DEVOTED SISTERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 1, 3 January 1939, Page 2

DEVOTED SISTERS

TEXTS PRINTED IN GOLD IN HAIR AND ON DOG COLLARS LONDON, Nov. 28. Miss Minnie Louise Bennett, who attempted to starve herself to death when her sister died in 1931, has died in Brighton, aged 63. She is believed to have left a large estate. She and her sister, Miss Florence Mabel Bennett, lived in a house tilled with framed Biblical quotations, statues and pictures of sacred subjects. Sven years ago crowds surrounded their home when it was reported that one of the sisters was dead. Miss Minnie Bennett opened the door to the police. She said she believed her sister was dead upstairs. “We have had nothing to eat or drink for 12 days,” she said. She was taken to hospital and forcibly fed. A letter written by her sister stated: “We have been too weak to go to bed for 20 nights.” In hospital Miss Minnie Bennett asked to be allowed to die to join her sister. Both women dressed in white cloaks,, fastened with religious symbols. Over the gate leading to the house was a crucifix and a scriptural text. Miss Florence Bennett's hair was found, on her death, to be done up with religious texts printed in gold. Other texts were fastened to the collars of two Pomeranian dogs.