Elfriede Martha Blauensteiner (22 January 1931 – 16 November 2003), dubbed The Black Widow,[1] was an Austrian serial killer who murdered at least three victims by poison.

On 7 March 1997, Blauensteiner was found guilty of murdering 77-year-old Alois Pichler and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Her former lawyer Harald Schmidt was jailed for seven years for being an accomplice to grievous bodily harm and for forging the will of Alois Pichler.

[2] Four years later, she was found guilty of murdering her 64-year-old husband Friedrick Doecker and 84-year-old female neighbour Franziska Koeberl.

[3] After serving less than seven years of her life sentence, Blauensteiner died from a brain tumour on 18 November 2003, in a Vienna hospital.