Black Widow Killer: Pastor’s Wife On Death Row For Poisoning Boyfriend With Arsenic

Blanche Kiser Taylor Moore was convicted of murder after detectives connected her to a string of suspicious deaths.

In this 1990 file photo, Blanche Taylor Moore, left, reacts with her attorney David Tamer as she is sentenced to death in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Blanche Kiser Taylor Moore was convicted of murder after detectives connected her to a string of suspicious deaths.

Photo by: Chuck Burton via Associated Press

Chuck Burton via Associated Press

By: Aaron Rasmussen

A North Carolina woman was suspected of the murders of her first husband and a boyfriend after she was caught trying to poison her new reverend spouse with arsenic.

“We're talking about an average, ordinary neighborhood lady,” former Alamance County Sheriff Richard Frye once told The Associated Press of Blanche Kiser Taylor Moore.

On Easter Sunday in 1985, Blanche, a widowed preacher’s daughter, met divorced pastor Dwight Moore at Carolina United Church of Christ in Alamance County.

Just over four years later, on April 19, 1989, the two tied the knot, but their lives were anything but happily ever after. Upon returning home from their honeymoon, Dwight became sick after he ate food his new wife prepared for him.

Within weeks, Dwight was hospitalized and so ill that doctors didn’t expect him to live. Experts ran a battery of tests on the pastor and discovered he had huge amounts of the deadly poison arsenic in his system.

Police launched an investigation and questioned Dwight, who somehow managed to pull through and survive the poisoning.

Detectives then exhumed the bodies of several people close to Blanche who died under suspicious circumstances and tests found several had astronomically high levels of arsenic in their remains.

In 1973, Blanche claimed she found her husband of 21 years, James Napoleon Taylor, dead at age 45 from what appeared to be a heart attack. Tests on his remains 16 years later showed he had 60 times the level of arsenic in his body considered usual.

In 1986, Blanche was dating her future husband, Dwight, but she was also still seeing another man, Raymond Carlton Reid Sr., the manager of a Kroger supermarket in Burlington where they both worked, according to The Los Angeles Times.

That same year, Reid was hospitalized after falling sick and suffering numbness in his limbs. He died on Oct. 7, 1986, from what his doctors attributed at the time to the autoimmune disease Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Tests in 1989 showed the 50-year-old’s exhumed body contained 30 times the normal rate of arsenic.

The body of Moore’s father, who died at age 62 in 1966, also had elevated arsenic levels, but his cause of death was determined to be heart disease.

On July 18, 1989, police arrested and charged Blanche with the first-degree murders of her husbands, Taylor and Reid, as well as assault with a deadly weapon in connection with Dwight’s near-fatal poisoning.

“Dwight defended [Blanche] and wouldn’t believe it until the authorities gave him the evidence on Reid,” Nola Halbrook told The Los Angeles Times of her brother. “It was emotionally devastating to him.”

In November 1990, Blanche was convicted of her former boyfriend Reid’s murder and sentenced to death. Prosecutors dropped the other charges against her and she never went to trial on the cases, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

As of 2022, Blanche, now 89, is incarcerated at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh. She is the oldest woman on North Carolina's death row.

She continues to maintain she’s innocent.

Next Up

Poison Specialist Accused Of Killing His Wife With Poison

A Minnesota poison expert has been charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly poisoned his wife with liquid colchicine.

Crimes Of The '90s: The Happy Land Fire

On March 25, 1990, a man upset about getting kicked out of the club after a fight with his girlfriend set fire to New York City's Happy Land Social Club, killing 87 people.

Missing Connecticut Mom Jennifer Dulos Officially Declared Dead As Trial Begins

Jennifer Dulos, a missing mother of five from New Canaan, Connecticut, was officially declared dead, and now her ex’s girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, is on trial in connection with her murder.

DNA Helped Solve Cold Case Murder Of Woman Found Wrapped In Carpet On The Side Of The Road

The body of Lina Reyes Geddes, 37, was found along a highway near Maidenwater Spring in Utah’s Garfield County on April 20, 1998. Her murder remained unsolved until June 2022.

Who Was Notorious Jewel Thief Jack “Murph The Surf” Murphy?

Not all of the details Murphy shared about his life can be verified, but what we know to be true is a fascinating tale about a daytime surfer who moonlighted as a high-end thief.

Utah Mom Who Wrote Children’s Book About Grief After Husband’s Death Now Charged With His Murder

A 33-year-old widowed mother-of-three wrote a children’s book to help her bereaved children deal with grief in the aftermath of their father’s death. Only months after the book was published, she was arrested for his murder.

How The Tragic Murder Of Jasmine Fiore Changed Reality TV

On August 15, 2009, human remains found stuffed in a suitcase were identified as 28-year-old model Jasmine Fiore. Soon after, reality TV star Ryan Alexander Jenkins was charged with her murder.

Trucker Charged In Kansas City Cold Case Murders, Police Believe There May Be More Victims

A 52-year-old man has been charged with two gruesome cold case murders that have haunted Kansas City for decades.

Connecticut Man Found Guilty Of His Wife’s 2015 Murder After Fitbit Data Contradicts His Alibi

Connie Dabate was shot dead just two months before her husband’s secret girlfriend was due to give birth.

UPDATE: Fugitive Leticia Smith from ‘In Pursuit With John Walsh’ Captured In Mexico

Authorities confirm former fugitive, Leticia Smith was extradited from Mexico to California. Smith will face charges for allegedly killing her husband, Antione Smith.