OSBORNE, Amandus K. - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Veedersburg, Ind., A 39-year-old Fountain County farm wife confessed last night she murdered her husband with a dose of arsenic in a glass of milk during a family quarrel Dec. 26, authorities said. Mrs. Mary Pursley Osborne admitted giving the arsenic to Amandus K. Osborne, 49, in a statement to Fountain County Coroner Charles Fishero at Fishero’s home. Her two children, Grace, 19, and George, 17, were present.  Fishero said he became suspicious because no apparent cause of death could be found. An autopsy and tests by an Indiana University toxicologist disclosed a large quantity of arsenic in Osborne’s stomach, he said. Mrs. Osborne was taken to the Fountain County jail at Covington pending a grand jury investigation today.

- kbz

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Source: Terre Haute Tribune Thursday 9 March 1950 p 2

Covington, Ind March 9 - Mrs. Mary P. Osborne, a Fountain County farm wife, admitted today she gave her husband a dose of arsenic a month before he died.  Amandus K. Osborn died at his home near Cates last Dec 26.  Sheriff Chester G. Cooper said Mrs. Osborne signed a statement saying she put arsenic which her husband kept for rat poison in his glass following an argument last Thanksgiving.  "She told us she only gave him one dose but we think she must have given him more later on," Cooper said.  He said Coroner Charles Fishero was called into the case when a Kingman physician who attended Osborne refused to sign the death certificate.  The results of an autopsy showed that Osborne had a lethal amount of arsenic in his system, Cooper said. - kbz