Children die when they are around Shirley Winters, whether she had a hand in it or not. When she was 13, three siblings died of carbon monoxide poisoning. She was a quarter mile away with her grandparents, but it was the start of bad things.

In 1977, Winters married and settled into an unquiet life with her husband and one child. She was pregnant with her second child. Over 30 years, Winters will be hospitalized 28 times in various mental health institutions. She tried to commit suicide many times, and would stab herself in the legs.

On September 11, 1979, the children of a friend die in a house fire 50 miles from where Winters is staying.

On September 12, 1979, while at a Hyde Lake cabin, fire raged through the wooden structure. Winters’ children, Colleen, 3 and John, 1, died. Only Winters, who says she had been sleeping on the couch when the fire erupted, survived. Investigators put the cause down to an electrical problem.

Tragedy would again strike Winters when her 5 month old son, Ronald Winters III, dies in Otisco, New York. It is her mother’s birthday.

Winters was long suspected in the deaths of her children. In 1982 and again in 1990, police investigated the deaths. They were not able to find sufficient evidence for charges.

In 1981, her trailer catches fire four times in just a few months. Police suspect arson each time, but Winters is charged with arson only once. Before that trial is over, she is charged again in a 1982 arson.

Winters had more children over the years. In 1984, Joy was born. In 1985, Ashley is born. In 1987, Clayton is born. Winters divorced her husband and moved away.

In 1989, Winters is again on trial for arson. During the 2 trials (one deadlocked), there are multiple fires affecting her and her relatives. On November 12, 1989, fire rips through her home. Winters escaped with 2 children, and Joy, just 5 years old, escaped on her own. Joy told her grandmother that she had been ordered to stay inside.

In January, 1990, Winters loses custody of all three children after a fire at her home. Her ex-husband is awarded custody. The fires don’t stop. She is charged with arson at a bowling alley in 1990. The homes and garages of neighbors go up in flames. Homes are destroyed, but no one dies.

In 1997 she sets fire to her mother’s home with her cousin still inside. Winters is sentenced to 8 years in jail. She is paroled in 2004, and is rearrested for violation parole: she had a lighter.

Ryan Joseph Rivers was almost 2 years old when Winters set her sights on him. She lived in the home with the boy, his mother and step-father. On November 2, 2006, Rivers drowned in the bathtub. He was found fully clothed and on his back.

In 2007, police take another run at Winters by exhuming Ronald, Coleen and John. Winters tried to commit suicide, and was placed under protective custody in a mental institution. That year, she is indicted in the murders of both Ronald Winters and Ryan Rivers.

On April 21, 2008, Winters plead guilty to the manslaughter of Ryan Rivers. Three days later, she pleads guilty to the first degree manslaughter of her son, Ronald. She gets 20 and 8 1/3-25 years respectively. The sentences are concurrent, and she is eligible for parole in 17 years.

This plea deal allowed Winters to avoid prosecution in the deaths of Colleen and John Winters. She is suspected in multiple arson, and two additional murders.