Freshly Squeezed True Crime

#19, Judy Buenoano & Christine Falling

• Suhailly Nieves • Season 1 • Episode 19

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This is Freshly Squeeze True Crime, a Florida only True Crime podcast. I'm Sunelee, and before we get to this week's juicy episode, I ask you to visit the website at fstcpodcast.com where you'll find all of our social media platforms as well as the newest episodes. And also, find us on YouTube where we would like you to follow us, subscribe, share it, do all the things. So pour yourself a tall glass of orange juice and let me tell you a story.

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When people think of serial killers, names like Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer often come to mind, reinforcing the idea that most are men. However, women have also been responsible for multiple murders, sometimes going unnoticed for years. While serial murder is less common amongst women, they still make up about 15% of known cases. The US Department of Justice defines a serial killer as someone who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days with time in between each crime. Florida has seen its share of female serial killers, each leaving a lasting mark on the state's criminal history. She was born Judias Ann Lou Wealthy in Kwana, Texas, on April 4, 1943. She was a third of four siblings. Her father was a farm worker, and a result of her mother dying of tuberculosis, Judy and her brother Robert were placed for adoption. After some time, they were sent to live with her grandparents. Their father remarried a woman with two sons. The two wealthy children moved to join them and the Steff family in Roswell, New Mexico. This was a house in which abuse and neglect were the norm. Judy was reportedly abused by her father and stepmother, who starved her and forced her to work as a slave. When she was 14, in an attempt to protect her younger brother, she spent two months in jail for attacking her father, stepmother, and two stepbrothers with hot grease. At the end of the 60 days, she did not ask to return to her home. On the contrary, not only did she not want to return home, she also did not want to see her younger brother Robert, and memorably stated that she wouldn't spit down his throat if his guts were on fire. In 1959, at the age of 16, Judy graduated from Foothills High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She decides that she will manipulate the system in every way she possibly can to her advantage. She feels she's been badly let down by her father, by her mother dying, by the fact of her childhood, by her stepmother. All of this wells up inside of her, in which she becomes convinced that she's going to be her own. She's going to have her own back. Upon release, Judy moved to Roswell to study at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center and met a man named Adam Schultz. She assumed his surname and became Anna Schultz. In nursing school, she is a high achiever. She achieves a PhD in biology and psychology. Many people will take years and years to achieve a PhD to achieve this kind of position in a hospital, but she seemed to do it relatively quickly because she didn't have any distractions. This was all about her. At the age of 17, Judy, now known as Anna Schultz, became pregnant and on March 30th, 1961, gave birth to a boy, Michael Arthur Schultz. At the time, having a child out of wedlock would have been a difficult situation to find herself in. A single mother trying to raise a child all on her own. Judy seemed like a very normal person. She wanted to raise her son well and provide for him. She just seemed like everyone else. Shortly after the birth of her son, Anna Scholz met James Goodyear, a United States Air Force mechanic. He was 10 years her senior and in every sense an upright, sound individual. Before too long, she becomes Judy Goodyear. After the marriage, James adopts Judy's son Michael. On January 16, 1966, Judy gave birth to their son, also named James. Judy and James had a very nice marriage for a while. They got along well, they traveled, they went out to fancy dinners, they did normal family things. In 1967, the Goodyear family moved to Orlando, and soon after their daughter Kimberly was born. Judy wanted to protect her family and made sure they were fully insured to cover any unforeseen events. They got along well for a time, but then they started fighting, and it wasn't long after that that James had to go to Vietnam. During this time, it was very stressful for Judy because she was now raising three children on her own. After about a year, James came back from Vietnam. He and Judy really tried to make a go of things. They tried to put all the fighting behind them and rekindle their marriage and provide for their three children. When she later talks about her relationship with James, she describes it as we were best friends. She doesn't talk about love, and interestingly, she doesn't talk about attachment or affection. She talks about him as a friend. Incredibly, she decides that she's going to poison her husband very carefully over a longish period of time so that no one will notice that in fact he is being poisoned. So, over a period of months, she feeds James Goodyear a concoction of