Roberta Elder
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| Roberta Elder | |
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| Born | Roberta Brown Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{"., 1909 Watkinsville, Georgia, United States |
| 💀Died | December 12, 1977 (aged 67–68) Rome, Georgia, United StatesDecember 12, 1977 (aged 67–68) |
| Resting place | Watkinsville Cemetery |
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Roberta Elder (born Roberta Brown; 1909 - December 12, 1977) was an American serial killer who was active in Atlanta, Georgia between the late 1931 until she was caught in 1952. Elder was arrested after an autopsy revealed that her latest husband had died of arsenic poisoning, and autopsies done on her stepdaughters who had died in the same home the previous year also showed traces of arsenic. Roberta was dubbed "Mrs. Bluebeard" and "Atlanta's Bluebeard". This was two years before the arrest of the infamous Nannie Doss.
Roberta Elder and Nannie Doss were both American female serial killers in the American south. Both grew up on farms, and were active at the same time, and both at the similar motives. While Doss's story was covered all over a captured a lot of media attention, Edler's stories were only covered in black newspapers. Elder was black and Doss was white, and it is beloved that only Doss's story was covered because of that. With Elder's story not being covered, her victims went unnoticed.
Elder always maintained her innocence. She was found guilty in 1954 and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was paroled in 1964, and lived the rest of her life in Rome, Georgia, where she died in 1977. Elder's victims included three husbands, three children, stepchildren, a grandson, her mother, a cousin, and a friend. An investigation launched looked into their death certificates which showed that none of them ever had autopsies done, and it was assumed they died of natural causes.
Early Life[edit]
Roberta Brown was born in Watkinsville, Georgia, in 1909. She was one of fifteen children born to James and Callie Elizabeth Brown (née Davis). The Brown family were farmers, James and Callie were born to ex-slaves. By age eleven, Roberta had learned to read and write at home, and had never attended school, which was common for children who had to work on farms.
First Marriage and Children[edit]
On October 4, 1924, Roberta first married to Willie Thurmond at the age of fifteen in Watkinsville. While in Watkinsville they had two children, James Willie, and Lillie. Sometime in the late 1920's, Lillie died at two weeks old, becoming her mother's first victim. After Lillie's death, the Thurmond family moved to Atlanta, where they resided at 2126 harris Street. Roberta had her third and last child, a daughter named Willie Mae. On April 14, 1931, Willie Mae Thurmond died at twenty-five days old. Her death certificate stated her cause of death was Bronchial Pneumonia.
Shortly after Willie Mae's death, Roberta and Willie Thurmond separated, but they most likely never legally divorced.
Second Marriage and Death of James Willie Thurmond[edit]
Roberta married John Woodward, a laborer of Atlanta. They moved to 519 Bedford Place. On December 2, 1938, John was very ill and was admitted to Grady Hospital, where he died on December 4 aged thirty-six. His cause of death was listed as being possibly Chronic Nephritis and Uremia. Just four months later, on April 10, 1939, James Thurmond was also admitted to the hospital for Influenza.
James was released back home on June 12, when he was last seen alive by a doctor. On June 26, James was reported dead in home aged thirteen. The coroner determined that James died of post Influenza and Malnutrition, but an autopsy was never done. James Thurmond's body was returned to his hometown of Watkinsville for burial.
Third Marriage and Other Victims[edit]
Roberta married James Garfield Crane around 1940. James was a train porter, and a widower, originally from Taliaferro County, and had children. Roberta, James, and his children moved into a home on 1328 Eason Street. James's daughter, Nada Belle Crane, gave birth to a son in the home, Jimmie Lee Crane Hunter, (who was fathered by a man named Henry Hunter who lived elsewhere) on October 3, 1941. Roberta acted as the baby's grandmother.
On December 7, 1943, the now two-year-old Jimmie Hunter was treated by a physician for general weakness. He died December 10; his cause of death being listed as Bronchial Pneumonia. Just a year later near Christmas of 1944, Roberta Crane took in a three-year-old girl named Gloria Evans, who was said to be her cousin. Gloria died on December 26. Her cause of death was ruled as acute gastroenteritis. Six months later in June 1945, Roberta's mother Mrs. Callie Brown came to visit Roberta in Atlanta from Watkinsville. While Callie stayed in the house she died suddenly on June 17, aged sixty-nine. Her cause of death was deemed undetermined, and she was buried with family in Watkinsville.
It would be another two years before another death came into the Eason Street home, and this time it was Roberta's third husband James Garfield Crane, on July 21, 1947, aged forty-seven, and his cause of death was determined to be food poisoning. James Crane's body was buried in his hometown in Taliaferro County.
Nora Harris and Fourth Marriage[edit]
Roberta Crane, now widowed for a third time and living alone, started taking in boarders. One of these boarders was Nora Harris, a widow and longtime resident of Atlanta who was an ex-slave, she was a child by the end of the American Civil War. During this time, Roberta had known the Elder family (it is unclear as to how long she knew them by this point). The Elder family were Reverend William Elder and his wife Willie Mae, who had many children.
Willie Mae suddenly became ill, so Roberta cared for her at the Elder home. Wilie Mae died aged forty-one on January 29, 1950. her death was ruled to be Influenza. Roberta consoled William during this time, and the two were married just four months later. William and five of his children moved into Roberta's home at 1328 Eason Street.
William's nine-year-old daughter Annie Pearl became ill and died on January 11, 1951, as would his fifteen-year-old daughter Fannie Pearl on March 23. Both of their deaths were ruled as Pneumonia. Nora Harris would die later that year on December 22, aged ninety-three, while Roberta cared for her.
Final Murder and Arrest[edit]
In August 1952 a doctor was called to the house when William Elder became sick. He claimed he became ill while working a construction job after eating Bananas and Cheese Roberta made. The doctor told Roberta to call if he got worse. On August 21, the doctor was called, but William was dead. Roberta claimed she treated him by giving him milk of magnesia. The doctor became suspicious because of all the deaths in the home. An autopsy was ordered for William Elder which revealed his cause of death to be arsenic poisoning.
The doctor remembered the deaths of Annie and Fannie Elder, so a exhumation was ordered for their graves so they could be autopsied. autopsies on both bodies revealed they had traces of arsenic in their hair. This was enough to arrest Roberta Elder for three counts of murder.
Investigation and Conviction[edit]
Roberta Elder maintained her innocence and plead not guilty. The three surviving step-children living in the home revealed that she kept a bag of "pink power" in a cabinet that she claimed she got off her brother's farm Watkinsville to kill plant incest's. This bag of pink power was proven to be Arsenic, and traces of arsenic were also found in the milk of magnesia she let William drink. Willie Elder, William's son, claimed he stopped eating at home because Roberta's cooking would make him ill.
An investigation also revealed that most of her victims had life insurance polices taken out on them, which included her latest husband and step-daughters. Her three living step-children also had life insurance policies on them. This showed a motive for the murders of her husband and step-daughters, and later investigation was done into her past which revealed all of the deaths of her relatives and people under her care, autopsies were never done on them.
Roberta Elder was found guilty for the murders of Annie, Fannie, and William Edler, and sentenced to life imprisonment. She simply shrugged her shoulders upon hearing her verdict.
Parole and Death[edit]
After serving ten year in prison, Roberta was paroled on December 9, 1964, and lived the next thirteen years in Rome, where she died at the age of sixty-eight on December 12, 1977. She was buried in her hometown of Watkinsville in the same cemetery with family that she murdered.
See also[edit]
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