POISON BY POST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8573, 15 March 1906, Page 2

POISON BY POST.

A CURIOUS CONFESSION OF INTENDED MURDER. Walking into Epsom police station early one morning in January, a mid-dle-aged man named Richard Nickolds said he wished to give himself up for sending some oxalio acid to his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Towndrow, an -inmate of the Manor Asylum, so that, she might poison herself. Subsequently he said he posted two , letters, one to his sister and one to the superintendent of Claybury Asy--1 lum, but he was not sure which he put the poison in. On being searched, some oxalic acid was found on him, and also ; a letter addressed to the magistrates, in which he declared that both his , parents had died insane. The police hurried to the Manor Asylum, where Towndrow' s clothes were \ searched, but no poison was found. A nurse said she was present when the 1 letter was received, but it contained no enclosure. Nickolds was charged before the magistrates later in the day with intending to commit murder, when Inspector Vine, said that while on his way to the court the prisoner stated that there was mo oxalic acid in either letter. Nickolds was remanded.