Martha Wise was obsessed with funerals - so much so that the Medina County woman made sure she had plenty to attend. She pretended to have a rat problem and bought massive amounts of arsenic under the pretense of wanting to rid her rural homestead of rodents. But it wasn't rats she was feeding the poison to; it was more than a dozen members of her own family. In this episode, 19 News reporter Jen Picciano digs into the dark and disturbing story of how this wicked widow's behavior took a turn from strange to deadly, and why she later claimed, "The devil made me do it."
May 7th, 2025, 08:08 pm
Dark Side of the Land
Cleveland's Wicked Women: Don't Drink the Water
00:00
21m
Published May 7th, 2025, 08:08 pm
Description
Martha Wise was obsessed with funerals - so much so that the Medina County woman made sure she had plenty to attend. She pretended to have a rat problem and bought massive amounts of arsenic under the pretense of wanting to rid her rural homestead of rodents. But it wasn't rats she was feeding the poison to; it was more than a dozen members of her own family. In this episode, 19 News reporter Jen Picciano digs into the dark and disturbing story of how this wicked widow's behavior took a turn from strange to deadly, and why she later claimed, "The devil made me do it."
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Dark Side of the Land
Podcast by 19 News