A MYSTERIOUS CRIME IN VICTORIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7573, 27 February 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A MYSTERIOUS CRIME IN VICTORIA.

What is known as the Wangaratta tragedy is at present occupying a good deal of publio attention in Victoria. On January 29 the house of a farmer named John Plum was burned down and his body was found m the ruins It had been stated that Plum was known to have £300 in money in the house, and there was a suspicion that the fire was probably the work of a robber and an incendiary, especially as the first witness examined at the inquest proved that on the date on which the fire occurred there was no coin except a few pence disoovered in the ruins ; that witness called on deceased on business, and saw him in the wine collar, Sitting beside him was a woman who he knew as Mrs. Cooty. She was formerly Mrs. Cooty, but her proper name was now Mrs. Stevens, and she was the wife of a publican at Wangaratta, from whom she was separated. The evidence of the son of the deceased wont to show that at the time of his death deoeased must have been in possession of a considerable sum of money. The witness stated that in the beginning of .November he had given his father £165 in notes, the procoeds of the sale of some wheat. He knew his father to have then in his possession another £140, and another £10 in silver. The deceased never banked his money, but always carried it on ■ his person. He had searched with Sergeant Steele, for coin in the ruins, but found none. The wife cf tne deceased also said that she knew him to have £300 in notes, three sovereigns, and over £10 in silver shortly before his death. Arsenic having beflu found in the stomach of the deceased, the woman Stevenß was arrested, and quite a sensation was caused in court when the police produced a roll of notes amounting to about £300, and deposit receipts amounting to £2100, belonging to deceased, and which had been found about Mrs. Stevens' house, in the hollow of a log of firewood. The notes and receipts were in a purse, which was identified as having belonged to the deceased. Mrs. Stevens, who is suspected of having administered poison to Pluui, and afterwards set fire to his house, claims to be a granddaughter of Sir John Mooro, a general in the English Army, and her marriage certificate states that she is the daughter of a noncommissioned officer in the same service, who fought in Spain, and there married a Spanish woman. The latter is said to have died in giving birth to Mrs. Stevens, who was taken to Cornwall and there brought up. She came to the Ovens district many years ago, and was first heard of at Eldorado as the wife of a publican named Hird. Several children were tho issue of this marriage. Hird died, and his widow married a farmer named Coutie, who occupied a holding situate botweon Plum's farm and Wangaratta township. Doutio. in his turn, died about seven years ago. under rather suspicious circumstances. His death was preceded by strange spasms, which led many to believe that foul play had been practised, though this was never proved. Having buried her second husband, the bereaved widow became housekeeper to Mr. John Stevens, the licensoe of the Greyhound Hotel, at \\ angaratta, and eventually put aside her weeds once more in order to become his wife. Mr. Stevens was not happy in his married life. He suspected Mrs. Stevens, aud openly accused her of attempting to poison him with arsenic, and, after enjoying her society for a couple of years, he turned her out. Mrs. Stevens wont to Sydney, and remained there until about eighteen months ago, when she returned and sued her husband for maintenance, and obtained au order against him for 10s per week. Since then she has lived in a small cottage on the outskirts of tho town, whore she has dwelt alone. She has three surviving daughters, one of whom is married to a farmer named Petts, of Moyhu, some eighteen miles from Wangaratta. and another to Charles Plum, a son of the deceased, aud who resides at Sprinchurst. The last-named allianco accounts somewhat for Mrs. Stovens' familiarity with the affairs of the late Mr. Plum. Mrs. Stevens' personal appearance bears unmistakable testimony to her Spanish extraction, but nevertheless her manner to strangers has always been quiet and exceedingly affable. She added to her income by nursing, and, it is hinted, by other less praiseworthy means, though until this last episode in her career sho has never been in the hands of the law. Her movements, however, were continually regarded with suspicion. She was looked upon by all who knew hor as an extraordinary woman ; and if the suspicions which now rest upon h<r arc found to be well founded, that estimate is certainly correct, for a more deliberate and cold-blooded piece of villiany perpetrated by a woman it would be hard to find in the criminal records of any country.