THE HALL POISONING CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11842, 20 December 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE HALL POISONING CASE.

SEQUEL IN THE DIVORCE COURT. DECREE NISI GRANTED. The celebrated Hall poisoning case of 1886 was revived on Dec. 6 at the. Auckland Supreme Court, when Kato Emily- Hall, whose husband was sentenced to penal servitude on October 19 of that year, for the attempted murder by poisoning of bis wife at Timaru, made application to Mr. Justice Conolly for dissolution of marriage, under clause 4 of the Divorce Act, 1898. The clause in question gives permission for application for divorce on the ground that the respondent .has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment -or penal servitude for seven years or upwards, for attempting to take (he life of petitioner. The petitioner, a lady - like looking nerson, who appeared in the witness box neatly attired in black, and wearing a rather fieavy black veil. Petitioner, who was visibly agitated when reference was made to her husband, said, on being examined, that she was married to respondent at St. Mary's School Church, Timaru, on May 26, 1885. They lived and. cohabited at Timaru, and there was one child, a boy, born in June, 1886, as issue of the marriage. The child was still, alive. On October 19, 1886, respondent was convicted and sentenced to penal servitude for life for attempting the life of witness. No further "evidence was called, and His Honor granted a decree nisi, with power to apply for a decree absolute three months hence, the petitioner to have custody of the child. No costs were applied for. Tho trial in the Hall poisoning ease will still be remembered by many readers, as it created a great sensation at the time. The accused, Thomas Hall, well known in Timaru, was charged with administering poison to his wife with intent to murder her. She was taken ill in November of 1885, and the symptoms continued with slight intermission until the arrest of Hall (a young woman being jointly charged with him). Doctor after doctor had been called in, but could not tell what was wrong with the patient, until it flashed across one of the doctors a few days before the arrest that the woman was being slowly poisoned. Portions of the food and drink given to Mrs. Hall were surreptitiously obtained, and analysis showed them to contain an abundance of antimony, a. slow poison. A protracted trial, which caused a sensation from one end of the colony to tho other, followed, and resulted in Hall being convicted, and, as mentioned above, sentenced to penal servitude for life. The female prisoner was found not guilty.