Martha Ann Johnson
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Martha Ann Johnson (born 1955) was an American serial killer. She was in her third marriage by the age of 22. Her first marriage produced a girl, born in 1971. Her second marriage produced a son in 1975 and her third marriage, to Earl Bowen, produced two more children, a son and daughter, born 1979 and 1980 respectively.
Johnson and Bowen often argued. In 1977, Johnson's eldest son "failed to wake up" and died in a hospital. Even though the child was two years old at the time, the cause of death was noted to be Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
In 1980, Johnson's youngest child, aged three months, was taken to hospital and pronounced dead. SIDS was listed as the cause of death. A year later, Johnson's remaining son, aged two years, was pronounced dead from a seizure with unknown cause. The eldest child told her father and a social worker that she was afraid to be home alone with her mother but an investigation found no reason to place her into foster care. One year and six days after her brother's death, Johnson's eldest daughter was found lying face down dead on her bed. Although this raised suspicions, no action was taken and the girl's death was ruled to be asphyxia.
Johnson and her third husband separated permanently, and Johnson remarried. In December 1988, a new investigation was launched in an attempt to discover the real causes of death of all four of Johnson's children. Johnson was arrested in 1989 and made a videotaped confession(legal) as to how two of her children died. After arguing with her husband, Johnson would suffocate the children by rolling her 250lb body on them as they slept. She claimed the motive was to bring her husband home. Johnson claimed she was not responsible for the deaths of her two youngest children.
She was tried for the murders of all four children and sentenced to death in May 1990. Her appeal in 1991 was rejected.
