FARM TRAGEDY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12735, 16 December 1935, Page 3

FARM TRAGEDY

WOMAN POISONS HUSBAND. SENTENCED TO DEATH. Found guilty of murdering her third ! husband with poison, Mrs Elizabeth j Tilford, a Durham woman, was son- j fenced to death recently, a Wood- I slock, Ontario, Canada. This was the I cml of a sensational trial which hud lasted about a week. 1 Mrs Tilford, aged 50, a native of Stockton, County Durham, whose | maiden name was Elizabeth Anne i Kaye, was charged tvitli murdering j her husband, Tyrrell Tilford, a teamster, who came from Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, by administering arsenic to him. The defence was a contitition that Tilford had committed suicide. | The jury were out for six hours bo- l fore bringing in the verdict of guilty. ' Then Mr Justice Kingstono delivered sentence of death, ordering that Mrs , Tilford be hanged on December 17. The condemned woman, who had sobbed throughout the final speech of her senior counsel to the jury, pre-

sented a pitiful appearance in the dock as sentence was passed. Her tear-stained face blanched and she seemed about to collapse. While tho defence called no witnesses, the prosecution had 33 witnesses, most of whom told of delarations by Tilford that he bad been poisoned by Ills wife. The most pathetic witness was Mrs Mary Tilford, aged 76, mother of the murdered man, with whom lie went to Canada 15 years ago. In a voice often broken with emotion she related lrow, while Tilford lay dying on a couch iii her home, he accused his wife of poisoning him. “He told me,” said the tragic mother, “ I know I’m getting arsenic. Lizzie (Mrs Tilford) is giving it to me. She has killed two husbands and I’m the third, hut I am sure she will kill no more.” The elder Mrs. Tilford added that several members of the family who I were at tho bedside at the time admonished the dying man for accusing his wife and tried to pacify him, but he persisted. ’ ' ‘ The mother also described how Tilford, when his wife came to see him, burst out at her: “Lizzie, you are poisoning me. You know you are.”