“THE GOOD SAMARITAN”

Evening Star, Issue 20020, 10 November 1928, Page 11

“THE GOOD SAMARITAN”

AMAZING ALLEGATIONS Miss Bertha Gifford, fifty-six years of age, who is the wife of a Catawissa (Missouri) farmer, and who is known as “ the Good Samaritan,” on account of her eagerness to nurse ailing neighbours, has been formally charged with committing two murders by poison, states the New York correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph.’ She is stated to , have confessed to having given poison to three persons. Many of those she attended, it is now revealed, died suddenly, and she is suspected of causing the deaths of seventeen men, women, and children in the course of ten years Neighbouring farmers, under questioning, have recalled tliat Mrs Gifford never missed a sick bed, and would travel miles, in all weathers to offer her free services as a nurse, it is recalled also that she never missed a funeral, and would nish to the scene of an accident to see the injured. Though her seeming self-sacrifice earned her the title of “ Good Samaritan,” the demise of many of tho_so whom she attended also caused whisperings that her touch was the hand of death. When two boys, sons of her husband’s foreman, died of acute gastritis, after being nursed by Mrs Gifford, suspicions were aroused, and demands were made for a post mortem examination. But the woman indignantly protested, and threatened to bring an action for criminal slander, and nothing was done. She is now, however, alleged to have admitted giving poison to Lloyd and Elmer Schamel, seven and nine years old respectively, both of whom died in her farmhouse, and also to a neighbour. Fourteen others whom,the attended died similarly, including her mnther-m-law and young brother. . Mrs Gifford is apparently a quiet and humble woman,whose cahrt and capable manner made her always welcome in sickness, and she seemed never happier than when she took charge of a stricken neighbour. She gained the complete confidence of physicians, until it was suspected that film had an obsession for witnessing death.