pills, including parafalmodhyde, to effectively obstruct his system under the guise of vitamin C for his cough. After a few months, he starts to become violently ill. He was having hallucinations and convulsions. He felt really terrible. He was just in really, really bad shape. Judy said that she knew how to take care of him, but things just kept getting worse. Goodyear suffered fluid overload and pulmonary congestion and died as a consequence of cardiovascular collapse and renal failure. On September 16, 1971, at the age of 37, James Goodyear died at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Orlando. James's death was just a mystery. He who was young and fit and having just came out of the military, it really just mystified everyone. Judy put a spin on it and says she was sure it was a chemical element that they were using on the military in Vietnam. Surely it's something to do with that. So she's got this narrative that she's prepared to actually explain his death. But when you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, Judy and James have been together for about a decade at this point. So you think, well, why would she kill him now? For Judy Goodyear, her husband was worth more dead than alive. On September 20th, 1971, just five days after James's death, Judy received checks in the amount of$33,000, which today would be$262,000 from insurance and$62,000, which is$498,000 from VA benefits, for a total of$760,428. And then just to add a little piquancy, she sets fire to the house in Orlando and claims the insurance policy on that too. You have a woman whose greed knows a few bounds, but of course, she always plans on an escape route. In 1972, Judy moves with her three children from Orlando to Pensacola to live with a new man in her life, Bobby Joe Morris. She meets him in the same year that James Goodyear was murdered, and this perhaps suggests that there may have been a little overlap. She may have had her sights on this guy before she killed her first husband. There is no such thing as a coincidence when it comes to serial killers. So perhaps there was a plan rolling out in the background. Bobby Joe and Judy had a really fun time together. Just like with James, they traveled at fancy dinner restaurants. There were a couple that seemed to really hit it off. But then things started to deteriorate. Bobby Joe decided he didn't want to be with Judy anymore. He moved out to Colorado, leaving her behind in Florida. But Judy followed, and Bobby Joe couldn't say no to Judy. They reconciled and they began trying to repair their relationship and live happily ever after together. In July 1977, before Judy and her children joined Bobby Joe in Colorado, another mysterious fire engulfed their Pensacola home. Judy claimed the insurance money. While living in Colorado, Judy goes by the name Judy Morris. Multiple life insurance policies were issued on the life of Bobby Joe Morris, with Judy as the beneficiary. It wasn't long before Bobby Joe started to fall ill. He was a heavy drinker, so no one's going to suspect that his health is going bad. And that was very critical to her. And her plan because obviously, if very healthy people are just suddenly dying, that's going to cause more problems than if someone who has a history of suddenly becoming sick, not in good health, and a drinking problem. You're not going to look as hard into that as to a possible foul play involved. He ended up in the hospital where Judy was working as a nurse's aide, so she took care of him and looked after him the entire time he was in the hospital. Bobby Joe was incredibly ill. He was hallucinating all kinds of pains, and he was just mysteriously ill. Doctors were having a hard time figuring out what was wrong with Bobby Joe. She puts it off, tells everyone that Bobby Joe is an alcoholic and he drinks to excess. He drinks two bottles of vodka a day. He drinks a case of beer a day. He just does all these things. The doctors at the hospital never questioned Judy because why would she lie about this? Here is someone who knows what she's about, who knows the patient. She's filling in the details for us. And that is a position that she really abused. That position of power, that position of influence. She was basically saying, This guy's just a bit of a washed-up alcoholic, and these things happen. Bobby Joe got a little better for a short period of time, but then he got a lot worse. And he deteriorated in an agonizing way and eventually died on January 28th, 1978. Bobby Joe's mother wanted Bobby Joe to come home, and Judy says, No, no, no, we're going to cremate him. And his mother says, No, you're not. You're going to send him home. So Bobby Joe was sent home. Judy did not attend the funeral. But she, of course, had insured him and once again collected on a number of policies for a total of$510,000, and the home mortgage paid off for a total of$2.5 million. On May 3rd, 1978, the widow, Judy Morris, changed her family name to Buenoano, the Spanish equivalent of Goodyear. This is her way of having a little bit of a laugh. She's taking the name of the first person that she's killed, and she's using that in one of the new identities. This shows the real dark side of her sense of humor. She literally is dangling a victim in front of everyone. In