MRS LELAND STANFORD'S DEATH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2665, 12 April 1905, Page 14

MRS LELAND STANFORD'S DEATH.

[Per Sierra at Auckland.] The announcement from Honolulu of th« death of Mrs Lelaad Stanford was received in San Francisco with sorrow. Mrs Stanford's d-eath under any circumstances would have occasioned wide regret, but indications of murder added horror to the general grief. Shortly after Mrs Stanford left San Francisco for Honolulu the local papers published the fact that an had been made to poison the aged philanthropist in her San Francisco mansion. On January 14- she had, according to her custom, taken a glass of Poland water at bedtime, and had found it bitter. She suspected noison, and immediately drank quantities of hot water, which acted as an emetic, and prevented any serious trouble from the poison. Mrs Stanford sent her maid, Elizabeth Richmond, an Englishwoman, to a drug store with the bottle of Poland water, which had a peculiar appearance. Analysis proved that it contained a deadly dose of strychnine. When Mrs Stanford learned of the attempt upon her life, she promptly decided to go to Honolulu, and perhaps later to Japan. She .was determined in any event not to return to the California street mansion until the police had discovered who was guilty of the attempt to poison her. This story was kept secret for some days — a policy which was later proi cd to be extremely unwise. The cablegram from Honolulu announcing 1 her death followed quickly upon the publication of it; and it now appears that the poisoner succeeded in his work in spite of all precautions. On the evening of February 28 Mrs Stanford drank some bicarbonate of soda in her room at the Mcana Hotel, in Honolulu, and was almost immediatelyovercome by dreadful convulsions, which soon caused her death. She cried out at once: "I am poisoned"; and her last words were : " This is a dreadful death to die." Unfortunately investigations set on foot both in Honolulu and in San Francisco have not cleared up the tragedy. Although the coroner's jury in Honolulu declared that death was caused by strychnine, administered by some person or persons unknowi', it can hardly be said that any person is definitely suspected of the crime. Mrs Stanford was accompanied by her secretary, Miss Bertha Berner, but Miss Berner, who has beeu with h?r for 20 years, was not at any time suspected Mrs Stanford! appeared to feel le=s confidence in Elizabeth Richmond, but there is no evidence against this woman, nor at the present time has anything definite b-een discovered as to the crime. Mrs Stanford had a number of servants in her house, and several of these might have had access to the bottle of Poland water or to the- bottle of scda, which, it is claimed, was taken from her California street house, and not opened until Mrs Stanford took the fatal dose in Honolulu. The police have been active, but hope of solving the mystery is now almost abandoned.