The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-20 00:00:00

BR!'

IGHTON POISONING CASE.

The trial of Christiana Edmunds for several
alleged attempts to commit murder by poisoning was
specially fixed to take place on Monday morning, at
the Central Criminal Court, ba London, and the pro-
ceedings appeared to excite very great interest. Mr.
Baron Martin took his seat on the bench at ten o'clock,
and the prisoner was then placed at the bar. She was
described in the calendar SR being thirty-four years of
age, and of no occupation. She was first arraigned
for the wilful murder of Sidney Albert Barker.
The. prisoner was allowed to be seated during the

triaL
Serjeant Ballantine, in opening the rase for the pro-
secution, said the prisoner was a lady of property
at Brighton, and the allegation against her was that
she had distributed poisoned eweetimmite in all direc-
thane about the town of Brighton, and by this means
had caused the death of one little boy, and had very
nearly occasioned the death of several other persons.
The case was "removed from the county of Sussex by
the application of the prisoner's legal advisers, on ac-
count of the excitement that prevailed in the county.
The grand jury at Lewes found three bilLs against the
prisoner for attempting to murder and one for actually
committing that offence, and they were all removed
into this court to be disposed of.
Mr. Miller, uncle of the deceased boy, said I knew the
deceased, Sidney Balker, during his lifetime. In June last
we were stay ing in Brighton, and on the 12th of June, I
purchased some chocolate creams at the shop of Mr. Maynard,
a confectioner, at Brighton. I gave the little boy, Sidney,
one of these creams on the same day, and he ate it. About
ten minutes afterwards the child began to cry, and his limbs
became stiff, and in oboist twenty minutes he died. Up to the
hour of his having the chocolate cream he appeared
to be quite well. late some of the chocolates myself in
the morning, and about ten minutes afterwards I felt a
noel in nip eyes, and a coppery taste in my throat, and my
limbs gradually became stiff and my bones seemed "all
one." I endeavoured to rouse myself, but was unable to do
so. I became better, and sat down to dinner, when the
same symptoms returned. I went to a doctor and he saw
me, but the little boy was dead before he came. He was
him years old. My brother tasted some of the creams and
discovered a peculiar coppery taste, and he spat them out.
Dr Richard Rugg said On the 12th of June I was called
In to see the deceased, and found him in strong convulsions.
I gave him an emetic, but It did not operate, and he died
about eight minutes after I lint saw him. I made a post-
mortem examination on the following day. The organs of
the body were generally healthy, and the brain exhibited
the appearance usually observed in caBe of death by con-
vulsions. The body was unusually rigid, but I was unable
to discover any cause of death. I had never seen the opera-
tion of strychnine.
Miller said Os the same evening my brother pur-
chased the chocolates I went again to Mr. Maynard's shop
and purchased.some chocolates of the same description, and
I afterwards handed them to Inspector Gibbs.
Dr. Ilenry Letheby lam a professor of chemistry, and
well acquainted with the nature of poisons. I have heard
the description of the boy'e death, and also the description
of the symptoms of his uncle. They are the symptoms of
poisoning by strychnine. A packet of chocolate creams was
1 handed to me by Inspector Gibbs, and I analyzed the con-
tents. I aacertained that some of them contained strychnine,
hut I cannot state the exact quantity. I believe, however,
that they contained altogether a quarter of a grain, which
was a quantity sufficient in Bonin eases to kill an adult. A
sixteenth part of a grain Is sufficient to kill a child. I after-
wards examined the contents of ajar that was handed tome,
and I discovered a quarter of a grain of strychnine in thesis.
The jar contained the contents of the stomach of the
deceased.
Mr. Garrett, a chemist et Brighton, said : I know the
prisoner, and for some years she has been in the habit of
dealing at my shop. I did not know her name. She came
to my shop on the 2Sth of March, and first purchased some
articles for the toilet, and she then asked me U I could