June 1978, the newly named Bueno family left Colorado. Judy bought a home in Gulf Breeze, Pensacola, and set up home with her three children. Judy's first child, Michael Buenwano, Goodyear, created an awful lot of stigma for Judy. Michael loved his mother, but she didn't care for him at all. She didn't like him. If people came over to the house when he was younger, where she was living, she would hide him in another room or have a babysitter take him out. She was ashamed of him and was always doing things to try to get her attention, to try to make her proud, and it was just a sad situation. In 1979, 18-year-old Michael Buenamano enlisted in the United States Army. This is very much a way of trying to get his mother's approval because, of course, his stepfather, James Goodyear, was a military man, so he knows that these are the kind of qualities in a man that his mother admires, or so he thinks. When Michael got into the army, he went to a water purification school. In water purification, they used arsenic. He came home for Thanksgiving to be with the family and took ill. Very ill. Because he was in the military, he was sent to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, which is our Army hospital, a very renowned hospital. And they were treating him and they saved his life, but he lost basically muscular control of his arms and legs, so he became a paraplegic essentially. She was blaming the army where he was working at the water purification school that he had gotten into this arsenic, and he possibly ate some of it. Because of his loss of mobility, he was not allowed to return to his career in the military. And for Michael, this was very depressing. Here he is unable to pursue his career, unable to move, and he's a young man with the rest of his life in front of him. It was a sad time indeed. Judy contacted the military and said they're going to give him an dishonorable discharge. And if you would discharge him to me, we will retrofit our house to care of him and his disabled condition. Michael ended up wearing braces on his legs and robin wings, all the weights that Michael had on him, so he could try and walk a little bit with Cain's weight over 50 pounds. The military agreed to discharge Michael into his mother's care. She drove down to Tampa, picked him up from the airport, drove back to Pensacola, and by that afternoon they were out on a canoe trip. On May 13, 1980, Judy left her daughter Kimberly fishing on the river bank and prepared the canoe for herself, James, and Michael. Judy put Michael in the middle of the canoe with the weights on his legs, the weights on his arms, and he's sitting on a lawn chair. It was a beautiful day and Judy wanted to treat her family to a nice time. So they canoed out into Florida's East River in Milton. When all of a sudden something happened and the canoe tipped over. Both Michael and James are in the water. Judy tried to hurry to get over to grab young James to save him, but she said she didn't have time to get to Michael, who drowns because of his heavy braces. He went right down to the bottom of the water. Who is going to suspect for a second that Judy might have organized a drowning? Judy alleged that a snake had fallen into the canoe from an overhanging tree and in the excitement it capsized when the army came to investigate. Of course, Judy deliberately tipped over the canoe in the middle of the river, knowing that her son could not swim to the shore. Whereas you can and your son can. So anywhere between$58,600 to$78,133 in 2026 money, to include one she had taken out while Michael was an infant for a total of$468,803. She had to believe in her mind that no one was ever going to figure this out. Ab totally fooled all these idiots. Judy spent the money on vacations, cars, opening a beauty salon named Fingers and Faces, and basically just lived a really nice life. In February 1981, nine months after the death of her son, Judy met 35-year-old Army veteran and local business owner John Gentry. John had two sons from a former marriage. John's business specialized in carpet and florentiles. He had a huge store in Pensacola, very successful, and several people working for him. He joked about losing his hearing due to stepping on a landmine in Vietnam. They had a good relationship. Judy really did like living the high life at this particular point in time. So they went on cruises, they loved expensive restaurants. She really liked it when he bought her expensive clothing. So this appears to be quite a successful relationship. In August 1981, John moved into the house in Gulf Breeze to live with Buenowano and her two children, James and Kimberly. He spoke to his sons about Judy being beautiful, intelligent, and well off to include a boat, a car, and living in an exclusive community, and took both families to Disney. On the outside, the couple was very affectionate. They kissed, held hands, and loved being around each other. Meanwhile, Judy had been spreading various rumors about Mr. Gentry to her friends that he seemed to be involved with some shady characters, maybe some organized crime connections, or on the other hand, he had bad health. And he did appear to have a bad health because Judy had been slipping him some capsules containing paraformaldehyde and arsenic. These