Women’s History Month
Arsenic and Old Lace— The Story of Serial Killer Amy Archer-Gilligan
Killer women throughout history
Amy Archer-Gilligan was born in Milton, Connecticut as Amy E. Duggan on October 31, 1873. She was her parents’ eighth child. They would go on to have two more for a total of ten. Perhaps being born on Halloween was a sign of things to come as Amy would take at least 5 lives between the years of 1907–1917.
The case was widely publicized at the time. It would later be cited as the inspiration for both the dark comedic play and film titled “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
Amy married James Archer in 1897. They had a daughter that same year — Mary J. Archer was born in December 1897. In 1901, the couple embarked on a career in caretakers when they were hired to attend an elderly widower named John Seymour. The couple moved into this home in Newington, Connecticut, and cared for him until he died in 1904.
After Seymour passed away, his heirs decided to convert his home into a boarding house for the elderly. They asked the Archers to stay on and provide care for a fee. The Archers paid rent for the home to the Seymour family and ran the boarding house as a business called “Sister Amy’s Nursing Home for the Elderly.”
