Sarah Jane Tennant was born on May 26, 1838, in the modest town of Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, within Ireland’s Ulster province. Around age 14 or 15, she emigrated to Massachusetts with her sister, seeking a fresh start in the New World. By roughly July 1858, she entered into marriage with Moses Robinson, reportedly a carpenter or machinist, and thus became Sarah Jane Robinson.

From this union came eight children, though sadly only five survived infancy. The family produced roots largely in Sherborn, Massachusetts, but frequently shuffled across various addresses around Boston—rumored to be strategic moves, likely to dodge mounting debts and landlord demands.

Community-wise, Sarah Jane/family were members of the Cottage Street Methodist Church in Hyde Park. It was there she crossed paths with Thomas R. Smith, a respected leader and former Sunday school superintendent.

Between 1881 and 1886, a string of deadly, mysterious illnesses swept through Sarah Jane’s tight-knit circle. The scheme appeared to begin on August 10, 1881, when her landlord, Oliver Sleeper, fell ill under her care and succumbed to what was recorded as a heart attack, though $3,000 vanished from his flat, and Sarah Jane had nearly billed $50 for nursing services before receiving a rental reprieve instead.

Only a year later, on July 25, 1882, her husband Moses died under perplexing circumstances where he had reportedly collapsed after drinking cold water while overheated. The insurance company raised eyebrows and refused her claim, prompting Sarah Jane to relocate once more.

In 1884, tragedy struck again. Her 10-year-old daughter Emma died suddenly on September 6, while in 1885, her sister Annie and brother-in-law Prince Arthur Freeman died in February and June respectively. The latter’s $2,000 life insurance policy was awarded to Sarah Jane, who subsequently adopted their young son and tapped into the proceeds to relieve pressing financial stress.

February 1886 saw the death of her elder daughter Lizzie (Feb 22), and by July 23, her nephew Thomas (age 7) had also passed away in similar fashion. But it came to tragic head with her son William’s death on August 12, 1886. In his final moments, William reportedly pointed to his mother as responsible.

Enter Dr. Emory White, who preserved William’s stomach tissue and forwarded it to Harvard for analysis. The verdict: high levels of arsenic. That scientific confirmation triggered swift arrests of Sarah Jane and Thomas Smith, who had just arrived on the scene, with authorities snatching them after a fleeting moment of prayer for mother and son.

Meanwhile, authorities also arrested Dr. Charles C. Beers. In October 1886 the trio was indicted for the murders of William and Lizzie; they pleaded not guilty at the December 14, 1886 arraignment. In January 1887, the grand jury added four more indictments—including the deaths of Oliver Sleeper, Moses Robinson, Prince Arthur Freeman, and young Thomas Freeman. Sarah Jane then attempted an insanity defense, but it was swiftly dismantled by Dr. Kelly of McLean Asylum.

Charges against Smith and Beers were dropped prior to trial following a nolle prosequi by Attorney General A. J. Waterman. The first trial, held from December 13, 1887, revolved around William’s murder; it lasted six days and ended in a hung jury after 24 hours of deliberation. The second trial, focused on Prince Arthur Freeman’s murder, began February 6, 1888, and ended in Sarah Jane’s conviction on February 11, 1888—she received a death sentence by hanging.

During the aftermath, renovation of her former house turned up a box of rat poison hidden behind the furnace, which bolstered the prosecution’s claims of deliberate corruption.

Despite public revulsion, a clemency movement took hold. While the Governor’s Council initially opposed commutation, mounting pressure pushed them to reverse course. Her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Sarah Jane Robinson died in prison on January 3, 1906.