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2019-12-24 Goeie Mie

Leiden's most infamous citizen

Swanenburg-Dingjan

Goeie Mie (Good Mary) is a nickname that contemporaries gave to Maria Catharina Swanenburg. Maria Catharina Swanenburg, call name Marie, was one the many children of Clement Swanenburg & Johanna Dingjan.
She was the sixth child, but all her older sisters died young. Most of them died before she was born, and Elisabeth Zwanenburg died shortly after Marie turned four years old. Marie was the oldest daughter of the family to become an adult.

It was perfectly normal at the time to have large families and to have children die young, or have a stillborn child. It was also common practice to give children the same as previous children that died young. That they had twins, and that both died after a few days, and on the same day is not strange either.
The most remarkable thing about this family is that many members died in 1882 and 1883. Even a partner and (not shown) some grandchildren all died close together.

Van der Linden-Swanenburg

Maria Catharina Swanenburg had several children before she married. Two children by an unknown father died before she married. Infant mortality was high, especially if there was just one parent to take care of them.
A third child, born just before her marriage to Johannes van der Linden, was legitimised by the wedding; her husband acknowledged the child as his, and the child's name changed from Arie Swanenburg to Arie van der Linden.

The couple had seven children together. Johannes van der Linden divorced Maria Catharina Swanenburg in 1886, for reasons that will be obvious in a moment.

Van der Linden-Oolthuis

Johannes van der Linden remarried Anna Oolthuis, and they had one child together.

Van der Linden-de Haas

Johannes van der Linden was the youngest child of Ari(e) van der Linden & Catharina Rebecca de Haas.

The family of Johannes' parents has, just like the family of Marie's parents, a lot of deaths in the years 1881 through 1883. This the case for both their children, their children in law, and once again (and again not shown) their grandchildren.

Maria Catharina Swanenburg

Maria Catharina Swanenburg grew up in a poor part of town. Her husband Johannes van der Linden was a factory worker at an ironwork, a job that did not pay much. Children were put to work at an early age to complement the father's income, and families still barely make a living wage. The poor had to rely on each other's helpfulness, and Marie was always ready to help family and neighbours. She would even neglect her own household to help others. Her willingness to help others is what earned her the nickname Goeie Mie (Good Mary).

That nickname would turn out to be an ironic one. She probably really was a social person, ready to help others, to begin with, but her helpfullness became a facade, a veil behind which she committed her crimes.

Maria Catharina Swanenburg is in the Guinness Book records as the worst serial poisoner ever.
She made many victims before anyone began to suspect anything. The actual number of victims remains unknown. It is often said that she poisoned at least 102 people, of which 27 died, including 16 family members. During her trial, her lawyer counted 65 attempts, of which 24 were successful.

motives

Goeie Mie original motive was to obtain money, through inheritance and insurance. She killed complete families to obtain their inheritance, making sure she killed the family members in just the right order. She killed people for funeral insurance money, often insuring a single person with multiple companies. As she got away with one murder after another, she may have become drunk with power of life and death, as she also committed murders she did not stand to gain anything from.

arsenic

Goeie Mie killed her victims by poisoning their food and drinks with arsenic. It was not possible to buy arsenic, but it was possible to buy operment, a remedy against bed bugs. It was supposed to be the compound sulfur-arsenic, but was actually a mixture of one part sulfur and four parts arsenic. This powder was never sold as-is, but always mixed into whitewash, for application onto walls. However, because the apothecary did not bother to stir the mixture well after throwing some powder on top of the chalk, it was ridiculously easy to isolate the deadly powder by scooping it from the liquid.

funeral insurance

This was the early days of funeral insurance. The insurance agents did not ask many questions and were happy to make a sale. Anybody could insure anyone else, even without the insured knowing about it. Anyone could be insured multiple times, by contracting with multiple insurers. This is what Goeie Mie did, often spinning a philanthropic yarn about why she did so. She also made sure to pay the premiums on time, to avoid any disputes over the payout.
When authorities finally caught up with her, Goeie Mie tried to buy the silence of the agent she insured her last victim with, but he refused to be bribed.

