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Bodies of Klimek's other husbands were soon exhumed and found to contain lethal doses of arsenic, though the soil around them was clean. Police also arrested her cousin, Nellie Koulik. Klimek told the police that she had told Nellie she was tired of her husband Frank. Nellie suggested divorce. Klimek
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The crime for which Klimek was eventually tried was the murder of Frank
Kupczyk, her third husband. He had taken ill in their apartment at 924 N. Winchester, where she had previously lived with a boyfriend under the name of Meyers, and she began to tell neighbors that Frank "would not live long." She
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After Klimek's arrest, it came to light that several relatives and neighbors of the two women had died. Two neighbors Klimek had quarreled with became gravely ill after being given candy by her. A dog that annoyed Klimek in her
Winchester Street house had died of arsenic poisoning. Several of Klimek
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In March 1923, Klimek was found guilty of the murder of Frank
Kupczyk, her third known husband. Reporters noted that unlike most of the husband-killers who had been acquitted in Chicago courts, Klimek was not beautiful or charming, but a "squat" woman who spoke only broken English, despite having
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Klimek was born Otylia Gburek in Poland, and came to the United States as an infant with her parents. Tillie married her original husband Jozef
Mitkiewicz in 1895. In 1914, he died after a short illness. The death certificate listed the cause of death as heart trouble, and she quickly remarried
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clique" in
Chicago's Little Poland neighborhood. Other wives in the neighborhood were arrested and released. Joseph Klimek would survive, though he was still in the hospital more than three months later. It was found that she had taken out life insurance policies on her husbands from which she
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She even knitted her own mourning hat as she sat at his bedside (which she later wore to the trial), and asked for the landlady's permission to store a bargain coffin she'd found for sale in the basement. This may have been what led to the belief that she claimed to "predict" deaths.
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and Nellie's cousins and relatives were found to have become gravely ill shortly after eating at Klimek's house. In all, the list included twenty suspected victims, fourteen of whom had died.
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Nellie was later acquitted after spending a year in prison during her drawn-out trial. Klimek often teased her in prison, once convincing her that she was about to be taken out and hanged.
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In 1921, after Frank's death, Klimek married a man named Joseph Klimek and lived with him at 1453 Tell Place (now 1453 Thomas Street). When he became ill, doctors suspected
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mocked Frank himself, greeting him in the morning by saying "It won't be long now," and "You'll be dying soon," and joking with neighbors that he had "two inches to live."
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lived in the country since infancy. She was sentenced to life in prison, the harshest sentence that had ever been leveled against a woman in Cook County.
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said that, "I will get rid of him some other way," and claimed that Nellie had given her a "goodly portion" of a poison called "Rough on Rats".
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dreams, accurately predicting the dates of death of her victims, when in reality she was merely scheduling their deaths.
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Joseph
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The papers began to speak of Klimek not as a solo murderer, but as the "high priestess" of a "
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Deadly Women
Episode Guide at Investigation Discovery
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Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by
Illinois
302:"Black Widows: Veiled in Their Own Web of Darkness"
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435:. Indianapolis, Indiana: Bobbs-Merrill. p.
520:. Adam Selzer. 24 February 2012. Archived from
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178:. According to accounts, she pretended to have
514:"Tillie Klimek's Many Victims (with pictures)"
241:on November 20, 1936, and was interred at the
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255:List of serial killers in the United States
625:American people who died in prison custody
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675:Prisoners who died in Illinois detention
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273:Węcławek, Dominika (13 August 2014).
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161:Ottilie "Tillie" Klimek
74:Will County, Illinois
518:Chicago Unbelievable
557:, November 21, 1936
524:on February 8, 2013
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479:, November 19, 1922
462:, November 17, 1922
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124:Span of crimes
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300:Geringer, Joseph.
227:profited greatly.
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204:arsenic poisoning
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645:Mariticides
605:1936 deaths
585:1876 births
281:(in Polish)
579:Categories
261:References
655:Poisoners
285:28 August
224:Bluebeard
186:Biography
128:1914–1921
528:24 April
312:24 April
249:See also
149:Illinois
144:State(s)
308:. truTV
176:Chicago
133:Country
115:Victims
110:Details
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163:(born
94:Murder
76:, U.S.
52:Poland
530:2013
441:ISBN
314:2013
287:2020
59:Died
48:1876
41:Born
437:153
118:5–7
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