Bio

Lyda Catherine Ambrose was born in 1891 in Missouri.

Little is known about her childhood, family, or schooling. Records do not show many details about her early years.

Historical information about her begins around 1917, when she was about 26 years old.

Murder Story

Lyda Catherine Ambrose was linked to five deaths between 1917 and 1920. Her first known victim died in Keytesville, Missouri, in 1917 after taking out a life insurance policy for $2,500. Soon after, she married the dead man's brother, who died within three months and left another $2,500 life insurance payout. She later moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, and married a restaurant owner she worked for. After their June wedding, he died and had not signed his life insurance, so she could not collect. A later husband died about three months after their wedding, and she collected about $10,000 from his policy. She married again on October 16, 1920, and that husband died in November; she collected $12,000 from a policy bought earlier that month. Authorities searched her cottage and found large amounts of old-fashioned arsenic-laced flypaper. Toxicology tests on her late companions showed heavy doses of arsenic. Police arrested her in Oakland, California, in December 1920 and returned her to Idaho. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ambrose escaped from the Idaho state prison on May 4, 1931, was recaptured in Kansas City in 1932, and later died in prison of old age.