FREE: Amy Archer

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Windsor, Connecticut owns the legacy of America's deadliest female serial killer, Amy Archer. Between 1908 and 1916, Archer, murdered at least 22 people. True Crime author, M. William Phelps chronicles Archer's life and crimes in The Devil's Rooming House: The True Story of America's Deadliest Female Serial Killer.


Amy and James Archer opened the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids in 1907. Pioneers in the Connecticut home healthcare field, they offered "Life care for $1,000," or weekly rates between $7 and $25 for food, shelter and medical care. Then, patients in asylums, institutions and similar facilities were often referred to as "inmates."

Archer walked the town as a Bible-carrying Christian reinforcing the community's admiration for her caretaker calling. Townspeople called her "Sister Amy." Truth was, Archer had no interest in religion and, as time would tell, had no formal training as a nurse. Inmates at the Archer Home were dying at unprecedented rates. Archer's husband James expired mysteriously in February 1910.

Most of Archer's victims succumbed to a deadly elixir of freshly squeezed lemons, warm water, a touch of sugar to liberate the bitterness-and arsenic. Archer killed residents to create faster bed turnover to increase revenues and help her chronic debt challenges. Bodies were removed in the night and swiftly embalmed to prevent investigation.

May 8 1916 brought Archer's arrest at her home.