Paperback (Update: 2002, true crime): Stella Nickell's small-time world was one of big-time dreams. She of the clinging miniskirts, a wild mane of black hair, and cherry-red lips. For a forty-two-year-old grandmother, Stella Maudine Nickell was hot stuff.
On 5 June 1986, her biggest one came true when her husband died during a seizure, making her the beneficiary of a $175 000-plus insurance payoff until authorities discovered Bruce Nickell's headache capsules had been laced with cyanide.
In an attempt to cover her tracks, Stella did the unconscionable.
Less than a week later on 11 June 1986, she saw to it that a stranger, Susan Snow, a forty-year-old Auburn bank manager, would also become a "random casualty" of cyanide-tainted painkillers. Both Bruce and Susan died without regaining consciousness. But Stella's cunning plan came undone when her daughter Cynthia notified federal agents and troubling questions lingered like the scent of bitter almonds.
What would turn a gregarious barfly like Stella into a cold-hearted killer overnight? Why would Cynthia, a mirror image of her mother, turn on her own flesh and blood? Did Cynthia reveal everything she knew about the crimes? Was Stella a lone killer or did she have an accomplice in her daughter, Cynthia? The stunning answers would unfold in a case that sparked a national uproar, dug deep into a troubled family history, and exposed an American mother for the pretty poison she was.
Stella went to trial in April 1988 and on 9 May 1988, after five days of jury deliberation, she was found guilty of five counts of product tampering. One month later, the judge pronounced a sentence of two ninety-year terms, with parole a possibility at thirty years, for the charges relating to the deaths of Susan Snow and Bruce Nickell and three ten-year terms for the product tampering charges. All sentences were to run concurrently. She was also ordered to pay a small fine and forfeit her remaining assets to the families of her victims. At that time, she made history by being the nation's first convicted federal product tamperer.
Now, almost seventy-one years of age and serving time at the federal women's prison near Pleasanton, California, Stella will be eligible for parole in the year 2018 when she will be seventy-five-years-old.
About the author: Throughout his career, Gregg Olsen has demonstrated an ability to create a detailed narrative that offers readers fascinating insights into the lives of people caught in extraordinary circumstances. The award-winning author has written nine non-fiction books, nine novels, a novella, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child as well as been a guest on scores of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, the Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel. He, a Seattle native, lives in Olalla, Washington, with his wife, twin daughters, three chickens, Milo (cocker spaniel) and Suri (dachshund).
Olsen's next true crime book, If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children, will be out on 20 May 2014. For more information, click on his name (above).
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