In April 1925 Anna Cunningham's son, a young man, lay in a Chicago hospital in critical condition, and the doctors treating him concluded that he had been poisoned. His mother, a widow from Gary, Indiana, was questioned that week by the state's attorney's office in Chicago. Within days the deaths of her husband and four of her children, all within six years, were under investigation, the bodies were being exhumed, and she had been taken back to Indiana.
On April 15 or 16, in the Lake County jail at Crown Point, she confessed to poisoning three of her children. Wire reports printed in The Daily Reflector of Greenville, North Carolina, said she gave as her reason a wish to join her dead husband in heaven, and that she had spared her surviving daughter. On April 18 the same paper reported that she had been arraigned in her cell and bound over without bail to the criminal court of Lake County on a charge of first-degree murder.
The Cunninghams lived in Gary, in Lake County, Indiana. The reports of April 1925 call Anna Cunningham a widow and give her age as 49 in one dispatch and 50 in another. Her husband was David Cunningham. The first Chicago report, printed on April 11, said he had fallen suddenly ill and died at home. It did not give the year of his death.
The April 11 report listed the children by the order of their deaths as relatives described them to the coroner. Isabelle, a daughter of 18, died after an illness of about two weeks. Harry, a son given as 24, died after a short illness. Charles, called Charlie in that report and said to be 18, died in 1922. Walter, given as 15, died in 1923 after an illness of about ten days. Two children were still living in April 1925: a son, who shared his father's name, and a daughter, given as 17 in that report.
Later dispatches gave different ages. The confession story printed on April 16 called Isabelle 18, Charles 19 and Walter 13, and gave the surviving daughter's age as 19. None of the dispatches gave dates of birth or the exact dates of the deaths, apart from the years given for Charles and Walter.
The April 11 report said that after the deaths the mother had been left with little to live on beyond her surviving son's wages and the money paid out on insurance policies, which relatives described as her sole support. The reports did not give the amounts of the policies or say who had taken them out.
The inquiry began with the surviving son. According to the April 11 report, he had fallen ill a few weeks earlier, recovered and gone back to work. Two days later he was sick again and became violent. A physician who examined him at a Chicago hospital found that he was suffering from poisoning, and the report described his condition as critical.
Relatives then went to the coroner of Cook County, Oscar Wolff, with the history of the family's deaths. Wolff announced that he would ask for the exhumation of the bodies of the young man's father, his sister and three brothers, all of whom, his office said, had died under suspicious circumstances. The decision followed the questioning of the mother by the state's attorney and of the son by the coroner, and the coroner's office said the state's attorney would probably carry the inquiry further.
The first reports from Chicago said Mrs. Cunningham had been taken into custody for questioning. A short item printed on April 13 said she had been taken into custody at a county hospital by two police sergeants from Gary, who took her back to Indiana for an inquiry into what the dispatch called the mysterious deaths of her husband and four children. On April 15 The Daily Reflector reported that she had been held in Chicago and turned over to the Gary police.
The same April 15 report, printed under the headline "Five Are Exhumed in Poison Probe," said the bodies of the husband and the four children had been exhumed for examination and that a large quantity of poison had been found in her home. At that point she denied having caused any of the deaths.
By April 14 she was in the Lake County jail at Crown Point. A dispatch from Crown Point that day reported that she had collapsed in her cell and lost consciousness, and that physicians thought she might have tried to take her own life. The dispatch may also refer to a sanity hearing set for that afternoon. A report printed on April 16 said she had lapsed into a coma-like state early on the Tuesday, recovered, and was later found in her cell apparently in a cataleptic condition.
The confession came in the jail at Crown Point. A dispatch dated April 16 and printed in The Daily Reflector that afternoon said she had confessed, "calm and unmoved," to poisoning three of the five members of her family whose deaths within six years had led to the investigation. The confession was taken by Sheriff Benjamin Strong, with a Chicago newspaper reporter present.
