Mary Frances Creighton

Mary Frances Creighton
Born	(1899-07-29)July 29, 1899 Rahway, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	July 16, 1936(1936-07-16) (aged 36) Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York, U.S.
Cause of death	Execution by electrocution
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction(s)	First degree murder
Criminal penalty	Death

Mary Frances Creighton (July 29, 1899 – July 16, 1936), was a housewife, who, along with Everett Applegate, a 36-year-old former American Legion official, was executed in Sing Sing Prison's electric chair, Old Sparky, for the poisoning of Applegate's wife, Ada, in Baldwin, New York on September 27, 1935. She had passed out before the execution, and was executed in an unconscious state.

While living in Newark, New Jersey, Creighton was also suspected of poisoning her mother in-law, Anna Creighton, in 1920, her father in-law, Walter Creighton, in 1921, and her younger brother, Raymond Avery, in 1923. Creighton and her husband, John, were tried for Raymond's death in 1923, but were acquitted due to a lack of witnesses. The Anna Creighton murder trial, which was held in 1923 as well, also ended with Creighton being acquitted, again due to a lack of witnesses, and also due to the testimony of toxicologist Alexander Gettler, who found only a trace amount of arsenic in Anna Creighton's system.

Creighton claimed to have poisoned Ada Applegate so that her fifteen-year-old daughter, Ruth, who she had been pimping out to Everett Applegate, could legally marry Everett. After Creighton's arrest for the murder of Ada Applegate, she repeatedly confessed to and denied killing both mother in-law, Anna, and her younger brother, Raymond.