Mary Cowan

Mary A. Cowan (née Knight; March 8, 1863 – September 17, 1898), known as The Borgia of Maine, was an American serial killer who poisoned two husbands and four children between 1884 and 1894, and attempted to murder a third husband. Convicted of killing her step-son Willis Cowan in September 1894, Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent off to the Maine State Prison, where she died a few years later from an unspecified illness.

Biography Mary A. Knight was born as one of several children to Jonathan F. Knights, a veteran of the Civil War, and Apphia B. Knights (née Sidelinger). She lived on rural family home in Plymouth until the age of 20, when she married the young farmer Willis W. Bean of nearby Dixmont. The couple had three children: Gracie, Alice and Mabel. At some point during their marriage, Willis expressed a desire to become a physician, a decision encouraged by Mary, who wanted to dabble in it as well. However, the family was poor, and they also had to take care of their infants. In 1884, Gracie was found smothered to death by a neighbor at the family home. When he informed Mary of the matter, she carelessly replied that she was aware of the fact, and that the child had died about half an hour ago. In June, however, it was announced that the proceedings for the retrial had been withdrawn.

While in prison, Mary Cowan conducted interviews with reporters and often responded to callers interested in her case. On one occasion, she confided to a reporter that she had hired a private detective who supposedly unearthed evidence in favor or her innocence, and expressed belief that she would be a free woman again one day. Her hopes were dashed on February 19, 1896, when she was officially sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Willis Cowan.

Cowan was imprisoned at the Maine State Prison, then in Thomaston, for the following two years. In 1898, her examining physician turned to then-governor Llewellyn Powers with the request of pardoning Mary, as she was in failing health and wished to die peacefully in her Dixmont home. Despite her ailment, Mary gave birth to a child while in prison, but it, along with herself, died soon after. Cowan, by then dubbed 'The Borgia of Maine' by the press, was first interned at Etna, where her parents lived, but her body was then moved to the Sawyer Cemetery in her birthplace of Plymouth, where she was buried on the family plot with her murder victims.