Sarah Jane Whiteling, born around 1848 in Germany, immigrated to the United States during her youth and eventually settled in Iowa. She first married Tom Brown in Clinton, Iowa, in 1868, and the couple later moved to Chicago, Illinois. Following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, they relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking a new start.

Her first husband, Tom Brown, was eventually convicted of highway robbery and sent to Eastern State Penitentiary, where he died while serving his sentence. After his death, Sarah entered a relationship with a man named Thomas Storey, the proprietor of an oyster saloon, and had a daughter, Bertha.

In March 1880, Sarah married John Whiteling, a working-class laborer in Philadelphia. The family’s financial circumstances were modest but stable enough to maintain a small home. Sarah brought her infant daughter Bertha into the marriage, and the couple later had a son, William C. “Willie” Whiteling, born in 1886.

Sarah’s home life, however, was far from peaceful. She frequently complained about poverty and illness, and her husband’s poor health made it difficult to support the family. Reports later described her as religiously obsessive and prone to fatalistic thinking, believing that hardship was a punishment from God. Though she was not known for violence, Sarah’s obsession with money and spiritual purity would soon lead to one of Philadelphia’s most notorious poison cases.

Between March and May 1888, Sarah Jane Whiteling poisoned her husband and two children using arsenic, a common household poison sold under the brand name “Rough on Rats.” Each of the deaths was initially deemed natural, and Sarah successfully collected multiple life insurance payouts on her victims.

The first death occurred on March 30, 1888, when John Whiteling suddenly fell ill and died. The attending physician, Dr. G. W. Smith, ruled that John had died from inflammation of the bowels. Sarah collected insurance payments from two policies—$145 from the John Hancock Life Insurance Company and $85 from the Benevolent Order of Buffalos. When asked about her husband’s death, Sarah claimed he had taken his own life out of despair over their poverty.

Just a few weeks later, on April 24, Sarah’s nine-year-old daughter Bertha became violently sick and died. The official cause of death was listed as typhoid fever. Bertha, too, was insured for $122, and Sarah promptly collected the payment.

Barely a month later, on May 26, two-year-old Willie Whiteling died after a short illness. His death certificate cited congestion of the bowels, but suspicions grew among local doctors and health officials due to the short span between the three deaths. Sarah also received small insurance payments for Willie—$30 from John Hancock and $17 from Prudential Financial.

When asked if her husband and children’s bodies could be examined, Sarah refused, claiming that doctors once began a postmortem on one of her previous children before realizing too late that the child was still alive. Her refusal deepened suspicions, leading Coroner Ashbridge to order an investigation.

In June 1888, detectives Wood and Geyer exhumed the three bodies from Mechanics’ Cemetery. Chemical analysis performed by Professor Leffman revealed large quantities of arsenic in each body. Sarah Jane Whiteling was arrested shortly after the results were made public.

During questioning, she confessed to poisoning both of her children, though she continued to deny killing her husband. She claimed that she murdered Bertha because she feared her daughter was becoming “wicked” and prone to stealing, and that she poisoned Willie because “he was in the way.” Sarah said she had planned to take her own life afterward but changed her mind because her religious beliefs forbade suicide.

Whiteling spent the months before her trial in prayer, often weeping and reading from the Bible. She exhibited periods of depression and nervous exhaustion but never retracted her confession.