Lizzie Lloyd King
alleged murderer

Elizabeth Lloyd King (born 1847) was the murderer of Charles Goodrich, whom she is said to have shot three times in the head on 20 March 1873 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. The murder was headline news in the city, until her capture more than three months after the event. Her inquest drew large crowds, and prisoner church sermons drew requests for attendance from the general public, some of whom were granted entry. After a year in jail, a psychological assessment deemed that she was unfit to stand trial, and she was committed to a life sentence at the State Lunatic Hospital at Auburn.
Her inquest was held on the same day and at the same court as that for Mary Ann Dwyer, who had murdered her three children, making the story even more sensational for the New York press. The New York Times story headline the next day was "TWO INSANE WOMEN".
The chief of police who handled her case, Patrick Campbell, would recall her case decades later as "a great one", and one of the most memorable of his career.
Description
King was described as a "remarkable woman", who was "attractive in face, manner and figure, and was a fine musician". She was also intelligent:
When she was eighteen, she commenced to go to school again; she studied very hard, graduated at the head of her class of fourteen or fifteen girls.
Early life
King was born Elizabeth Lloyd King in Plymouth, Massachusetts to Isaac B. King and Harriet A. Hoyt, and had an older sister.
The public source identifies “Lizzie Lloyd King” as alleged murderer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lizzie, Lloyd and King.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Lizzie Lloyd King”, the useful work is to connect “alleged murderer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15442646. VIAF identifies the subject as 56170072. The Library of Congress control number is no90004128. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1847 and 1873.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Lizzie Lloyd King”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Lizzie Lloyd King primary sources, Lizzie Lloyd King archive and Lizzie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lizzie Lloyd King”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Lizzie Lloyd King” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.