According to that report, she named the three as Isabelle, Charles and Walter. She said she had killed them because she loved them. She said she had spared her surviving daughter, whom she said she disliked. She also admitted giving poison to her surviving son, the young man in the Chicago hospital. She denied poisoning her son Harry, although the coroner's chemists had reported finding poison in his exhumed body.
She gave her reason as a desire to join her husband in heaven. She told the sheriff that she had taken poison herself each time as well and had recovered.
The report described a scene in the jail before she spoke. Her surviving daughter had been sent for and was pleading with her mother to say nothing. Mrs. Cunningham asked that her daughter be taken from the cell, and then confessed. The daughter refused to stay and listen, and declined an offer to spend the night in the jail near her mother.
The same report also carried a statement, made at some point that day, in which she said she might have poisoned her surviving son by mistake and denied poisoning any other member of the family. The report does not make the order of the two statements clear.
A further dispatch printed on April 17 repeated that she was held on a murder charge after confessing to poisoning three of the five dead members of her family, and that she said she had wanted to join her husband, who had died first. It added that analysis of two of the exhumed bodies had shown the presence of poison. A hearing on a charge concerning the death of her son Walter had been postponed. Whether the remaining bodies would be examined, and whether her sanity would be tested, had not been decided.
The report printed on April 18 described the confession in slightly different terms. It said she had admitted giving a fatal dose to three sons and denied any connection with the death of a fourth son. It said a fifth son was in a Chicago hospital from poison his mother had confessed to giving him, and that physicians feared he might die. The April 16 report had named a daughter, Isabelle, among the three; the April 18 report spoke of three sons.
The April 18 report said she had been arraigned before a justice of the peace in her cell at Crown Point, lying on a cot. She was bound over to the criminal court of Lake County without bail on a charge of first-degree murder. The report did not name the justice of the peace or say which death the charge concerned. The April 17 report had linked the postponed hearing to the death of Walter. As the April dispatches closed, she was held without bail in the jail at Crown Point to await the criminal court.
The wire reports of April 1925 differ on several points. The ages of the children vary from one dispatch to the next: Walter is given as 15 and as 13, Charles as 18 and as 19, and the surviving daughter as 17 and as 19. The April 16 report said she confessed to poisoning Isabelle, Charles and Walter, while the April 18 report said she admitted giving fatal doses to three sons. One report said all five bodies were exhumed; another said the analysis of two bodies showed poison.
Her own statements were not consistent. She denied causing the deaths when first questioned, confessed on or about April 16 to poisoning three children and to giving poison to her surviving son, and on the same day was reported as saying she might have given poison by mistake and had poisoned no one else. In the days around the confession she was reported to have been unconscious, and at one point in an apparently cataleptic state.
Her husband's death and Harry's death were among those investigated, but she was not reported as admitting either. She denied poisoning Harry. The reports name no charge for either death. Only one charge, first-degree murder, was reported at the arraignment on April 18.
The insurance on the dead members of the family was described by relatives, in the first Chicago report, as her main support. The April dispatches did not say that money was her motive. The reason she gave in the confession was her wish to join her husband in heaven.
1922: Charles Cunningham dies after a short illness (April 11, 1925 report).
1923: Walter Cunningham dies after an illness of about ten days (April 11, 1925 report).
Early 1925: the surviving son falls ill, recovers, returns to work and falls ill again.
April 11, 1925: reports from Chicago say he is critically ill from poison; his mother is questioned by the state's attorney's office; Cook County Coroner Oscar Wolff says he will seek exhumations.
April 13, 1925: she is reported taken into custody by two Gary police sergeants and taken back to Indiana.
April 14, 1925: she collapses in her cell in the Lake County jail at Crown Point.
April 15, 1925: the bodies of her husband and four children are reported exhumed; poison is reported found in her home; she denies causing the deaths.
April 16, 1925: she confesses to Sheriff Benjamin Strong to poisoning three of her children and to giving poison to her surviving son; she denies poisoning Harry.
April 17, 1925: analysis of two exhumed bodies is reported to show poison; a hearing concerning Walter's death is postponed.
April 18, 1925: arraigned in her cell and bound over without bail to the Lake County criminal court on a charge of first-degree murder.