Connecticut court hears arguments on 'Arsenic and Old Lace' records
By Richard Weizel HARTFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - A debate on whether to release the medical records of the female serial killer who inspired the play and film "Arsenic and Old Lace" played out on Wednesday on the stage of Connecticut's Supreme Court more than a half century after her death. Amy Archer Gilligan was sentenced to life in prison in 1919 after admitting to poisoning one of her husbands and a resident of a nursing home she ran by putting arsenic in their food, and died in 1962 at the age of 93 in a psychiatric hospital. Ron Robillard, a Connecticut journalist planning a book on Gilligan, is seeking the release of her medical records. State health officials have resisted, contending the records are connected with her mental health records and thus private. "Releasing any of the records would violate state statutes protecting her right to privacy and confidentiality, no matter how long ago she died," Jacqueline Hoell, a state assistant attorney general, told the court. "It would also discourage people from seeking psychiatric care." Valicia Harmon, a staff attorney representing the state's Freedom of Information Commission, urged the justices to release the medical records, noting that Gilligan's status as a convicted murder and the fact that she was suspected of having poisoned at least three and possibly a dozen more people made hers an unusual case. "Ordinary persons would not have their medical records released after their death. But Amy Archer Gilligan was a convicted killer and is part of history with no surviving relatives," Harmon said. "She is also a public figure, and when combined with the passage of time – her death plus 50 years – no one would be harmed." While the court did not rule on Wednesday, and did not indicate when it would make a decision, Justice Andrew McDonald expressed skepticism at Hoell's contention that releasing the records could put Connecticut at risk of being sued. "By who?" McDonald asked, noting that Gilligan's sole known heir died years ago. Five years after Gilligan's conviction, she was transferred to the psychiatric hospital where she later died. The state has ordered her records from those years sealed forever. Her story inspired the 1941 stage play "Arsenic and Old Lace" - a fictional account of a man who learns his two maiden aunts like to kill old men and bury their remains in their basement - and the 1944 Cary Grant movie of the same name. (Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham)
