BRIDE ACQUITTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13235, 21 July 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRIDE ACQUITTED.

MYSTERY OF; WEALTHY HUSBAND'S

! ; DEATH., ' An American society sensation has just had a remarkable ending. Mrs. Rowland Storrs, a cousin of Mrs. Waldorf Astor, .jun., formerly Mrs. Langhorne Shaw, who has been five weeks, in Monrovia gaol, California, on suspicion of murdering her husband,- has now been discharged. Mr. Storrs was found shot in his palatial home on April 26, after a dinner-party, at which several of the guestsmen whom he .had brought ! inwere alleged to have got drunk. Mrs. Storrs, a Bride of four months, was the first to give the alarm, of the tragedy by running into the road in her nightdress ; and screaming, " I don't •know which of them shot him When the doctor arrived he found Storrs, fully dressed, dead on the bed. Mrs. Storrs emphatically declared when arrested that her husband shot himself. A pistol lay beside him, and on the counterpane were several hairpins. The police > discovered another 'nightdress in the wardrobe; the sleeve of which was stained with blood. While the officers were in the house Mrs. ;.Kendall Cutter, !. sister ;of Mrs. Storrs, drove up in an automobile. "I dare you to arrest my sister!", exclaimed Mrs. Cutter. In giving evidence in her own behalf, Mrs. Storrs said " her husband drank too much at the dinner-party on April 26. Then; as usual, he started fault-finding, eliding by a customary mood of despondency. Later on lie threatened suicide, but she thought it was merely bluff, and was; not even alarmed when' »he felt the cold steel barrel of a revolver against, her;heart. While half asleep herself she saw him deliberately aim at- himself, and thenfforl r lowed the noise of a ; shot.. ' Jumping iip she ran.screaming for help. ! A clergyman gave evidence that she had asked; God? lor mercy on her soul. This statement, according to the New York' correspondent of the Morning Leader, she .denounced as a falsehood. ; 'Judge Northup,' in releasing her, said he ; had, doubts about her" innocence, but was certain that no jury would ever convict.