A Poisoned Mind

In the late 19^th century, a Loudoun County woman gained international infamy in connection with Leesburg, Virginia, murders. The October 30, 1872 issue of the Boston Daily Globe reports that the case of Emily E. Lloyd was about to begin in Leesburg circuit court. Accused of poisoning her youngest daughter, the trial generated more than usual interest because it was suspected that she also murdered her husband, an aunt, her two sons and another daughter.

Emily Sampson was 23-years old when she married Charles B. Lloyd (1860 census), a dashing young Scotsman who had amassed a small fortune through hard labor as a stagecoach driver, handyman, and farmhand. In their first ten years of marriage, they had four children. Maud, the youngest, was born two months after Charles’ death. Charles was not considered the kindest of men, but he was respected in the community.

Charles felt under the weather that December of 1868, but a doctor declared him well enough to work at his restaurant in Leesburg’s old Eagle Hotel on S. King St. Charles returned to his home behind the jail on what is now Edward's Ferry Road, ate a light breakfast and prepared for work. Within an hour of the doctor’s diagnosis, Charles’ condition suddenly worsened and he died. The official cause of death was ruled heart disease.

Emily and her children – George, age nine; Henry, age six; Annie, age three; and soon-to-arrive Maud – were well taken care of in Mr. Lloyd’s will. Widow Emily and her children remained in Leesburg where she was admired as a devout Presbyterian and a doting mother.

In July of 1870, the two boys went berry picking with their live-in nurse. Soon after returning home, the boys became ill. Dr. Mott was called to the home, but it was too late. The boys passed within days of each other. The boys died of poison. A suspicious rash around their mouth and neck led the doctor to conclude that the boys had accidentally ingested poison oak while blackberry hunting. As in life, they remain constant companions, lying side-by-side in a grave near their father’s in Union Cemetery.

Emily’s elderly aunt, Mrs. Hammerly, came from Washington DC in the summer of 1871 to help poor Emily through this difficult time. Within a few days, the aunt also sickened and died. Mrs. Lloyd had all the outward appearances of a loving, caring mother. Each incident was explainable. No one suspected her of being anything more than an ill-fated widow. Emily and her two young daughters sold their home and moved to a one-and-half story stone home on the western end of Loudoun St. (*see The Stone House).

And then in February of 1872, her eldest daughter, Annie, experienced stomach cramps after eating oysters. Within days, she too was dead. Suspicion was aroused and the people of Leesburg began to whisper. Within a month, before anyone took action, four-year old Maud was also dead.

A formal enquiry was ordered and investigators learned that prior to the death of each family member, Mrs. Lloyd purchased arsenic from the local pharmacy. The stomach was removed from little Maud’s body and sent to Baltimore for examination. One and a half grains of arsenic were found within the child’s stomach contents.

Confederate War hero and State Representative candidate, Eppa Hunton, took on Mrs. Lloyd’s case. Hunton practiced law in Fauquier, Loudoun, and Prince William counties after the war where juries frequently included former members of his regiment. The prosecution was no match for the talented and popular Hunton. A Baltimore report claims Mrs. Lloyd was acquitted on a technicality because no one but the coroner – who died mysteriously prior to the trial – could prove that the examined stomach and its contents belonged to Maud Lloyd. However, a New York newspaper reported the jury, comprised of farmers disgruntled over the time lost in the fields and a former sweetheart of Mrs. Lloyd’s, took barely twenty minutes to return a not guilty verdict.

Three ornate tombstones in Leesburg’s Union Cemetery mark the graves of Charles and his four children. Emily held true to her post-trial statement that she would resume her seamstress wok far from the speculations of her guilt. She immediately left Leesburg and was never heard from again. The bodies of the other three children were exhumed, but all tests were inconclusive.

Two weeks after the trial, Eppa Hunt successfully earned his political bid for the House of Representatives, carrying the majority of Loudoun votes.

*10/16/2017 edit: Keelar Hunt, Gale Ischner and I went to the Stone House in 2007. Keelar experienced severe stomach pains and shortness of breath while we were there.