May 3, 1993 Inside Edition Clip (Blanche Taylor Moore Story)

#1990s #1993 #WAVY #InsideEdition #WinstonSalem #BlancheTaylorMoore #BillOReilly #ScottRapoport (c)1993 CBS Domestic Television In the intro for this particular broadcast, it was noted that then-host Bill O'Reilly was in Winston-Salem, NC instead of the usual New York studio for this broadcast. Here's why. The focus is on the story (reported by Scott Rapoport) is on the case of Blanche Taylor Moore, whose trial just happened to be the subject of NBC's Monday night movie that evening: "Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story"; with Moore portrayed by former Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery. Born Blanche Kiser to a alcoholic, womanizing mill-worker who was (oddly enough) also an ordained Baptist preacher in 1933; Kiser (who later accused her father of forcing her into prostitution to pay gambling debts) married furniture restorer James Napoleon Taylor in 1952, proceeding to give birth to two children and rise to the position of head cashier (roughly equivalent to customer service manager) at the local Kroger; the top job available for a woman at the time. By 1962; Blanche was in an affair with the store manager, Raymond Reid. Meanwhile in 1968, Taylor's father died of what was originally ruled a heart attack; followed three years later by James N. Taylor's death (again, originally thought to be a heart attack), opening a door for Taylor and Reid's relationship to be taken public. By 1985, though, Taylor (after a brief fling with Kroger's Piedmont Triad regional manager Kevin Denton that quickly went sour and resulted in a sexual harassment lawsuit {Denton resigned and Kroger ultimately issued a $275,000 settlement}) began seeing Dwight Moore, a recently-divorced pastor of Carolina United Church of Christ in her home county of Alamance County, NC. By 1986, Reid developed what was thought to be shingles, then was hospitalized that April, dying 6 months later from what was ruled to be Guillian-Barre Syndrome (normally not a fatal disease but one that displays symptoms similar to arsenic poisoning). Taylor and Moore married in April 1989, but upon returning from their honeymoon Dwight Moore collapsed after eating a chicken sandwich Blanche gave him. Toxicology reports revealed that 20 times the lethal dose of arsenic was in Dwight Moore's system (in the interview, Moore would point out that no one was known to have that much arsenic in their system and live to tell about it); arousing the police and State Bureau of Investigation's suspicions, especially upon learning from interviewing Moore from his hospital bed that Reid had died from what was thought to be Guillian-Barre Syndrome. Upon exhuming the bodies of Reid, Taylor and Kiser; all three bodies were discovered to have elevated (in Reid and Taylor's cases, fatal) levels of arsenic. On July 18, 1989; Blanche Taylor Moore was arrested on 1st degree murder charges in the deaths of Reid and Taylor as well as assault with a deadly weapon in the attempted murder of Dwight Moore, with the jury convicting her of Reid's murder in November 1990 and Blanche Taylor Moore being sentenced to death by lethal injection in January 1991 (due to numerous appeals and treatment for health issues and problems related to advancing age, the now 88-year-old {as of this 2021 edit} "Black Widow" has managed as of this upload to avoid execution). In addition, several other acquaintances (including Moore's mother-in-law Isla Taylor) have been suggested to have possibly been killed by her as a result of high arsenic levels; while in the Jim Schutze book "Preacher's Girl" that the Black Widow Murders film is based on, it was suggested that Blanche might have set Kevin Denton up on the harassment claims and started two fires that damaged her mobile home (fires she blamed on an unknown "pervert" as she put it) In addition to Dwight Moore; other interviewees include Forsyth Co. Assistant D.A. Vince Rabil. Also shown is a clip of Blanche's brother, Samuel Kiser (who spoke in an effort to defend his sister)