FARM TRAGEDY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20283, 5 December 1935, Page 2

FARM TRAGEDY

WOMAN POISONS HUSBAND Found guilty of murdering her third husband with poison, Mrs Elizabeth Tilford, a Durham woman, was sentenced to death recently, at Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. This was the end of a sensational trial which had lasted about a week. Mrs Tilford, aged 50, a native of Stockton, County Durham, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Anne Kaye, was charged with murdering her husband, Tyrrell Tilford, a teamster, who came from Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, by administering arsenic to him. The defence was a contention that Tilford had committed suicide. The jury were out for six hours before bringing in the verdict of guilty. Then Mr Justice Kingstone delivered sentence of death, ordering that Mrs Tilford be hanged on December 17. The condemned woman, who had sobbed throughout the final speech of her senior counsel to the jury, presented a pitiful appearr.-ice in the dock as sentence was passed. Her tear-stained face blanched and she seemed about to collapse. While the defence called no witnesses, the prosecution had 33 witnesses, most of whom told of declarations by Tilford that he was being poisoned by his wife. The most pathetic witness was Mrs Mary Tilford, aged 76, mother of the murdered man, with whom he went to Canada, 15 years ago. In a voice often broken with emotion she related how, while Tilford lay dying on a couch in her home, he accused his wife of poisoning him. “He told me,” said the tragic mother, “‘I know I’m getting arsenic. Lizzie (Mrs Tilford) is giving it to me. She has killed two husbands and I’m the third, but I am sure she will kill no more’.” The elder Mrs Tilford added that several members of the family who were at the bedside at the time admonished the dying man for accusing his wife and tried to pacify him, but he persisted. The mother also described how Tilford, when his wife came to see him, burst out at her;—“lizzie, you are poisoning me. You know you are.”