Bio

Sarah Clark was born about 1766. She was born within two miles of Carlisle in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

She was a local woman who worked in other households. For a time she lived with the family of John Douglas. She was sometimes called Sallie.

Later she took a job as a serving girl in the house of John Carothers. She lived and worked in the East Pennsborough area, now called Silver Spring Township.

Murder Story

Sarah Clark was born about 1766 near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She worked as a serving girl and became attached to a young man who paid attention to Ann Carothers. Sarah decided to try to remove Ann as a rival. She hired as a servant in the house of John Carothers.

In the fall of 1797 she purchased one ounce of white arsenic from Dr. Gustine. When she could not find a chance to give it directly to Ann, she put arsenic into a crock of leaven used to make bread. The family all ate the bread and became sick. Captain John Carothers died on February 26, 1798. His wife Mary died on June 3, 1798. Ann Carothers survived. Andrew Carothers survived but was left crippled.

Neighbors who ate poisoned butter were also made ill but were not in danger, according to newspapers. Sarah later purchased one ounce of yellow arsenic from Dr. Stinneckle and placed it in a crock in Thomas Carothers's spring house. The arsenic there and arsenic still in her possession were discovered.

Sarah Clark was jailed on June 12, 1798. She confessed to Justice James McCormick the following week. She was tried at the October term of Oyer and Terminer and convicted of murder in the first degree for the death of John Carothers. The court sentenced her to death on August 5, 1799. She was executed by hanging on October 30, 1799 on the commons east of Carlisle.