AN AMERICAN BORGIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3743, 30 September 1886, Page 3

AN AMERICAN BORGIA.

Since tho terrible revelations m the ease of the child murderer and torturer Jesso Pomeroy nothiDg more revolting hns como to light than the charges made ngiiiiift Mrs Sarah J. Robinson, of fc'omerville, a city adjacent to Boston. The woman herself is reported to bo a mild-looking yier.-on, somewhat prominent m society, who has had an exemplary repulatiiu. L'nlil recently no suspicion hus attached to her ; on the other huiul, she was regarded as a pleasant ludy, aud was even the object of public sympathy, aroused by tininroads of death m her family. It is now charged nij.iinst this woman upon strong testimony lhat she has successfully poisoned' her hu*bai:d, her ten-year-old chm^'lif.-r, her sister, sister's husband, and two children, anothor daughter, and recently her last remaining child, it young man of twenty-four, was lying iv a critical condition. It is even believed by some lhat she lately poisoned a whole picnic party of 100 people by mixing arsenic with their ice-cream, but this docs not rest upon proof, r.or is it likely to have been the case, as there is an entire absence of motive urging her to destroy tho pleusureseckers. In her household murders, however, the motive is very apparent, and is clearly tr.icfftblo to her over-weening gree;l fur money. Each ono oC the victims of her poisoning operations was insured for £400 m a mutual benefit lifo insurance company known us (lie United Older of Pilgrim Fathers ; and it is alleged to be susceptible of proof that m each case, by tho aid of a malo nec.Miupliro, slic succeeded m having the insurance so adjusted tint the money came to her. This Somervillc woman deliberately killed her victims for money ; and nearly all were children, either her own or thoso of relatives who were dead, and towards whom she stood m the position of guardian. It was deliberately followed as a money- making business, nnd all her arrangements wore curried out with coolness and craft. Sho docs not even scorn t.i have beon actuated by a homicidal mania, as was the case with Jesse Pomeroy, who was undoubtedly as irresponsible for his brutalities as a wild animal. Her crimes were planned with tho utmost coolness and deliberation, aud wero committed at long intervals of time, so as not to rouse suspicion, ! m which she win aided by tho fact that so | many of her victims wero children, whose deaths do not attract as much attention us those of elderly persons. The Albany IZrenin// Journal, m discussing the easo, calls attention to another startling fact m this connection. It says that " graveyard insurance has given 'place to child insurance among prevalent insurance crimes, " and that during the present summer several instances have been reported m Pennsylvania, tho Ohio, and m some of the Southern States. — Chiviti/o Tribune.