Episode 1: Death Surrounds Her
Death Surrounds Her
Lyda Trueblood Southard
A beautiful and popular young woman, Lyda Trueblood had the world at her feet when she married her husband Robert “Bud” Dooley on 17 March 1912. Then, tragedy struck and her world would never be the same. Listen as we discuss the life and deaths of Lyda Southard and the death that surrounded her family.
Lyda (right), her first husband, “Bud” Dooley, and their toddler, Laura.
Source: The Index Journal (DE), 24 June 1921
It was the death of her husband Edward Meyers that brought police attention to Lyda’s crimes. Her defense that she was a typhoid carrier fell flat after arsenic was discovered after exhuming the bodies.
Around the time of her arrest
Source: The San Francisco Examiner, 8 June 1921
Lyda in 1932, likely before she was returned to prison.
Source: Daily News (NY), 25 March 1951
Source: The Columbus Telegram, 1 Aug 1932
Death certificate of William J. Trueblood, Lyda’s father
Benjamin F. Trueblood
Lyda’s grandfather who married his first wife, and step-sister, Sarah Landers, when he was 21 years old and she was only 15, but more likely 14.
