She’s been called the “Serial Killer Granny” “The Killer Scrubwoman”, and “Michigan’s 1st Female Serial Killer”. She was Rose Barron, who was arrested in January 1905 for poisoning customers in the dining area of the Alhambra Apartments in Detroit.....but nobody actually died.

The poison of choice was said to be arsenic of which was found in a can of baking powder.

Up to fourteen persons from ten different families were poisoned, got violently sick within one week of dining at the Alhambra Apartments.....and fingers began pointing at Rose. The question was: why pick her out as the culprit? Couldn’t the poisoning have been perpetrated by another building employee, like someone who actually worked back in the kitchen? Since members of Rose’s own family had mysteriously died, they attempted to put 2 and 2 together. They figured Rose poisoned her family for the insurance money, but what reason would she have to poison strangers?

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Sure, Rose had access to the kitchen but she wasn’t the only one. Trying to come up with a reasonable suspect, they accused her of these illnesses, supposedly her way of some sort of retaliation for being demoted to scrubwoman from her previous position as a dining room cook.

Defense attorneys for Rose argued the patrons may have gotten violently ill from ptomaine poisoning or “faulty building pipes”. Up to twenty diners were allegedly poisoned and gotten extremely sick, but none of them died. In fact, after a trial that went on for 19 weeks, on May 15, 1905, the jury deliberated for fifteen hours and found Rose not guilty, citing that nobody had actually died.

The Detroit police department were probably not too happy with the verdict, as they had discovered enough evidence against Rose. She was acquitted and set free. But the previously-mentioned nicknames still stick, even though no one died.....but what about her family members?

Rose Barron, Suspected Serial Killer: Detroit

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