JANE BAIKIE.

NZ Truth, Issue 158, 27 June 1908, Page 5

JANE BAIKIE.

A Woman of Many Trials.

Some Christchurch Reminiscences.

A' recent issue o.f "Truth" gave prominence to a fair New Zealander named •Jane Baikie, aged 42, who was arrested in' Sydney on a charge of inserting strychnine or arsenic m the carcase of a person named Alexander Brown, with the object of appropriating his jewellery and other small possessions, valued at £61). Jane is a native of Canterbury and an old Christchurch girl, m which misty cit»y she was known as Jennie Hampton until she met Percy Smith, a bootmaker by trade, but who was grafting as salesman m Papp's old grocery. Jennie was a shop girl, and the pair found the banks o! the Avon a romantic neighborhood m the good old, days. Father was a suburban resident/and mother, now m the sere 1 and wrinkled age, still carts her butter and eggs into the city as ip. days gone by, while married sisters of Jennie dot the landscape at intervals when they go ojut for afternoon tea. The lady was known as a resident of Ravensbourne, between Dunedin and Port Chalmers, as Mrs Percy Smith' and the monotony of cxisteace palled considerably upon the future person of notoriety, as we find her six and a half years back travelling Sydneywards m the Talune with a person named Conway, who found the experience so injurious that he 'died, and Mrs Smith was arrested on a charge of poisoning him. Three \ Sydney juries disagreed as to the innocence or guilt of the woman, and the law got tired of prosecuting her, so that she went free. This, paper recently recalled that "Yes-No" Reid, Jennie's advocate, laid terrific stress on the I fact that when a girl Mrs Smith saved somebody from •! becoming a water-log gud CORPSE ,

and held a medal for bravery, and to this Tact was attributed the reluctance of the jury to convict. Anybody who recollects Jennie jumping into the Avon or into anything m quest of ,a dfoWninp; fellow being is invited to advertise him or herscll and his or her facts m tiiese -columns m return for a free copy of the paper for one consecutive issue and upon payment pf. 3d for the privilege. „ "Whether eloquence will save her from the gallows is a matter that the future will tell-," is what was printed m "Truth" of May 30, and a recent cable announces that the astonishing Jane got off, after making a lengthy

statement to the jury. She admitted buying sixpenny-worth of arsenic, but the defunct Brown," who appears to have been a petulant person, threw it m the lire. What singular argument m her favor was concealed m that statement, heaven only knows, as arsenic was found m Brown's tummy, liut the jury brought m a verdict of not guilty. It is said, however, by those who inovr her, that Jennie was a remarkably attractive woman nnd had a magnetic personality peculiarly her own. During the course of heir' long speech, which she was enabled to make as the result of her experience of a thrice-inflated gas-bag like George Reid orating on her behalf, she probably fixed each juryman by turn with her impressive eye and pour-* e« out her soul' to him and to him alone. If Mrs Smith-Baikie were to join the stage she could be a terrific draw. "The Borgias," or some play with plenty 'of poison m it, and Jennie 1 m tho. star part, would fill the theatre as densely as when Tom Burrows did swing himself into a niche of fame at Fuller's.