Galveston Monthly Magazine October 2013 Article titled Four Tiny Coffins... The Galveston Alberti Murders by Kathleen Maca -

The large granite gravestone in the Episcopal Cemetery on Broadway is impressive for its size alone. But it isn't until one notices that so many of the death dates are identical that a feeling something dreadful happened occurs.
============================================================
Nothing stands on the corner of 44th and Winnie Streets to hint that there was once a happy home filled with children, two loving parents and a handful of boarders and servants.
The house belonged to and was connected to a popular butcher shop, which he operated with his brother-in-law.
German by birth, Louis emigrated from his homeland to Galveston with his family when he was two years old. At 22, he married a 17-year-old blonde Galveston native named Elize "Lizzie Roemer, and they settled into their beautifully furnished home.
Tragedy struck the couple in 1884, when their first-born child Louis died of lockjaw at the age of seven. Friends and extended family noted that Mrs. Alberti often "acted queerly" afterward. A daughter, named Caroline, was born to the family that same year.
Less than one year later, Lizzie's beloved 15-year-old sister Dorothea suffered a painful death caused by lung congestion. It was an additional loss that tried the tender nerves of an already frail woman.
The couple went on with their lives: Louis making a success of his meat market and Lizzie having babies and caring for the family.
After 20 years of marriage and eight children, the couple lost a second child, young Caroline, in April 1894.It was more than her mother could bear.
By May, the then 37-year-old Lizzie had become occasion- ally violent and unbalanced. The family decided it was best for her to live with her parents in their home at Avenue L and 10th Street, hoping the change of routine would be beneficial She returned to her own home and children after only a few weeks, although friends noted she "was not herself" at times.
At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 4. 1894, Mrs. Alberti called her small children into the dining room to give them a few sips of wine. This was not an unusual custom in Victorian times, and it may have warmed the children a bit on the chilly, cloudy day.
As the children were taking turns sipping from the glass, their father stepped in from the butcher shop and asked what she was doing. His wife replied that she was giving the children some wine, and asked if he would like some, as well.
He replied that he would and, although he noticed that his wife poured his wine from a different bottle into a fresh glass, thought nothing of it.
As he was drinking, one of the children told him that their mother had put poison in the wine. He assured the child that the wine was perfectly fine, since he had just drank some himself, and returned to his workplace next door.
After he left the house, one of the children reportedly addressed their mother directly, accusing her of having poisoned the wine. She calmly denied the accusation and sent the children to bed.
Before they reached their bedrooms, however, each of the children began complaining of painful cramps. Eventually, their cries were so loud that the screams Louis ran back to the house to find his home in chaos and his children screaming in agony. Four-year-old Willie who had fallen on the floor, was being carried by his older sister Lizzie, age eight, who was suffering, as well.
In shock, Louis turned to his wife, who was sitting serenely, with her hands crossed in her lap, and asked her what was happening. She replied that she had put morphine in the wine because she wanted to kill the children and herself, but his coming back into the home had prevented her from taking her dose.
He immediately sent for a doctor, who arrived about 7:30 p.m. just as little Willie died. The physician worked on the remaining children feverishly through the night, but the poison was too strong.
Six-year-old Dora, and Ella, age 10, died shortly after their brother. Young Lizzie died shortly before midnight.
Emma, 16, recovered enough to be sent to the hospital for a day, and she survived. The Alberti's 14 year-old daughter, Wilhelmina, was the only one of the children who escaped drinking the poison. She was in one of the south rooms studying her lessons when the mother called the other five children to get some wine.
It was later learned that Mrs. Alberti had told her children the previous Sunday that she was going to the city to buy poison, which she would give to them and which she would take herself. It's unclear why no one tried to stop her; either no adult heard the remark or no one thought her capable of such an unspeakable act.
At 2 a.m., after the last ill-fated child had perished, Mrs. Alberti was arrested on the charge of insanity.
Her brother visited her in jail the next day and asked if she knew what she had done. She replied that she did, and only regretted that she had not had the chance to take her own dose of poison. "I have been ill for the last eight months and know that I could not fill my obligations to my babies, They are better off."
to be continued......