Emma LeDoux

Emma LeDoux (September 10, 1875 - July 6, 1941) was the first woman sentenced to death in the State of California. She had been convicted of murdering Albert McVicar, her third husband, whom she had poisoned and stuffed into a steamer trunk. She had the trunk delivered to a Stockton railway station on March 24, 1906.

Upon appeal, she was granted a retrial. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Early life

She was born Emma Theresa Cole on September 10, 1875, in Grove, California; her parents were Thomas Jefferson Cole from Ione, California, and Mary Ann Gardner. The family moved to Oregon when Emma was around three years old, staying there about a decade. They returned to Amador County in 1888.

Marriages At age 16 (in 1892 or 1893), Cole married but the couple divorced in 1898.

In 1910, a new trial was granted. As she was in poor health, she decided to plead guilty to lesser charges. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and was transferred to San Quentin. She served 10 years before being paroled in 1920. On April 21, 1931, she was returned to prison for parole violations, and was held there for the rest of her life.

She died on July 6, 1941. She is buried in the Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, California.

In popular culture The steamer trunk used by LeDoux in the murder of Albert McVicar is on display at the Haggin Museum in Stockton.