The couple moved in with John's parents, Walter and Anna Creighton, who owned a house in Roseville, Newark.

Matters were not improved by the fact that whenever John and Mary Frances argued, both of her husband's parents would support him against her.

Creighton and her husband, John, were tried for Raymond's death in 1923, but were acquitted due to a lack of witnesses.

Feeling that they could no longer make a home in Newark due to the suspicions and trials, the family relocated to Baldwin, Long Island.

There John Creighton made the acquaintance of a neighbour named Everett Appelgate,[a] a fellow member of the local American Legion association.

Creighton's defense lawyer would later claim that she had been "a woman led wrong by the power of an evil man."

Nassau County's District Attorney's office began an investigation and autopsy was performed on Ada Appelgate and traces of arsenic was found.

Mrs. Creighton appeared "chalky-white” said the New York Post, "but the plump, brown-gowned Borgia gave no outward signs of dismay."

[9] On the day of the execution (July 16, 1936) Creighton was suffering from hysterical paralysis and was given a morphine injection.