weren't enough to kill him, but it was causing him to always feel sick all the time. It should be noted that Mr. Gentry was aware that at one time he had an insurance policy on him, but was under the impression that she had cancelled it. After less than two years together, 40-year-old Buenwano has some news for John. Judy announced to him that she was pregnant, so they needed to get married. Needless to say, Judy was not pregnant as she was no longer capable of having children after her tuber legation, which John knew nothing about. On June 25, 1983, Judy had arranged a party because one of her members of her staff was leaving. She had a long range of beauty salons in the local area. She arranged for this meal at a fancy restaurant. She wanted John to go along to the restaurant to help set up for the party. She went as far as telling John where to park his car. Judy arrived after John in her brand new Corvette. However, she parks two blocks away in front of a motel. As the party wraps up, Judy encouraged John to leave without her. She walked into the door and told him that she needed to stay for a little longer, but what I want you to do is get a bottle of champagne and go home and wait for me there and we'll celebrate the good baby news. John walks out to the car, gets in, starts to car, and boom, the whole thing explodes. Here's this car bomb in a sleepy Pensacola. Clearly, this is no ordinary event. John is catapulted out of the car. Judy comes out of the restaurant and the people follow her. She sees the car blown up, so she goes into having a fit, falls on the ground, and pretends she's having a seizure. Judy had just made a fatal mistake. The homemade device was detonated as he turned on the headlights. Although he was thrown out of the car, his shoes remained on the floorboard of the car. He survived. John was sent to the hospital while a team of law enforcement agencies congregated at the scene. The car was eventually moved to Pensacola Police Department, placed in their lot, and examined the following morning. The fact that John survived must have really shocked Judy and shook her deeply. She failed to kill her victim and this she felt incredibly frustrated about this because the person that she tried to murder several times now has once again survived. Not only did he survive, but he is now a piece of evidence. He has lots of information that he's able to share with police, all of her lies and her stories were coming home to Roost. He had a lot of damage done to him, and it would be several days before the police would be able to talk to him. At the start of the investigation, Judy told police that John was getting threatening notes that were left on the windshield of his car, that he was getting these phone calls and hangups. There turned out to be nothing. Then she would go on to say that John had cancer and was dying. Judy always believed that she was the smartest person in the room, especially after rebuilding her life many, many times. Times over. She had controlled and contained herself. She might even have never faced justice. But greed overcame her. If she had not decided to blow up John, it's entirely possible that the authorities would have never had looked back at her killings of Bobby Joe Morris, Michael, or the killing of James Goodyear. They were, to some extent, in the past, defined as accidents, tragic nevertheless, but still accidents. It was her only decision to blow up John that eventually drew attention to her by the authorities. It was while John spoke of taking pills that were supposed to make him feel better and other things that had happened to authorities that Judy finally had the spotlight put on her. These pills were in his office. They were collected by the investigators and tested by the lab. Well, sure enough, his pills had been taken apart, filled with paraffamaldehyde, put back together and presented as vitamin C. There is no question that Judy chose her poison very carefully. Paraphomaldehyde causes deterioration of the organs but doesn't do it quickly. So when the labs were returned for the paraphermaldehyde, a class 3 poison, a warrant for pickup was issued. At the start of the investigation, John did not want to believe that Judy had been trying to kill him, but as the evidence stacked up and John learned that he in fact did have a life insurance policy with Judy as a beneficiary. The case quickly unraveled when it was determined that she had a half a million dollar insurance policy that she was ready to cash in. Judy had already booked a six-month cruise around the world for her and her two children, but not for John. This opened Pandora's box all of Judy's life, all of her previous offending, all of the times when she's killed other people before. Without this failed attempt, Judy would have continued her killings despite her careless and mixing her MO. They began exhuming bodies. They exhumed James Goodyear's body. Lethal doses were in his system. She wanted to make sure that she did the job right with husband James Goodyear. And so the amount of arsenic in his system when he was examined after being exhumed was enough to kill 15 people. Investigators from Colorado came down to Alabama and exhumed the body of Bobby Joe Morris. Tests were conducted on him as well. It was determined