America’s Forgotten Black Female Serial Killer

The FBI says serial killers are usually white men — but Roberta Elder shatters that profile. In this retelling of the inaugural episode of Melanin Mayhem, your favorite country girl brings you the chilling story of a Black woman in Jim Crow–era Georgia who is believed to have poisoned at least 13 people, including husbands, children, relatives, and boarders, all from inside her own home.

Operating quietly from the 1930s to the 1950s, Roberta Elder exploited racism, respectability, and systemic neglect to hide a decades-long killing spree fueled by insurance payouts and unchecked access to her victims. Though authorities suspected multiple murders, she was ultimately convicted of only one, raising disturbing questions about who the system chooses to investigate — and who it ignores.

This episode has been refreshed with improved audio quality

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