The Devil's Rooming House by M. William Phelps and Refuge in Hell by Daniel B. Silver were on the library bookshelf, separated only by one book.

Other than the idea of the Devil and Hell, what could these books have in common?

According to the book jacket, M. William Phelps has written "the first book about the life, times, and murders of America's most prolific female serial killer." In the summer of July, 1911, Amy Archer-Gilligan ran a boarding house for old age pensioners in Windsor, CT.

The heat during that summer in New England literally caused people to commit suicide. A lot of people in her Windsor home for "aged and chronic invalids" were also dying. Her story was the inspiration for the play Arsenic and Old Lace, written by Joseph Kesselring and directed by Bretaigne Windust.

Daniel B. Silver wrote about "How Berlin's Jewish Hospital Outlasted The Nazis". Mr. Silver, according to the book jacket "has served as general counsel to the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. He lives with his wife in Chevy Chase, MD."

Silver's book chronicles the survival of not only the Krankenhaus Der Jusischen Gemeinde, located on Iranischestrasse in Berlin, but also of many German Jews who took refuge there. It was a strange and complicated alliance between the Jewish doctors and nurses in the hospital and Nazi boss Adolph Eichmann.

Early in the book The Devil's Rooming House, the author recreates a probable scene in the prologue Simmering Death, page x, between an inmate of Amy Archer's home and a visiting doctor. The inmate tells the doctor that he thinks Mrs. Archer is poisoning him. "You want I should whisper?" the doctor asks with a raided eyebrow?"

The Devil's Rooming House states that "Windsor socialites rallied to Amy's side. There was no way, many were quick to say, that Sister Amy - given that nickname because she was rarely seen around town without her trusty Bible in the crook of her arm - was killing people." In Refuge in Hell, the nurses were called Sisters; there is a photograph of Schwesters Ada and Carry.

The inmates at Sister Amy's were dying in great numbers as were the Jews in the Berlin Jewish Hospital. Both pogroms went on for several years before they were called to a halt.

Refuge in Hell gives these statistics "If overall admissions were low, the death toll, as a percentage of admissions, rose sharply during the 1943-45 period. In 1943, the 425 deaths that were recorded represented almost 29 percent of the number of admissions" (188). At first, the deaths at Amy Archer-Gilligan's were not suspect. The inmates in her home signed over their entire fortunes to her in exchange for room and board for the rest of their lives. It was only when the number of deaths started to snowball and a large of amount of arsenic purchased by her was discovered that serious questions began to be asked.

In The Devil's Rooming House, Amy Archer-Gilligan began to move dead bodies without the proper permits. "Removing a dead body from any home - business or private residence - without a permit was in violation of the law. Transporting that body across town lines, moreover, was a second violation. Amy was guilty, admittedly, of both. Franklin Andrews had been driven to Hartford - Smith and Sons' Undertaking - immediately after his death (188).

"Captain Robert Hurley got a shock when he showed up at the Archer Home the morning after Amy's arrest...Still, Seth Ramsey, an inmate who had taken over Franklin Andrew's role as Amy's 'helper' around the house had broken into the barn during the night. Even worse, Ramsey had apparently taken all of the papers and other 'articles' from inside the barn and burned them in the incinerator."