that he had enough arsenic to kill 10 people. The body of Michael Goodyear was examined and he too had lethal amounts of arsenic. It was the lethal amount that crippled him but did not kill him. With that began the mounting of the cases. As her case became widely known, she was dubbed the Black Widow in the media. On July 27, 1983, Judy Bonawana was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of her third partner, John Gentry. After being released on bail, she was arrested once more in January 1984, this time for grand theft and the murder of her son Michael. Judy claimed to be innocent of all charges and went as far as taking the stand during the murder trial of her son. She truly believed that she would get away with it. The jury did not believe Judy Buenowano's lies, and she was found guilty on all counts. She was sentenced to life without parole. Later that same year, Bueno Wano found herself back on trial, charged with the attempted murder of John Dentry. On October 18, 1984, she was found guilty and sentenced to a further 12 years behind bars. Despite the sentence already handed out to her, Buenowano would have to face a third trial, this time for the first-degree murder of her first husband, James Goodyear. Once again she was found guilty, and her punishment was even more severe. On November 26, 1985, Judy Bueno was sentenced to death. She was convicted of multiple counts of grand theft by insurance fraud. She was thought to have committed multiple acts of arson, again for purposes of insurance fraud. Judy's crimes were cold, calculated, and premeditated. Those are the kinds of murders in the state of Florida that cry out for the death penalty. The death penalty is designed for people like Judy. She was incarcerated in Florida Department of Corrections Broward Correctional Institution's death row for women. On March 30, 1998, Judy Winuana was executed via the electric chair in Florida State Prison. She was 54 years old. She was the first woman executed in Florida since 1848 and the first woman in the United States to be electrocuted since 1976. Her last meal consisted of steamed broccoli, asparagus, strawberries, and tomato wedges with hot tea and lemon. When asked if she had any last words, Bueno Uano said no, sir. She died without ever saying anything at all, apologizing or omitting anything. She took it all with her. Bueno's body was cremated and some of her ashes were scattered in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her remaining ashes were kept in an urn and buried under a gardenia bush where her grandson, Alex Hawkins, lives. Hawkins23 is currently working on a documentary about his grandmother's case and wants people to keep an open mind about her life and crimes. I'm not trying to sugarcoat this documentary. I'm not trying to say that she didn't do all these things. She did all these terrible things, but at the same time, she also helped the community out at large and in her area of Pensacola. Everyone knew her in the community as well as her being a nice philanthropic woman. I just want people to know that yes, she did what she did, but at the same time also look at her as not being a killer, but look at her and the people that had been directly affected by her. And now for a bonus. Christine Falling was born Christine Laverne Slaughter on March 12, 1963, in Perry, Florida. Her mother Anne was only 16 at the time of Falling's birth and had already given birth to an older sister, Carol. Her father Thomas was a 65-year-old woodsman who was inattentive and of violence by nature. Fawling's early childhood years were marked by persistent poverty and illness. She was severely mentally disabled, prone to obesity, epileptic, experienced bouts of aggressive behavior, and throughout her life was never able to surpass the sixth-grade vocabulary skills. One search described her as dull-witted. Another said she was unattractive with an odd, vacant look in her eyes. Her mother Anne would often leave for months at a time. When Anne would return home, it seemed to her young daughters that she always came back pregnant. Over the following two years, after Christine was born, Anne had two more children, Michael and Earl. Of all the children, Thomas claimed only Earl as his biological child. During Anne's absence, Thomas cared for the children by bringing them out to the woods where he worked. But when he was in a work-related accident, Anne was forced to rejoin the family. After that, the children were often shuffled around to family members until, according to Carol, Anne completely abandoned them, leaving them on a bench at a Perry shopping center. Within a few years after her birth, due to extreme poverty, Christine Falling and her older sister were adopted by Dolly and Jesse Falling, a family who were unable to have children of their own. Both Carol and Christine became rebellious and unruly as they got older and found themselves in constant conflict with their adopted family and were eventually placed in children's home near Orlando. When Christine was only nine years old after a church pastor interceded. According to author Madeline Blaise in her book The Heart is an Instrument, the girls were also subjected to physical and sexual abuse by Jesse Falling, something the Fallings both denied. By