The Flypaper Poisoner
True Crime Historian
Richard O Jones
4.4 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2025
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Episode 310 is the tale of Lyda Trueblood Meyer Southard, who is credited with killing four husbands, a brother-in-law, and her own baby. Along with a sordid marital history, this tale has the bonus of a daring prison escape and a 15-month flight from justice.
Culled from the historic pages of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, the Salt Lake City Telegram, and other newspapers of the era.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Paul Pueller.com |
| 0:03.0 | The report that my wife had urged me to take out $10,000 life insurance is absolutely false. |
| 0:16.0 | Said Paul V. Southered, husband of the woman now in jail in Honolulu, accused of the murder of a former |
| 0:23.9 | husband in Twin Falls, Idaho, and suspected of the murder of three other husbands, an infant, |
| 0:30.5 | and a brother-in-law, six in all, in a statement which he made last night. |
| 0:36.6 | Southerd, a chief petty officer in the Navy, is a clean-cut, fine-appearing young man. |
| 0:43.3 | He has been hit hard by the shocking accusation against his bride of six months, |
| 0:48.5 | which, as he said, came like a bolt from the sky. |
| 0:53.0 | But he emphatically declares his faith in her innocence and his |
| 0:56.8 | determination to stand by her in her great trial. Quote, she has always proved a good true wife |
| 1:03.8 | to me. I never had any reason to doubt her in any way. I have absolute confidence in her |
| 1:09.7 | innocence and am sure that she will be cleared when |
| 1:12.5 | she's brought to trial. Mrs. Southerd has been in very poor health since we came to Honolulu. |
| 1:19.0 | The change in climate has seriously affected her, and she's now a very sick woman. I want to have |
| 1:25.3 | her taken back to Twin Falls as soon as possible. She has waived |
| 1:29.5 | extradition and is anxious to go back and face her accusers. If it would expedite her return, |
| 1:36.0 | I'd be willing to pay the expenses of an officer to take her from here to the coast. If I don't |
| 1:41.8 | get her out of jail here and her present condition, I do not believe she will live to stand trial." |
| 1:48.0 | Southerd has seen his wife and herself several times since her arrest. He says that she has almost |
| 1:56.0 | collapsed from the shock of her arrest, and she vows her innocence of any wrongdoing, and that she wants to go back |
| 2:02.7 | to Twin Falls as soon as possible for trial. She does not want legal advice here, and will not oppose |
| 2:09.7 | extradition to Idaho. A report emanating from the city jail yesterday to the effect that Southerd had |
... |
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