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The other day I took a little road trip down past Pacific, Missouri, to check out an abandoned town in Moselle. I've heard a couple of stories about a town that stood abandoned off a series of backroads but never checked it out.
Established in 1849 the iron ore town in rural Missouri gained population, aided by the addition of St. Mary of Perpetual Help Church
It didn't last, though. In the late 1800s, the Iron Furnance Stack closed, and so did the town.
Fair warning to those who want to check this place out, it isn't entirely abandoned. It seems as though people have started to move into the decaying buildings in the last couple of years.
Initially, I just wanted to check this place out, but then I heard about the serial killer Bertha Gifford who lived not far from Moselle and I knew I had to visit.
This individual also has some paranormal sightings near her old house, so this might end up being a two-parter.
Anyway, Her name was Bertha Alice Williams Graham Gifford, who was a farmwife in Catawissa, Missouri. She was born, October 30, 1871, and is ranked the 3rd most notorious female serial killer in the United States.
Childhood, all I could find was that she was one of ten kids. I have no idea where she fell in the ranks, but if I was going to take a guess, maybe one of the older ones. She was known to be sweet and caring, and everyone trusted her. Another thing that I kept finding on Bertha was that she was a fantastic cook and enjoyed feeding people. I think that adds this story, a well-liked member of society turned to murder, and no one suspects a thing. Also, as a person who can't turn down food, I'd probably die if I was there.
So, Bertha was a nurse, well, she dressed as one and people believed her. She would wear a stark-white nurses uniform and always have her bag full of magic potions on her. If she heard about an ill person, she would make a house visit, and that was that.
Back in the 1800s if someone dressed as a nurse, then they must be a nurse. It's pretty crazy how trusting people were, especially when their loved ones were dying. Bertha only had a third-grade education and being deemed the prettiest woman in Jefferson's country, who would doubt her?
She was known as the 'Angel of Mercy' and a good samaritan, yet this sweet woman had an obsession with death and demanded control over her patients, and that meant their lives. At home, she was the head of the household, and even her mother-in-law wasn't safe from Bertha's magic potions.
Now, what was in those magic potions? Arsinic, of course. You see, sweet Bertha would go to the store and purchase arsinic on the regular, and no one would bat an eye. She casually said that it was for a rat infestation in her barn. She used this excuse for almost 30 years! Seriously. This lady is coming in for 30 years because of a rat problem, and no one offered to help her, or found it strange? Like how many rats are we talking about?
Moving on.
Bertha was married twice. Her first husband, Henry Graham, was a farmer, and they opened a hotel together and a farm on the side. Locals reported that they were unhappily married and were often heard screaming at each other. The couple was also having affairs, and it would make sense for Graham to be her first victim.
Bertha met Gene Gifford, who was a well-liked, carpenter and of course, a farmer. Let's face it; everyone was a farmer. At this point, she was still married to Graham, but he soon became ill with pneumonia and died. How convenient for her. Even more convenient, she was then able to collect his insurance money and hooked up with Gifford. That all took place in 1906.
Remember how I said she always needed to be in charge? Well, her next victim, Emilie Gifford, her husband's mother, crossed the line. While Emilie visited her son and his new wife, she became violently ill and died in 1912.
A year later, Bertha asserts her power on her husband's nephew, Jimmy Gifford, who also died.
Why didn't anyone suspect anything? I mean, there is only so far that being charming would get you. On yeah, she was dressed like a nurse and would know jargon around like gastritis, the complication that she claimed many of her patients suffered from. What is gastritis? It is an inflammation of the stomach's protective lining, which causes cramping, much like the cramping that occurs after consuming poison.
Bertha's murders weren't limited to in the family, but she also murdered several neighbors, but children were her favorite. They were small and easily manipulated, making them easy targets.
Her next victim was Barnard Stuhelder in 1915, followed by Sherman Pounds and Jim Ogle in 1917. Keeping it in the family, perhaps branching out could have prolonged her arrest, she murdered Beulah Pounds in 1922 who was left in Bertha's care while the mother took care of business for the weekend. Beulah was perfectly healthy on arrival but was in agonizing pain by the time her mother came to pick her up.
I'm sorry, but murdering someone is terrible enough, but poisoning a little kid and just watching them suffer is a totally different thing. Beulah was only four years old when she was killed.
Sorry about flying through these, but I couldn't find much on these, and there are a lot. I wanted to at least mention them all.
Following Beulah is Irene Stuhlelder, 1923, Mary Briley 1925, and Ethel, Loyd, and Elmer Schamell in 1925. The father of those children though that Bertha would cure them, but instead, he watched her kill them without even knowing it.
Next, we have the murders of Leona Slocum, 1925, Birdie Unnerstall, 1926, Caswell Brinley, 1927, and finally, Ed Brinley in 1927.
Before Ed Brinley's death, locals thought that those who passed away were just unlucky, but Ed's widow demanded an investigation. Finally, someone with common sense. It appears that she put two and two together; her husband's death and the unfortunate patients of Bertha Gifford.
Ed Brinley's body was exhumed, and traces of arsenic could be found. That was when the police began to ask questions. The exhumed bodies of Caswell Brinley and Birdie Unnerstall all had the same cause of death- arsenic. The amount of arsenic found in the bodies was enough to kill seven people.
Did Bertha know that she was overkilling her patients, or did she not measure it? Personally, I think she wanted to overkill; she tried to make her victims suffer.
So, how could such a sweet lady murder all of those people? Well, fun fact about Bertha, she had a slight obsession with death and was reported to have attended every funeral in the area for 18 years. She literally killed people to visit their funerals. That's insane! Those who knew her said that she would read the newspaper religiously and talk about death regularly. As someone who just started a true crime and paranormal blog, I don't think these obsessions instantly point to the individual being a serial killer.
Anyways.
After her arrest, the cops quickly got information out of her; they brought up the death of Beulah Pounds, and in her protest to killer her, she admitted to killing four people. How do you deny one murder but disclose four others, when you killed them all? Why even bother at that point? The motive and method were the same; I'm just saying.
That was that Bertha was deemed guilty of 17 possible accounts of murder and was to hang in 1928. That didn't happen, though. She was declared insane and placed in Missouri State Hospital #4 in Farmington, Missouri. There she was noted to be quiet, hiding under a blanket in her cell and only speaking to her husband who stayed with her until her death on August 20, 1951.
I was blown away with this story. I have heard about Robert Berdella, who was prominent in Missouri but never about Bertha Gifford.
-Tye
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Always cite those sources:
“Moselle, Missouri.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moselle,_Missouri.
Moreland, Rebehka. “Abandoned Missouri: See The (Almost) Ghost Town Of Moselle.” 92.3 Bob FM, 6 Sept. 2018, awesome923.com/abandoned-missouri-see-the-almost-ghost-town-of-moselle/.
“Bertha Gifford.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Gifford.
Popper, Joe. “A DARKNESS 'ROUND THE BEND.” Bertha Gifford, www.berthagifford.com/.
Blanco, Juan Ignacio. “Bertha Gifford: Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers.” Bertha Gifford | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers, murderpedia.org/female.G/g/gifford-bertha.htm.
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