doctors

Doctors weren't eager to go into poor neighbourhoods, and even actively avoided visiting and examining those patient. If someone came to complain about a sick family member, they'd often give the messenger a medicine based on the messenger's description of the symptoms. If they did come by to examine a deceased family member, they'd perform no more than cursory examination. It was this uninterested and nonchalant attitude of doctors that allowed Goeie Mie to continue a killing spree that should have ended with her first victim.

victims

Goeie Mie killed her own family members. Her mother died on 16 Apr 1882, and her father died suddenly on 30 Jun 1883, after eating a sandwich. Her brother-in-law Johannes Lepelaar, married to her sister Petronella Johanna Zwanenburg, died on 20 Feb 1883, and her now widowed sister died on 23 May 1883. Her brother-in-law Lambertus van der Linden died on 17 Feb 1881. His wife Maria van der Mark, had died on 24 oct 1879, may very well have been Goeie Mie's first victim.

There is no compelling reason to assume that Goeie Mie killed her own children. While lots of children dying young is suspicious now, it was a common occurence back then, especially among poor families with poor living conditions. The fact that several of her children became adults suggests she did not try kill her own children.

De Hees-van der Linden

Goeie Mie systematically killed entire families. Her sister-in-law Cornelia van der Linden died on 30 May 1881, after which Goeie Mie, ostensible as a loving aunt, allowed the three now orphaned children to live with her.
Her nephew Willem de Hees died on 15 Jul 1881, his older brother Arend de Hees on 1 Nov 1881. When only Petrus Jacobus de Hees, the youngest child of this family, remained, Goeie Mie sent poisoned sandwiches to the hospital, where he was recovering from her first poisoning attempt. He survived and became one the of main witnesses against her.

Frankhuizen-van der Linden

Goeie Mie's sister-in-law Maria van der Linden, after first having a child by an unknown father which died young, married twice. Her first marriage was to Johannes Leonardus Laport. They had three children together, who all died young, the last one shortly after her husband died. She remarried with Hendrik Frankhuizen which whom she had one son.

Goeie Mie fed the entire family - father, mother and son - poisoned porridge on 8 Dec 1883, and they all died within a week of one another. Cornelia van der Linden died on 13 Dec 1883, her son of six months on 14 Dec 1883, and her husband on 19 Dec 1883.

discovery

The wholesale murder of the Frankhuizen-van der Linden family was Goeie Mie's last poisoning. The poisoned family members did not die immediately. Doctor Braakenburg, alerted by Johannes van der Linden (Goeie Mie's husband!), did not appear, but did provide a prescription, and the medicine was provided on 12 Dec 1883. Doctor Braakenburg came to see the patients the next day, but found wife and child already dead, while the husband seemed to be improving again. Doctor Winkler Prins came to look in on the husband on 14 Dec 1883, but decided to not prescribe anything, when he heard that doctor Rutgers van der Loeff had already been there, suspected poisoning, and had ordered the patient to be transferred to the hospital. Hendrik Frankhuizen was transferred to the hospital on 14 Dec 1883, where he died on 19 Dec 1883, after more than twee weeks of intense pains.

It was doctor Wijnand Rutgers van der Loeff who discovered the poisoning, and alerted the authorities. His father, Abraham Rutgers van der Loeff mentions it in his diary: Ontdekking van eene vergiftiging op groote schaal. Wijnand was de eerste die op zeer voorzichtige wijze de vreselijke misdaad aan 't licht heeft gebragt. (Discovery of a large scale poisoning. Wijnand was the first one to, in a very careful manner, bring the terrible crime to light.).

Initially, Maria Catharina Swanenburg was just one of the witnesses to be heard. It was only after Izak Ouwerkerk, a nephew of Johannes van der Linden came to the police station to discuss the circumstances under which multiple family members died, and mentioned that Goeie Mie always took care of the funeral arrangements, that she became a suspect.

