Hannah Hanson Kinney

Hannah Hanson Kinney (born Hannah Hanson in 1805) was an American seamstress who was charged with the murder of her third husband, George Kinney in 1840. Arsenic, the alleged murder weapon, was found in Kinney's stomach during an autopsy. Though Kinney was acquitted, public records indicate that Kinney's second husband, Reverend Enoch W. Freeman, and Freeman's father, died of arsenic poisoning years earlier. Public consensus following Kinney's trial deemed her guilty, and she published an autobiography in 1841 to defend herself.

Early life and marriage to Ward Witham Hannah Hanson was born in 1805 in Lisbon, Maine. At seventeen, she met Ward Witham, and they were married in January 1822, in Portland, Maine. After the first few months of their marriage, Hanson was accused by two neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Weymouth, of stealing their personal items. Witham defended his wife at the time, but later suspected her in the theft when he came to believe that she had been involved in an extra-marital affair. In October 1822, Hanson and Witham moved out of the home they had shared with the Weymouth family. In July 1823, Hanson gave birth to her first child, a daughter. Witham came to suspect Hanson had been involved in an affair during the winter of 1824. In 1825, Hanson gave birth to her second child, a son. In the winter of 1825, Witham worked outside the home gathering lumber. He suspected his wife was involved in a second affair, this time with a young man. Hanson heard that Witham had begun a new life in Boston as a single man. In 1830, Witham and Hanson exchanged letters confirming that Hanson had no desire to live with her husband again.

Marriage to Enoch W. Freeman

Hanson began supporting herself as a seamstress in Boston. She visited her children in Dover several times a year. It was the first time Hanson had seen Freeman in fifteen years. On the first anniversary of their wedding, Freeman grew ill and died. In 1840, Kinney was treated for syphilis, which he had contracted through a sexual affair with a mistress.

Trial

On August 30, 1840, Hannah was visiting friends in Thetford, Vermont when she was arrested for the murder of George Kinney and transported back to Boston. In 1841, Hannah published her autobiography, A Review of the Principal Events of the Last Ten Years in the Life of Mrs. Hannah Kinney: Together with Some Comments upon the Late Trial, Written by Herself to combat rumors of her guilt. The Spectator compared Hannah to other women who had infamously used poison or violence to murder men, including Madame LeFarge of France and Mrs. Cutts of England.