Page 2 for the crime archive.
WINIFRED RANSOM
YEAR: 1974
PERPETRATOR: 36
VICTIM: 26 year old Margaret Sweeney
METHOD OF LOCATING VICTIM: met at local store
SURVIVAL OF MOTHER: no
SURVIVAL OF FETUS: yes
DID PERPETRATOR HAVE CHILDREN: unknown
DID PERPETRATOR FAKE BEING PREGNANT: unknown
MOTIVE: unknown
DID PERPETRATOR TAKE NEWBORN TO ER: no
OUTCOME: Ransom was found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI), and released 2 years later from psychiatric hospital.
SUMMARY: Ransom saw Margaret Sweeney at a local store, noting that Sweeney was 8 months pregnant. Ransom went to Sweeney’s home, knocked her unconscious and began carving the fetus from Sweeney. When Sweeney woke up, Ransom struck her with hatchet, then shot her 3 times. Sweeney had 3 kids, was 8 months pregnant. Ransom wrapped Sweeney’s corpse in sheet and then buried it under floor boards in her shed with the help of her nephew. Ransom’s husband reported her after Ransom told him that she had given birth and that Margaret Sweeney had broken into their home to kidnap the newborn.. Was found NGRI in 1975 due to ‘psychotic delusions’ then released from psych hospital in 1977.
Dowdall, G. W. (2014). The Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry: A History of Misery and Medicine.
Indianapolis Star 11/1//74 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3489505/winifred_ransom_1_daily_courier/