Stella Nickell: Evidence, Conviction, and Lingering Questions

Stella Nickell is an American woman convicted in 1988 of murdering her husband, Bruce Nickell, and a stranger, Sue Snow, by lacing Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules with cyanide near Auburn, Washington. A federal jury found her guilty of product tampering resulting in death, and a judge sentenced her to 90 years in prison. She was the first person ever convicted under the 1983 Federal Anti-Tampering Act.¹ As of late 2023, she remained incarcerated, with courts denying her petitions for release.

The Two Deaths in June 1986

In June 1986, 52-year-old Bruce Nickell collapsed and died at the couple’s home near Auburn, Washington, after taking cyanide-laced Excedrin capsules. Doctors initially attributed his death to emphysema, and no foul play was suspected.²

Five days later, Sue Snow, a 40-year-old bank employee also living in Auburn, took capsules from a separate contaminated bottle she had bought at a local store. She died almost immediately. During Snow’s autopsy, a medical examiner detected the smell of bitter almonds, a sign of cyanide poisoning, and investigators classified her death as a homicide.³ Bristol-Myers asked stores nationwide to pull Excedrin capsules from shelves.⁴

After Snow’s death made the news, Stella Nickell contacted police and told them her husband had also taken Excedrin from the same product lot. Investigators exhumed Bruce Nickell’s body and confirmed cyanide killed him. What had been written off as lung disease became a second homicide.²

The Motive Prosecutors Alleged

In 1985, Stella had taken out a life insurance policy on her husband that included an accidental death indemnity clause. Prosecutors argued at trial that the policy was worth $176,000 and that she stood to lose a significant portion of the payout if Bruce’s death was not classified as accidental.⁵ According to prosecutors, she decided to poison Bruce and stage the killing to look like a random product-tampering event, inspired by the unsolved 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders that had killed seven people.⁶

The Evidence Against Her

Stella Nickell’s own actions drew investigators’ attention first. She gave police two bottles of Excedrin from her home, both of which contained cyanide-laced capsules. FBI analysts determined only four contaminated bottles were known to exist. The odds that one person would coincidentally buy two of those four bottles at different times and from different stores struck investigators as astronomically unlikely.⁵

FBI agents traced her movements and concluded she had planted five tampered bottles on shelves at stores around Auburn and Kent, Washington, including a Pay ‘N Save and a Johnny’s grocery. The theory was that Bruce’s death would look like part of a random poisoning spree, allowing her to collect insurance.³

The FBI crime lab found green crystals mixed with the cyanide inside the tampered capsules and identified the substance as an algae destroyer used in home fish tanks. Nickell kept a fish tank, and a local pet store manager, Tom Noonan, testified she had bought the algae product from him in quantities large enough that he had to special-order it. The same product turned up in her home. Prosecutors theorized she had crushed algae tablets in a bowl and then used the same bowl to mix the cyanide without cleaning it, leaving the green residue behind.⁷

Investigators also checked records at the Auburn public library. Nickell had checked out a book titled Human Poisoning and had borrowed Deadly Harvest, a book about toxic plants, on two occasions. The FBI crime lab identified 84 of her fingerprints on the pages of Deadly Harvest, most of them in the section about cyanide.⁸

Investigators never proved Nickell directly purchased or possessed cyanide, and no fingerprints were recovered from the tainted capsules themselves.⁷

The case broke open in January 1988, when Nickell’s daughter, Cynthia “Cindy” Hamilton, went to the FBI and said her mother had repeatedly talked about ways to kill Bruce, including by copying the 1982 Tylenol poisonings.⁶ Hamilton also told agents her mother had researched poisonous plants and cyanide at the library.⁷ Her testimony became the prosecution’s centerpiece.

Trial, Conviction, and Sentence

A federal indictment charged Nickell with two counts of product tampering resulting in death and three additional tampering counts tied to the poisoned Excedrin and Anacin bottles she had placed on store shelves.⁶ The case went to federal court because the 1983 Federal Anti-Tampering Act made tampering with consumer products a federal crime, carrying penalties up to life in prison when the tampering caused death.⁹

The trial took place before U.S. District Judge William Dwyer in Seattle. The prosecution’s case was largely circumstantial: the insurance motive, the statistical improbability of Nickell possessing two contaminated bottles, the algae-destroyer residue, the library fingerprints, and Hamilton’s testimony.⁶

On May 9, 1988, the jury found Nickell guilty on all counts. At sentencing on June 17, 1988, prosecutors asked for 230 years with a minimum of 67 years before parole eligibility. Judge Dwyer imposed 90 years with all counts running concurrently and recommended she serve at least 30 years before parole eligibility. “The jury has found the defendant guilty of appalling crimes,” Dwyer said.¹

Questions Raised After the Conviction

Two parts of the prosecution’s case drew scrutiny in the years that followed.

