The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-02-01 00:00:00

AN AMERICAN MURDERESS.

A meet extraordioary and terrible career of crime
has been brought to light br America, through the
voluntary confession, by Lydia Sherman, (kuown
the "Connecticut Buogia,") of New Haves, Con-
necticut, thot ehe has been guilty of an almost no.
preielented saries of diabolical murders. The at,
mum:Mg story in the N 1.14, York Herald of tha
131 i inst. would appear to be almost ineredible were it
reit that the facia coutaiueil therein are stningly
sin-
firmed by circumetancee. The woman had been trieil
and convicted for causing the death of her third hus-
band, Mr. Sherman; but, an she was only found guilty
of murder in the second degree, the sentence pro.
trounced upon her on the Ifltit inst. was one of im-
prisonment for life, Judge Sanford, who tiled her,
at the same time intimating his regret that he could
sot send her to the scaffold instead of to the State
Prison. At the conclusion of the trial the prisoner
SVILS taken bark to New Haven Gaol, where she had
bi en confined for the past eighteen months, anil where,
according to her own statement., she had been kindly
treated by Mr. Webster, the gaoler, and his wife. To
the fernier, and subsequently to other persons, she
volunteered to give the " full story of her life." In re-
lating the horrible narrative she evinced a stolid de-
meanour, occasionally breaking out into a sort of
titter, and apparently il welling with satisfaction on the
relation of crimes tee, shocking almost to realise.
The miserable woman said that she was forty-Eight
years of age, and that she was born near the town of
Burlington, N.J. She was brought up to the trade of
a Whines., mill worked for a man trained Owen in New
Erruswick. While there she became acqueinteit with
her " tiret victim, ' Mr. Edward Struck. to whom
she was married shortly afterwards. They then
went to Yorkville, where Struck worked at his
trade as a carriage blacksmith, and where she hail
her first child. Afterwards they lived at New
York and ethic places together for about four-
teen years, several children being born. Struck
then joined the police force, sad was sent to M tn.
hattanville, where the prisoner encountered what
she calle I her "first trouble," as Struck WAS lie•
charged from the force on • charge of cowardice. The
man after this declined to try and get any work, Furl
would lie in bed for weeks t gether, declining to see a
doctor, and saying that he was not ill. Finally he ap-
peared toga out of his mind, and at lard, acting on the
mivice of a police sergeant with whom the woman had
formed an acquaintance, she revolved upon "putting
him out of the way." The culprit describes the murder
of her husband, and then of her children, in the follow.
lug terms

"My husband at the time was getting worse and
worse, and I was tempted to go and buy arsenic. I
came home and made some oatmeal gruel, and put in
it about half a thimbleful of arsenic, and stirred it in
well. Then I gave it to my husband to drink, and he
drank of it several times dining the afternoon. He
was then taken sick, with purging. I sent for Dr.
Jackson, of l'armansville, and he came In the evening
Ile asked Mr. Struck how he felt, but he did not speak
to him. The doctor stayed a short time, and left with
me two white powders, and t ,14 nie to give them to him
during the night. When the doctor went away I went
with him to the door, and asked him if he thought Mr.
Struck was very dangerous. He maid th at he w is very sick,
that he thought he had softening of the brain, and that
he would never get well again. That night he war very
bad, and I was up with him all the time. Tower Is
morning be began to fail very fast, and about eight
o'clock in the morning he died. It was in May this
occurred, and I continued to keep house. I had
nothing to live upon, and I became discouraged. The
children could do nothing for me or for themeelves.
The let of July I moved into another louse in the vii-
loge. I had two little children, Martha Ann, six years
old, and Edward, four years old. I thought that I
could not gt along and eupport them, and I came to
the conchision that it would be better for them if they
were out of the way. I thought the matter over for
eeveral d 53 s, I was much di coura4ed and downhearted.
I gave them only a little poison at • time, and after I gave
it to them I was afraid they would die, and pent for
Dr. Oviatt. When he canie he told me that they h4d
the gastric fever, noel he doctored them for a few days.
'I hen I sent for Dr. Jackson. He told tne that they
were very sick, and be thought they would not live.
Next morning Martha Aim die I. She was taken with
vomiting soon after I gave her the arsenic, and was
afflicted in that way until she died. The doctors said
nothing to indicate that they knew what was the
matter, Edward was affected in the same manner. He
was sick at the atomach and vomited frequently.
In the evening Edward died. Ile was a beautiful
boy, and did not complain during his illness.
The doctors had no suspicion in this man either,
and I rid not hear of airy ./1113 having any. I continued
to keep the house, and had with me four children at
the time. I got work by nursing and sewing. At this
time my son, George Whitfield, woe fourteen years
old. lie was employed in painting by • men, and was
able to emu Idols. 50 cents a week. In the latter part
of the summer, C think in August, he was taken sick,
and I milt for Dr. Oviatt, lie called to see him, and
said he was sick with the paititelis colic, and be could
net work at the paint'eg busine n any longer, lie did
not improve, and as be was continually growing worm I
got discouraged. I thought he wool-I become a burden
neon me, and I mice lup sonic arsenic in his tea. I
think be died the next day. He was afflicted like the
others, but during all the time the doctor thought be had
the painter's colic, and that lie died of it. I gave him
the arsenic because I was discourawed. I know now
that that is not much of an excue, but I felt s r much
trouble that I did not think about that. After the
burial of George I went to Dr. Oviatt's, and he mom.
mended me to plara ft to do nureing. and 1 went out to
tide work all the time. I left Ann Eliza at home,
and Lydia alert stayed at home a portion of the time.
She was at work in a dry goods store in Riviera, and
was at the time eighteen years old. She boarded with
me, and it was so far for her to walk that she could
not stand it, and gave it up. Then she to d a situation
to do work on bonnet frames sent from New York, and
we worked at home together.

"A young man named John Smith kept company
with Lydia at this time, and called upon her quite
often. My little daughter Ann Enna was with me,
and I thought if I-could get rid of her that Lydia and
myself could make a living. This was in March —I do
not remember the date. We had had a hard winter. I
had no one to leave her with. I was discouraged. She
had been unwell with chills and fever, and was con-
tinually sick from time to time. I was downhe sited and
much discouraged. I had ROM eof the arsenic in the house
I purchased in Harlem, and I got some medicine for her at
the druggist's, and mix, d some of the arsenic in it and
gave it to her. I think I gave it to her twice. She was
taken pick AR the others were. She was sick four days.
I sent for Dr. Rosenstein, and he attended her. die
said she had a fever. She died about noon, and was
the happiest child I ever saw. Mr. Edward Rayson
was continually at her bedside until her death. The
arsenic I used at all these times was part of that I
got at Harlem for my husband. I did not buy any but
once."

Another daughtf r appears to have been allowed to
die a natural death, and Mrs. Sherman, after many
vicissitudes, WELJ3 married for the second time to •
widower named Hurlhurt, with whom she at first
went to live am housekeeper for about fourteen months.
Her second husband began to get feeble, and he was
coon seized with sym ;toms similar to those that had
attended all the former victims. There may havebeen
arsenic in some of his drink, she said, but she never
gave him any "to her knowledge." The story of the
death of her third husband, Mr. Sherman, and the ad-
mission of previously having poisoned "little Franky "
and Sherman's daughter " Ada " completes this most
horrible history.