jury before Judge Kavanagh. It was brought out by Assistant State's Attorneys William McLaughlin and Thomas Peden that the woman had poisoned her first husband, Joseph Klimek, in 1914; her second husband, Joseph Mitkievicz, in 1917, and attempted to poison her fourth husband, John Kupczyk.

The case was brought back to Judge Kavanagh on a motion for a new trial. The judge listened for several minutes to arguments by Attorney John Prystalski and Assistant State's Attorney McLaughlin.

"This is one of the most remarkable cases in the history of criminology," Judge Kavanagh said in denying the motion.

"We have here a woman of average intelligence, a model housewife and a good cook. When she is among women she is affectionate and, it is said, she is the most popular woman in the jail.

"Yet, the testimony showed, cold bloodedly, without feeling or remorse, she killed three of her husbands and attempted to kill a fourth.

"If this woman was let loose today she would kill another man. She has a desire to see men with whom she was intimate suffer.

"I venture to say there are more husbands poisoned in this community than the police or authorities realize. But the knowledge that Tillie Klimek 'has gone down' will stay their hands."