After the conviction, Hamilton received a $250,000 reward from the Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association. The reward was never introduced at trial. According to later reporting by CBS News, Nickell’s original defense attorney had struck a deal with prosecutors: the defense would not cross-examine Hamilton about the reward, and the prosecution in turn would not reveal that Hamilton said she came forward after learning her mother had failed a polygraph test. Other witnesses were also paid. Neighbor Sandy Scott, who had searched Nickell’s home for evidence at the FBI’s request, was paid $7,500; pet store manager Tom Noonan received $15,000. The jury was not informed of Scott’s payment. Years later, Hamilton told private investigators she did not testify for the reward but also said she was “not sure her mother is really guilty.”¹⁰

The defense also challenged FBI chemist Roger Martz, who had testified that residue from the algae destroyer was found on the contaminated capsules. His qualifications came under question after the trial, when the defense noted that Martz held a degree in biology rather than chemistry. The concerns surfaced through documents obtained by FBI whistleblower Frederic Whitehurst through a Freedom of Information Act request in an unrelated case.¹¹

Where the Case Stands Now

Nickell became eligible for parole in 2017, having served the 30-year minimum Judge Dwyer recommended. The Federal Parole Commission denied her request and recommended she serve out her sentence.¹²

In May 2022, at age 78, she filed a handwritten petition for compassionate release in U.S. District Court in Seattle, citing failing health and inadequate medical care in the Bureau of Prisons. In the petition, she admitted guilt for the first time, writing that she was “most remorseful for being responsible for the loss of two human lives.”¹² The U.S. Attorney’s office pointed to a procedural flaw: because her crimes occurred before 1987, the Bureau of Prisons rather than the inmate must initiate a compassionate release request, and the Bureau had not done so.³

In October 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied her petition for release.¹³ The warden at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin in California, where Nickell was held, denied another plea in June 2025, ruling her ineligible for parole. A federal habeas corpus petition in the Northern District of California was still pending as of March 2024, when a judge issued an order to show cause after finding the petition did not appear meritless on its face.¹⁴ Her sentence is projected to end in July 2040.¹²

Why the Case Still Matters

Nickell’s conviction gave the 1983 Federal Anti-Tampering Act its first successful prosecution and showed federal prosecutors could win a product-tampering case built on circumstantial forensic links, statistical analysis, and witness testimony, without direct proof the defendant had bought cyanide. The Excedrin deaths also drove packaging changes. The FDA had required nonprescription medications to carry at least one tamper-evident feature after the 1982 Chicago Tylenol crisis, but the 1986 poisonings showed a single safeguard was not enough. By 1990, the FDA required at least two tamper-resistant features on nonprescription capsules.¹⁵ Johnson and Johnson discontinued capsules entirely after 1986, and other manufacturers moved to solid caplet forms that could not be easily opened and refilled.⁹

1
The New York Times. Sentence of 90 Years Imposed in 2 Deaths by Tainted Capsules
2
Time. Washington State: The Widow Is the Suspect
3
KIRO 7. Auburn Woman Behind Deadly Cyanide-Laced Painkillers Wants Out of Federal Prison
4
The New York Times. Cyanide Death Halts the Sale of Excedrin Capsules
5
History.com. Woman Convicted for Tampering With Excedrin
6
Los Angeles Times. Sentence of 90 Years Imposed in 2 Deaths by Tainted Capsules
7
CBS News. Bitter Pill: A Wife on Trial
8
Dummies.com. Forensics Case: Stella Nickell’s Trail of Fingerprints
9
Pharmacy Times. Changes in the Law Result From OTC Drug Product Tampering
10
CBS News. Bitter Pill Pt. II: Retracing the Case
11
The Seattle Times. New Evidence Cited in Tainted Drug Case
12
The Seattle Times. Stella Nickell, Serving 90 Years for Planting Poisoned Pills, Killing 2, Seeks Release From Prison
13
The Seattle Times. Stella Nickell, Serving 90 Years for Planting Poisoned Pills, Denied Prison Release
14
GovInfo. Nickell v. FCI Dublin Bureau of Prisons, Order to Show Cause
15
Los Angeles Times. Tampering Concerns Prompt Further Packaging Changes