In this week’s blog, I will be discussing Judy Buenoano.
Known as the “black widow,” Judy Buenoano was known for killing people close to her for insurance money. She was born Judias Welty on April 4, 1943, in Quanah, Texas. At the age of four, her mother passed away so she was sent to live with some other family members. She was passed around between family members and ended up living in foster homes for the majority of her childhood. In these foster homes, Judy claimed to be sexually assaulted and abused. With this childhood, she still graduated from a reform school in New Mexico in 1959.
At the age of 17, she became pregnant. She gave birth to her son Michael in 1961 and later met a man named James Goodyear, who was an Air Force Sergeant. The two got married in 1962 and had two more children, James and Kimberly. The new family moved to Orlando, Florida in the late 1960s to follow Goodyear’s station. James spent time-fighting in the Vietnam War and returned in 1971.
When he returned, he was completely healthy. Over time he started having unknown symptoms and illness and he passed away in September of 1971. Following her husband’s death, Judy collected over $90,000 in insurance and Veterans Administration benefits.
After her husband’s death, she decided to move to Pensacola, Florida, with her three children. Here she met a man named Bobby Morris and started a relationship with him. Morris moved to Colorado, and Judy and her children moved as well. In Colorado, Morris started to develop the same symptoms that James had, and he died in 1978.
Judy claimed to be Morris’ “common-law wife” so she collected all of his insurance and moved back to Pensacola. She decided to change her last name to “Buenoano,” a Spanish version of “Goodyear.”
Her son Michael was now grown and enlisted in the Army. Strangely, he began developing symptoms that both of Judy’s husbands had. Unlike the two men before who died of “heart attacks,” Michael was diagnosed with arsenic poisoning that affected his arms and legs. He needed to wear heavy metal braces on his legs. In 1980, Buenoano decided to take her son on a canoe trip, where the canoe flipped. Judy was able to swim to safety, but her son drowned because of his heavy braces. His death was ruled an accidental drowning, but his mother quietly collected his insurance and benefits.
She got away with her first three kills but then had a slip-up the next time. After her son’s death, she met a new man named John Gentry. They started a relationship and Judy convinced him to take out life insurance policies on each other. If Gentry passed away, Buenoano would collect $500,000.
Judy initially tried to kill him with “Vitamin C” pills when Gentry got a cold. The pills made him deathly ill, and when he started getting symptoms he went to the hospital. When he was discharged from the hospital and started feeling better, his car mysteriously blew up with him in it. He returned to the hospital and survived. When authorities heard about what happened, they became suspicious of Buenoano.
Investigators dug into her past and it was later revealed that Goodyear, Morris, and her son all died of arsenic poisoning. She was arrested and tried for the attempted murder of Gentry. There was undeniable evidence of these murders, and Judy pled not guilty to all of them. She was given the death penalty in Florida and was the first woman to be executed in Florida since 1848.
She killed three people in 12 years and was given the nickname “Black Widow” because like black widow spiders, she prayed on her mates and young. She collected over $240,000 in insurance and benefits from her kills. On March 30,1998, she was executed in the electric chair.
Sources:
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/famous-murders/judy-buenoano/
https://www.insider.com/most-notorious-female-serial-killers-2018-6#judy-buenoano-2
https://www.flmd.uscourts.gov/black-widow
Photo Sources in Order:
https://thecinemaholic.com/is-judy-buenoano-dead-or-alive/
https://badmarriages.net/judy-buenoano-goodyear/