Crime Classification Manual Part II Chapter 6 111

 

Crime Classification Manual Part II Chapter 6 111

A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES

SECOND EDITION

Staging

Sue Snow became a victim because of staging. Stella Nickell was very dis- appointed with the medical examiner’s initial decision that her husband had died from emphysema and not cyanide poisoning. Her husband’s death meant $105,000 to her in addition to the damages she expected to get from Bristol-Myers when his death was declared by poisoning. Someone else had to die to alert the authorities that a random cyanide killer was at work in King County. So Stella Nickell poisoned the three bottles of Excedrin and slipped them onto the shelves of area stores, one of which was bought by Snow. This set the scene for Nickell to approach officials with her suspicions that her husband had fallen to a cyanide murderer as well as giving her grounds to sue Bristol-Myers.