KYJacksonPurchase-L Archives

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Subject: Hopkinsville Patient-husband of Murderess
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 15:20:51 EDT

My great grandfather's step-aunt (it was his father's step sister) Mary
(Fletcher) Brockwell killed 3 of her 4 children in 1905. In the newspaper article,
it says the children's father, Plenny Brockwell, was in the asylum in
Hopkinsville. Someone also wrote a song about the murders and it mentions him being in
the asylum. Mary Brockwell killed her 3 children (she was 29 years old)
because a 21 year old man said he'd marry her if she'd get rid of them (or this
was her claim--the man denied it). We have been wondering if he was already in
Hopkinsville for some reason since she was obviously hanging around with other
men, or if the shock of the death of his 3 kids put him there. Mary killed
them by poisoning their food at their family meal then they died during the
night. The papers make no mention of Plenny being there when it happened which
leads us to think 1) they were divorced/seperated 2) He may have been out that
evening 3) he was already in Hopkinsville
Have been trying to figure this out for a while, but so far no leads.
The children were buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in a donated plot. They
have no tombstone and if you are at the cemetery, the only way to know they
are buried there is if you've asked the Office for directions to the grave.
Dozens of people showed up to Mary's court hearings and also to the funeral as
well. Mary pleaded insanity and was put in a home for the feeble minded. She was
released when she was about 80 years old and when my family here wouldn't
except her staying with them for fear of the safety for their own children, she
moved to Mississippi where her only living child was.
Meg

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