FAMOUS POISONING CASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 10

FAMOUS POISONING CASE

GIRL ACCUSED DIES IN AMERICA SEVENTY-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY One of tlie most sensational poisonj ing mysteries on record is recalled ! by the announcement of the death in I America at a great age of Madeleine ! Smith. | Seventy years ago. a beautiful girl of good family and still in her ’teens, she stood the ordeal of a six days’ trial on the charge of murdering her lover. A young girl, brought, up in a strict Scottish home. Madeleine, it appeared, had proved herself to be more than the equal of her ardent and romantic French lover in devising means of carrying on an intrigue. There were many clandestine meetings, pasisonate letters were written by the girl, and a runaway marriage was decided on. Then Madeleine received the attentions of a wealthy Glasgow merchant many years older than herself, and in the month when she had intended eloping with her Jersey lover she became engaged. She demanded the return of her letters, but L’Angelier' refused. There was some sort of reconciliation, and then followed L’Angelier’s sudden death. In his pocket was found a. letter in the following terms: “Why, my beloved, did you not come to me O! my beloved, are you ill? Come to me, sweet one. “I waited and waited for you, but you came not. . . . Come, beloved, and clasp me to your heart. . . . Ever believe me to be your own ever dear, Mlmi.” Madeleine acknowledged having made various purchases of arsenic, but said that she used it as a cosmetic. After a trial at Edinburgh in 1857, which has become a famous in the annals of crime, the jury brought in a verdict of not proven, and Madeleine was discharged. Madeleine Smith returned to her father’s house at Row, Gareloch, Firth of Clyde, but left soon after, and for at least half a century the public were left to speculate as to her whereabouts. It was believed, however, that she had gone to England and married a professional man in London, had a large family by him, and was the most exemplary of -wives and mothers.