the time she entered Great Oaks Village, Falling already had a striking propensity for bizarre and violent behavior. The group foster home was designed to help neglected and abused children. Christine later commented on how much she enjoyed her time there, although, according to social workers, Christine was a thief, a compulsive liar, and would often get in trouble just for the attention that it brought. One of her favorite pastimes was torturing and killing cats to determine whether they really had nine lives. Her relationship with other children in the refuge was horrific. Fallings' obesity, poor social skills, and intellectual defects were a constant source of cruelty commentary from her peers. After a year at the refuge, the girls were returned to the fallings. This time there was no sexual abuse, but the physical abuse continued. The final episode happened in October 1975 when Jesse alleged subjected Christine to a severe beating for being 10 minutes late. He also insisted that she wear shorts to school the following day so everyone could see the justice marks. The following day, the girls ran away. At the age of 12, after six weeks of living with Carol's friend, Christine decided to locate her birth mother, eventually finding her in Bluntstown, Florida. In September 1977, at the age of 14, Christine met and married Goober Foley, who was a decade older than she and reportedly her stepbrother. Within six weeks of the marriage, the relationship collapsed in a chaotic series of violent encounters and the couple was permanently separated. Christine once threw a 25-pound stereo at her husband during one of their fights. The failure of this relationship triggered a new era of bizarre behavior for her. And over the next two years, she visited a local hospital more than 50 times with an endless series of strange medical conditions that she could never be diagnosed. This hypochondriac phase included hallucinations of red spots, vaginal bleeding, and a snake bite. Although Christine was thoroughly examined by physicians, she would present herself with inexplicable and rapidly changing symptoms that always resulted in her being sent home without treatment or medication. Hypochondrial illness anxiety disorder is a chronic mental illness previously known as hypochondria. People with this disorder have a persistent fear that they have a serious or life-threatening illness despite few or no symptoms. Medications and cognitive behavior therapy can help being preoccupied with having or getting a serious disease or health condition. Worrying that minor symptoms or bodily sensations means you have a serious illness. Being easily alarmed about your health status, finding little or no reassurance from doctor visits or negative test results. Patients with hypochondriosis often are not aware that depression and anxiety produce their own physical symptoms and mistake these symptoms for manifestations and another mental or physical disorder or disease. Now in her mid-teens, she began earning money by babysitting for neighbors and friends in her mother's hometown. Despite her unsavory appearance, their words not mine, and obvious mental difficulties, she somehow gained a reputation as a young woman who deeply cared for children and was reasonably reliable in her habits. However, at the age of 17, Falling began to covertly attack and murder the children who had been placed in her care. On February 25th, 1980, Cassid Johnson, a two-year-old girl who had been in Falling's care, was rushed to a local doctor. Some sources also stayed at Tallahassee Hospital, suffering from life-threatening symptoms that were assumed to be caused by brain inflammation. However, when the child died three days later, an autopsy was ordered. The examination disclosed that Johnson had actually succumbed to blunt force trauma of the skull. The result of the autopsy spawned an immediate investigation, and Falling was quickly interviewed by police. She claimed that the child had toppled from her crib and fallen unconscious to the floor when Falling was out of the room. However, law enforcement personnel did not believe her story. One physician didn't believe Falling's story and wrote a note to the police to have the babysitter checked out. The note was lost, and unfortunately, there was no evidence to contradict Falling's version of what happened to the child, and the matter was not pursued further. Case closed. After the death of Cassidy Johnson, Fawling moved to Lakeland, Florida, and again began babysitting to support herself. Within a few months of her arrival in Lakeland, a four-year-old boy who was in Falling's care suddenly stopped breathing without any prior signs of illness. In May 1980, a 911 call was placed. The caller told the operator that the child in her care had stopped breathing suddenly. Paramedics were rushed to the house, and even with all the efforts, they were unable to save the child. The death of Jeffrey Davis was as suspicious as that as Cassidy Johnson, and an autopsy was again ordered. The examination disclosed that the boy had suffered from a condition that caused chronic heart inflammation. However, this was deemed insufficient to be the cause of his death. The medical examiner noted no other potential cause of death and the case was closed. Three