OUR Daily Features

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12822, 17 August 1939, Page 2

OUR Daily Features

A PAGE FROM THE PAST TAURANGA FIFTY YEARS AGO "'■r The following cable message from London, which appeared in the Bay of Plenty Times of August 15, 1889, will bring to the minds of many of our older residents the famous Maybrick case: —

“Mrs Maybrick, charged with poisoning her husband, James Maybrick, cotton broker, Liverpool, has been found guilty of murder, through expert evidence, which proved his death ensued from poisoning. Evidence showed she was constantly purchasing flypapers, and the inference was, knowing that these papers contained arsenic she scraped the coating off them and gave it to her husband in food and medicine. Evidence also showed she had a parcel of arsenic in her possession, and she had been remonstrated with for tampering with her husband’s medicine bottles by Michael Maybrick, the brother of the deceased. The verdict of the jury caused some sensation and surprise in court, and slight hissing. The prisoner, when called to make a statement, admitted improper familiarity with Brierly, but assured most strenuously that she was innocent of the murder of her husband. She was sentenced to death, but it is expected she will be reprieved. Sir Charles Russell’s fee for defending the accused was £1,100.”