Florida Executes ‘Black Widow’

STARKE, Fla. —  Her frail-looking body barely filling the seat of the big oak electric chair, the “Black Widow” went to her death Monday in Florida’s first execution of a woman since 1848.

Judy Buenoano, 54, was executed for fatally poisoning her Air Force husband with arsenic in 1971 after his return from Vietnam. She also drowned her paralyzed son, tried to blow up her fiance and was suspected of killing a boyfriend.

Asked if she had a final statement, she answered weakly, “No, sir,” squeezing her eyes shut and keeping them closed, not looking at the witnesses on the other side of the glass.

Buenoano collected about $240,000 in life insurance after the deaths of her husband, son and boyfriend.

Florida last executed a woman in 1848, when a slave named Celia was hanged for killing her former owner.