After Hendrik Frankhuizen's transfer to the hospital, the hospital doctors observed his symptoms. His corpse, as well as that of his wife and child, were transferred to the Anatomical Cabinet, where they were investigated by professors Zaaijer and Koning. Their horrible findings left no doubt that the family had been poisoned.

Maria Catharina Swanenburg was arrested on 15 Dec 1883. She was carrying the insurance papers for Hendrik Frankhuizen in one of her pockets.

trial

Maria Catharina Swanenburg did not immediately face trial. The Leiden police performed an extensive investigation, interviewing dozens of neighbours, family members and others. Thirteen corpses were exhumed and medically examined.
The trial started on 23 Apr 1885, in The Hague. Maria Catharina Swanenburg was the only one on trial, but the judge did have some choice remarks for the doctors that made conclusions without ever visiting their patient. The official accusation included just four cases, the four that were easiest to prove. The Netherlands had abolished capital punished in 1870, but many people were eager make an exception for her. The prosecutor demanded life-long incarceration, and that is what she got.

Maria Catharina Swanenburg was deliberately imprisoned outside of Leiden, for fear of a mob trying to storm the prison and lynch her. She remained imprisoned for the rest of her life. She died in 1915 in the women's prison of Gorinchem, and was buried in Gorinchem's catholic cemetery, grave number 382, without a headstone.

This is a merciful fate compared to that award to Anna Gerrits in 1676. Anna Gerrits's husband Jan de Mijter was in debt, and about to publicly shamed. She did not want her and her children to experience this, and tried to kill him by sending a poisoned cake to prison. The Schout en Schepenen of Leiden sentenced her to death, and that sentence was executed on 20 Oct 1676.

her children

Maria Catharina Swanenburg's many victims do not only include the people she poisoned or killed, or the family members she left behind. A third, and often forgotten group of victims are her children. They had done nothing wrong, but found themselves persona non grata everywhere. Everyone shunned them. They were pointed at and called names when they passed in the street. Goeie Mie had poisoned the lives of everyone around her.

The Mayflower Connection

Maria Helena Koet

Leonard van der Linden, the youngest son of Johannes van der Linden & Maria Catharina Swanenburg married Maria Helena Koet.
As The Missing Mayflower Pilgrim article points out, Dutch persons with the family name Koet are almost certainly Mayflower descendants. Maria Helena Koet is a descendant of Thomas Koet and Priscilla Fletcher, and thus of her father, Mayflower Pilgrim Moses Fletcher. While Maria Helena Koet may be the obvious Mayflower connection because of her last name, she is neither the only, nor the most significant connection.

The descendants of Goeie Mie are Mayflower descendants.

Johannes van der Linden

Marie's husband, Johannes van der Linden, is a Mayflower descendant. He's a tenth generation descendant of Moyses Fletcher. His father, Arie van der Linden, all of Johannes' siblings and niblings, are Mayflower descendants.
The marriage between Leonard van der Linden and Maria Helena Koet is a marriage between two Mayflower descendants.

It just so happens that Maria Catharina Swanenburg (1839) married into a family of Mayflower descendants - and then started killing them off.

Maria Catharina Swanenburg (1839) has living descendants. They are all descendants of her husband Johannes van der Linden, and through him, descendants of Mayflower Pilgrim Moyses Fletcher.
The descendants of Goeie Mie are Mayflower descendants.

update: rediscovery

The discovery of Goeie Mie's Mayflower connection turns out to be a rediscovery. The Mayflower connection was previously discovered by W. F. van Zegveld, and published in 1992 as De Pilgrim-afstamming van het gezin van Goeie Mie (The Pilgrim Descendancy of Goeie Mie's Family) in Genealogische bijdragen Leiden en omgeving, a limited circulation genealogical newsletter.

links

• Genealogy Symbols
• The Missing Mayflower Pilgrim
• Bijdragen Leidse Geschiedenis
• Rutgers van der Loeff family site (diary Abraham Rutgers van der Loeff)
• Nationaal Archief: Unieke tekeningen van gifmengster Goeie Mie

 

Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.