Breakfast with Hattie

In June 1929, young George Stone was consuming the last meal of his life. While preparing breakfast, his mother, , malevolently laced his food with strychnine successfully poisoning and killing him, according to the many accounts about the case. 

More than 80 years later, this villainess' tale is hardly spoken of. Last spring while preparing a lecture I was giving on crime in Havre de Grace during the 1920s, County Executive and local historian David Craig shared the story with me. The more I researched the murder, the more intrigued I became.

My forward dive into the Stone murder started by reading the wave of national newspapers that covered the case. The evidence shows Hattie Stone’s mother in law, oldest son, husband and finally her youngest son all died under the same suspicious circumstances in a short period of time. However Stone was only convicted of murdering her youngest son George Stone in the second degree.

Little is known behind Stone’s motivation or her life. Its known she was born and raised in Havre de Grace. Her father most likely worked at Angel Hill Cemetery, and the family lived in the surrounding area. Its also reported that Hattie had at lest two extramarital affairs during the time the four members of her family died, and after the passing of her husband, she was known to be facing financial problems. 

Prosecutors painted Stone as a women living a fast lifestyle who decided to murder in order to collect her insurance proceeds. While this proved to be a somewhat effective prosecution strategy, it failed to give her complete justice. The motivation of financial gain is weak considering the fact she would have only received a few thousand dollars, if that. It would seem Stone was a natural-born killer committing diabolical crimes to receive some form a satisfaction. Whatever the reasoning, or real motivation, was for killing it is beyond my scope. 

Based on the evidence I've researched, I am convinced she murdered at lest her mother-in-law, her husband, and her youngest son. Her oldest son’s pre-existing health conditions provided a small degree of reasonable doubt in my mind. 

What has really begun to fuel my imagination is what ever happened to Hattie Stone. She was 40 when convicted to serve 18 years. Some reports suggest she got out after only serving 14 years. At the maximum, she would have only been 58 years old and would possibly have had time to start a new life.

After reading countless newspapers, searching ancestry records, and asking governmental officials if they have any paperwork on Stone, everything has come back without producing any results. I have heard after being released she worked as a server in Baltimore City and is buried in an unmarked grave in Angel Hill Cemetery. While there is probably truth to both of those statements, it still does not even begin to scratch the surface of Stone life after prison.  

I would love to know if she resumed her life in Havre de Grace—possibly under a different name? Did she remarry? Most importantly, did she return to her serial killer ways?   

I would love if anyone could provide any information or suggestion on Hattie Stone and her life after prison. 

For more information on Hattie Stone please see "" and "Hattie Stone: A face of a Serial Murderous."