days after the tragedy, the bereaved aunt and uncles of Jeffrey Davis asked falling to babysit their two-year-old son, Joseph Spring, while they attended Davis' funeral. While his parents were at the services, Joseph inexplicably died while taking a nap. The local physician speculated that the young boy may have succumbed to a viral infection and that the same mysterious disease may have also accounted for the death of Jeffrey Davis. No investigation into the deaths of these two young boys was ever undertaken, and once again Falling left the area, this time moving back to Perry, Florida. In July 1981, she then left the baby care world and took a job as a housekeeper for a man living on his own. As few families wanted to entrust their children to her care, she began to work as a nursing assistant slash housekeeper for seniors. She found a job as housekeeper to a 77-year-old invalid by the name of Wilbur Swindle. On the first day of Falling's new job, Swindle inexplicably was found collapsed and unresponsive in his kitchen floor, allegedly due to a heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Because of his age and poor medical condition, local authorities did not investigate the elderly man's death and no autopsy was ordered. She later confessed to squeezing the life out of swindle. In the fall of the same year, Christine accompanied her sipsister and eight-month-old niece Jennifer Daniels to the doctor's office, where the child received some standard childhood vaccinations and on the way home stopped to purchase diapers. Daniels' mother left a baby in her car with Falling to make a short stop at the local supermarket. However, when she returned, Daniels found her baby dead and falling in a panic. According to Falling, the girl had mysteriously stopped breathing. Jennifer was pronounced dead at the emergency room. Her death was initially thought to be a reaction to her vaccinations. Then the death of Jennifer Daniels was determined to be of natural causes. And no investigation ensued. Christina was found to be a victim of circumstance. Wherever she would go, the death would follow. A year later, on July 2nd, 1982, a 10-week-old infant, Travis Coleman, also stopped reading while in falling scare in Bluntstown. Coleman's parents cooperated with an autopsy request, and it was discovered that the infant had internal ruptures caused by suffocation. Christine was taken into custody and entered a psychiatric hospital for assessment on July 2nd, 1982, for the killings of Travis Coleman and Cassidy Johnson. While there, she was immediately questioned by local law enforcement officials about the Coleman death and confessed to murdering three children by what she described as smotheration. She claimed that she had heard disembodied voices chanting killed a baby. By placing a blanket over their faces, she denied all knowledge of the others. It was decided that it was not going to be easy to prove that the other deaths were her fault, and so she was only charged with the deaths of Cassidy Johnson, Jennifer Daniels, and Travis Coleman. On September the 17th, 1982, Christine Falling pled guilty to murdering three children. In December 1982, based on her confession, Christine Falling received a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years. After a few years in prison, she admitted to the murder of Swindle. In speaking to law enforcement officials, Falling was never able to provide a motive for her heinous crimes, only saying, quote, I don't know why I've done what I've done the way I've done it. I seen it done on TVs. I had my own way though. Simple and easy. No one would hear them scream. End quote. During a recorded confession, Christine recalled the following. Cassidy Johnson was smothered because she, quote, had gotten kind of rowdy again or something. Jeffrey Davis, quote, made me mad or something. I was already mad that morning. I just took it out on him and just started choking him till he was dead. Joe Boy was napping when, quote, I don't know, I just got the urge and wanted to kill him. Jennifer Daniels dies because, quote, she was continuously crying and crying and crying, and it made me mad. So I just put my hands over her neck and choked her till she shut up. Coleman's final moments, quote, I just choked him. No apparent reason. I just picked him up off his palate and choked him to death and laid him back down. She also said, quote, I killed them all. That's what I gotta say. I don't know why. Even though her motives have not been satisfactorily explained and she was known to have suffered from mental illness, falling was not classified as legally insane. After serving 25 years in prison, Christine was eligible for parole. Her application for parole was rejected by the parole review board in November 2017, and no one supporting her attended her parole hearing. During the parole hearing, prosecutors told a review panel that, quote, if the so-called babysitter from hell deserves no mercy, she will be given another hearing in seven years. Inmate number 151110 Kristine Folly is 63 years old and in prison and homestead correctional institution of Florida City. Her presumptive release date is set for 2254, or as one article stated, long after she dies.

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