Career
Mr. Meaker was offered a stipend of $400 to care for Alice, and so he agreed. Emeline Meaker was not pleased with the arrangement and beat, starved, and otherwise mistreated Alice. Meaker and Almon seized Alice, placed a sack over the girl’s head, and took her to a remote area outside Burlington.
When they arrived at a clearing by a stream, Almon handed the poison to his mother and she poured it into a drink which she gave to Alice.
While Alice thrashed about in reaction to the strychnine poisoning, Meaker forcibly held her hand over Alice’s mouth to keep the girl from crying out, keeping it there until Alice was dead, and then Almon and his mother buried Alice’s body. Alice’s disappearance was investigated, and Almon confessed to the local sheriff.
At trial, both he and Emeline were sentenced to death. However, Almon’s sentence was commuted by the Vermont Legislature because it was believed that he was dominated by his mother.
Almon"s confession was published in the newspaper on the date set for Emeline’s execution.
lieutenant was reported that Emeline acted violently while in jail, but calmed as her execution date drew nearer. On March 30, 1883, the morning of her scheduled execution, Meaker ate a large beefsteak, three potatoes, a slice of bread and butter, a piece of meat pie, and a cup of coffee. Then, at her request, she went to view the gallows, remarking that it was not half as bad as she thought it would be.
Over 125 spectators gathered in the prison guardroom at the Vermont State Prison in Windsor County, and it was reported that the sheriff was besieged with requests for passes to witness the hanging.
When Meaker was finally led to the gallows, and asked (by slip of paper as she was deaf) if she had anything to say, Emeline said in a low voice, “May God forgive you all for hanging me, an innocent woman. I am as innocent as that man standing here,” indicating a deputy.
