WOMAN'S STRANGE DELUSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11878, 1 February 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOMAN'S STRANGE DELUSIONS.

SUICIDE A FEW DAYS BEFORE MARRIAGE. A stout described by the coroner as " one of the most curious he had ever heard " was told at an inquest held at the London Hospital on Deborah Plustock, aged 22, ,a tailor's machinist, of Broomhead Road, Mile-end. -* - . The young woman, the evidence showed, was to have been married on the following i Sunday to Mr. Harris Epstein, a. bicycle maker. She spent the previous' Sunday evening with him at her brother's house, and then,appeared to be quite happy and, cheerful. On Monday morning she went out, telling her landlady that she was going to buy some soap, but never returned. During the afternoon it appears that she went to the house where her affianced husband, lived, and the landlady of the house thought her manner very strange. Towards the evening a lodger in the house met her coming downstairs holding a handkerchief to her neck. She asked him: " Have you heard of the accidentand stated that as she was opening the. door a boy came up and stabbed her in the neck because she would not give him her rings. By the young man's advice she went to the hospital, where she died on Wednesday. She told the police that the young man who attacked her was about 17, and , wore a blue suit.' '; ■■■ . . Other evidence, however, showed that on the Monday afternoon the girl herself bought a knife, asking if it was sharp and of good steel. ' The evidence of the house physician at the hospital was a still further surprise. He stated that the wounds in the neck were in the shape of a horseshoe, and were probably self-inflicted. They had_, however, nothing to do with her death. The post-mortem examination showed that she died from phosphorus poisoning, and that the phosphorus was taken some days before her admission to the hospital. The doctor said she must have been in terrible agony for some time. A verdict of suicide during temporary insanity was returned.