Maria Swanenburg

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Maria Catherina Swanenburg (Leiden 9 September 1839 - Gorinchem 11 April 1915) was a Dutch serial murderer. Swanenburg was the daughter of Clemens Swanenburg and Johanna Dingjan. After she had two daughters that died at a young age, she married Johannes van der Linden on 13 May 1868. The result of this marriage was five sons and two daughters. The marriage lasted until 29 January 1886. Her nickname was Goeie Mie, Dutch for "Good Mie", which she got for taking care of children and ill people in the poor neighbourhood of Leiden in which she lived.

She poisoned twenty-seven people with arsenic between 1880 and 1883, but failed in her attempt to kill at least another fifty using the same method — the investigation included ninety deaths. Forty-five of the survivors sustained chronic health problems after ingesting the poison. Swanenberg's motive was the money she would receive either through the victims' insurance or their inheritance. She had secured most of the insurance policies herself. Her first victim was her own mother in 1880; shortly after this, she killed her father too. She was caught when trying to poison the Groothuizen family in December 1883. Her trial began on April 23, 1885. Maria Swanenburg was found guilty and sentenced to live in a "place of correction" for the rest of her life. She died there in 1915.