POISONING CASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20931, 10 January 1938, Page 14

POISONING CASE

MYSTERY OF BRAVO

A CURIOUS AFFAIR Florence Ricardo, a wealthy, fascinating widow, still in her twenties, dwelt at Balham. on the outskirts of London, says a writer in the “Sunday Times.” Among her suitors was a young Oxford graduate, Charles Bravo, a handsome, clever, promising barrister, the only son of a wealthy mother. Bravo proposed to the charming widow, but before she w T ould agree to accept him she subjected herself to a painful, humiliating ordeal exacted cf her by a paid companion—Mrs Cox — dwelling in her house. Mrs Cox wielded an uncanny influence over the young widow, a power which had induced Mrs Ricardo to confess to her a secret liaison which, since her husband's death, she had had with Dr Gulley, an eminent physician over sixty years of age. And W’hen young Bravo asked the widow to marry him, Mrs Cox persuaded her to confess this intrigue to her suitor. It was to Mr Bravo’s credit that he readily forgave his tearful sweetheart, promising upon his own initiative never to refer again to that chapter of her otherwise innocent life. So the young couple were married, and Mrs Cox continued to live with her employer. The Bravos now had every prospect for happiness and prosperity. They were both blessed with youth, health, wealth, and cleverness, and. what was more than any of these assets, a passionate love for each other. But their happiness was not of long standing. No sooner had they settled down than the husband became seized with an almost insane jealousy of his wife’s past. Repeatedly he fell into fits of brooding, followed by periods when he would taunt his bride with that period of her life which he had solemnly agreed never to mention. Again and again she assured him of her constancy to him, which he never doubted, and the more his love for her grew the greater his jealousy developed along with it. One spring morning, after the couple had been married about six months, Mrs Bravo drove her husband to his office in London, and during the drive he reopened the painful subject of her former adventure. Seeing that he had caused his wife to weep, he became remorseful, begging her to kiss him. which at first she refused to do. but presently she yielded, and they had an unusually happy reconciliation.

In London that day Bravo had luncheon with a friend, who thought him in the best of health and spirits. Returning home early, he went for a horseback ride, and his mount bolted with him and shook him up somewhat; but, although complaining of the accident. he dressed for dinner, as did his wife and her companion, and the three sat down to an unusually pleasant meal. The Bravos retired early to their adjoining rooms, and some time after the wife had fallen asleep her companion from another part of the house was alarmed by hearing Bravo call to his wife. “Florence! Florence! Hot water!” Found Him in Agony Mrs Cox, responding to the alarm, found Bravo in great agony and Mrs Bravo still asleep in her room. She awakened the wife, who immediately came to her husband’s assistance. The sick man lay streched upon the floor near a window, and to his bride he muttered that he was in great agony, and she immediately sent for physicians, and after three had arrived she sent into London for a fourth, the noted consultant, Sir William Gull, who promptly responded to her call.

Obtaining from Bravo a confession that he had taken laudanum for neuralgia of the lower jaw. Sir William accused the sick man of having taken some stronger drug, but the sufferer only muttered:

“I swear I have only taken laudanum, and I can tell you nothing more.” Repeatedly the great physician importuned his patient to clear up the mystery, but Bravo in his last statement said: “Before God, it was only laudanum!” Throughout his suffering he treated his wife with the tenderest affection and called for her whenever she went out of sight. His behaviour towards Mrs Cox w’as also kindly, and his entire attitude was that of a man unaware of the soui'ce of his suffering. After fifty hours of agony he died, and the post-mortem proved that he had been poisoned, not by laudanum, but by 40 grains of antimony, or tartar emetic. The Second Inquest After the Coroner’s jury had returned an open verdict that left the mystery unsolved, some of the dead barrister’s legal friends petitioned the Government for a special inquiry, Which was granted. This second inquest lasted twenty-three days, and cost an enormous sum. spent, not only by the Crown, but by the respective families of Mr and Mrs Bravo.

Forty-three witnesses were examined and the dead man’s solicitor offered a reward of £5OO for information showing where the antimony had been obtained.

Some of the mast famous legal minds in Great Britain represented the t™o families, and so important was the case that the Government sent the Attorney-General himself to crossexamine the witnesses.

The only sensation of the hearing was sprung by Mrs Cox, who stated that the dying man confessed to her, “I have taken poison for Dr Gulley (Mrs Bravo's former cavalier). Don’t tell Florence!”

All England waited with bated breath for the verdict of the jury, which remained out two hours and a half. This verdict was:

“We find that Mr Charles Delauney Turner Bravo did not commit suicide; that he did not meet his death by misadventure; that he was wilfully murdered by the administration of tartar emetic, but that there is not sufficient evidence to fix the guilt upon any person or persons.”

No one was ever tried for Bravo’s mysterious death. The fact that the aged Dr Gulley’s wife was still living seemed to dispose of any motive that Mrs Bravo might have had for the disposal of her husband. After the verdirt the police offered a large reward for evidence leading to the conviction of the murderer or murderers, but no further light was ever thrown upon th case, which so sorely distressed Mrs Bravo that she went into a decline, suffering a very painful death within a year after her husband’s demise.