POISON BY POST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13390, 19 January 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

POISON BY POST.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A SCOTTISH LADY. STRYCHNINE IN A GIFT OF SHORTBREAD. "With happy seasonable greeting from an old friend." Accompanying this note was a shortbread cake, neatly packed in a tin box. and on its delivery at the house of Mr. William Lennox, a retired farmer, 77, of Woodside, j Cumnock. Ayrshire, he, his niece. Miss MeKerrow, and a caller, Mrs. Marcus Bain, wife of the vice-convener of Ayrshire, were about to have tea. The anonymous gift was put upon the table. All three ate a small portion, and Miss MeKerrow had only time to remark on the peculiar taste of the cake when she became seriously ill. Mrs. Bain and Mr. Lennox were also similarly attacked. The cake had been poisoned with strychnine. Medical aid was called, and soon three doctors were at Woodside; but in spite of all they could do Miss MeKerrow died in great agony within an hour. The police at once took the matter in hand, but as the only clue is the postmark of Kilmarnock they had little to work upon. The happy message which cloaked the sinister character of a deliberate plot was written in an obviously disguised hand, and the caligraphy was so faint that it could only be read with difficulty. Police inquiries elicited the fact that the shortbread was posted in Kilmarnock, that it was of factory make, and when purchased was without icing. The icing had obviously been done afterwards by an amateur hand, and strychnine is presumed to have been mixed with it. The police, who took the view at first that the poisoning was accidental, were later convinced that murder was carefully planned, because it is reported that Mr. Lennox was directed in the unsigned note to toast the cake in front of the fire or in the oven before eating it. The instruction was not carried out. A day or two later considerable excitement was caused in Ayrshire by the arrest in connection with the .ease of Mr. Thomas M. Brown, of Ardnith House, ;\ew Cumnock, a village six miles distant from the scene of the tragedy. Chief Constable McHardy, accompanied by Superintendent Cunningham and an inspector of the county police, arrested Brown, and conveyed him to Ayr by the afternoon train. Mr. Brown is the husband of a niece of Mr. Lennox, who so narrowly escaped death from eating the poisoned shortcake, and cousin of Miss MeKerrow, who died from poisoning. Brown, until a year ago. was a, colliery manager at Lanemark. but, through ill-health, he gave up duty, and lived in retirement. The arrest was rONIIfCTKD WITH extraordinary SI.CRKCY. The chief constable and superintendent of Ayrshire late in the afternoon proceeded to New Cumnock, where they quietly interviewed tradespeople, and compared the handwriting on"the greetings card sent with the cake with various letters. Then they proceeded by train to Ardnith House, two miles away. Brown was found quietly working in his garden, and was asked to drive into New Cumnock. This he readily consented to do. never for a moment suspecting that he was to be arrested. Further investigation ended in the officers placing Brown under arrest. The man chatted and joked with his accustomed freedom. When the news got abroad that Brown, who comes of a good family, had been arrested, every woman in the village rushed to the station to get a glimpse of prisoner. So great had become the crowd that the officers had to seek shelter in the stationmaster's house till the train arrived. On the. day after the poisoning Brown hurriedly drove his wife to Woodside, the house of Mr. Lennox, and urged that Mrs. Brown would assist in nursing Mr. Lennox. It is now said that a few days before the poisoned shortcake arrived Miss MeKerrow received a gift of fish, butas they smelt peculiarly she' consigned them to the ashbin. Subsequently Brown was examined by the sheriff. The Ayr Court was crowded, but the case was taken in private. Brown Mas charged with murdering Grace MeKerrow. niece of and housekeeper to William Lennox, a. retired farmer, of Old Cumnock, and endangering the lives of three others, by sending through the post a. short-bread cake, supposed to contain strychnine, of which they partook. He was represented by Mr. John A. MacCallum, an Ayr solicitor, and was- remanded, the proceedings being brief. It is understood that accused's solicitor entered a plea of insanity.