supply her with a little strychnine for the purpose of destroy-
-1 log cats. I objected strongly to let her have any at first,
but she said she had a garden, and the eats destroyed the
seeds in her garden, and pressed me to let herhave some. She
said she was a married wffinan, and had no children, and there
was no fear of mischief, as the poison would never go out of
her hands or those of her husband. I ultimately supplied
her with ten grains of strychnine, hut I required her to bring
a witness. She said the only person she knew in the neigh-
bourhood was Mrs. Stone, and she left the shop and fetched
Mrs. Stone, and upon her arrival' made the entry of the sale
in my book, and it was signed Hest by the prisoner and then
by Mrs. Stone. (Entry was read.) The prisoner gave the
name of Mrs. Wood, and her address as Hill-aide, King-
ston, Surrey. The prisoner came to me afterwards and
said that she had used the strychnine, and had thrown
the paper away. On the 15th of April the prisoner
came to me again and said that the poison had not
acted, and I gave her ten grains more, and she signed my
boil:, and said that the purpose she wanted the poison for '
was to kill a dog. On the 9th of June I received a paper
from a little boy, purporting to he signed by Menem Glaisher
and Kemp, chemists, asking me to supply them with a quarter
of an ounce et strychnine. (The paper was put in and read.,
I wrote a note back to Messrs. Glaisher and Kemp, and gave
it to the boy who brought the order, and he returned in about
twenty minutes or half an hour with another lett, enclosing
a half-crown, and I enclotted one drachm of strychnine in a
bottle and labelled anti sealed it, and handed it with the
change to the boy. I remember the inquest being held upon
the deceased boy, and on the 14th if July I received a letter
Imrporting to come from the borough coroner asking me to
send him my register of poisonous drugs sold by me at the
woe time the letter staled that the application was not in
reference to anything sold by me, but the book was wanted
in reference to atiother inquiry. I gave the messenger the
bot,k, and he brought it back to me, and a few days after-
wards I missed a leaf. It was the leaf immediately pre-
ceding the elanea relating to the sale to Mrs. Wood. I did
not see the priaoner again until she was in custody at the
police-court.
Cross-examined t I knew her very well, and had not the
slightest difficulty in identifying her. She had been a
customer of mine for four years, and Iliad been in the habit
of supplying her with articles for the toilet.
By the Court Messrs. Gleisher and Kemp are Chemists.
Mr. Black Is the borough coroner. He is also a solicitor.
Mrs. Caroline Stone : I formerly carried on the business of
a dressmaker and milliner at Brighton. My residence was
three doors from the shop of Mr. Garrett. I was present in
his shop when some strychnine was soil by Min. The person
to whom it was sold, who I cannot positively identify as the
prisoner, cams to my shop and told me that she had neuralgia
ill the face, and she was going to Mr. liarrett'e to get some
stud for it. She pnrchased a " and paid for it and left.
She returned in about tit a minutes, rani thim said that she
wished me to do her a great favour, which was to
go and sign the book at Mr. Garrett's in order that
she might obtain some poison for Attiring birds.
She said that she and her hushand were naturalists, and lived
at Kingston, near Brighton. I went with her and signed the
book at Mr. Garrett's. I afterwards accompanied her a
second time to Mr. Garrett's shop, and she had a second
supply of poison. I did not hear the word strychnine made
use of; What she said that she wanted was "poison."
Mr. Thomas Glazier, of the firm of Glazier and Kemp,
having examined the documents alleged to be their order
for strychnia, said they had not come front his establish-
ment, and had not been authorised by him. Mr. David
Black, the other Brighton coroner, said the letter purport-
ing to come from him was not written by him or by his
authority.
Adam May, examined by Mr. Serjeant Ballantine, said,
—I am 11 years old, and live with my father and mother in
Btighton. I shall be 11 on the Ist of May. I see the lady
at the bar. I have seen her before—at the top of King-
street, Brighton. I think I first saw her in Portland-
street. I remember her on that occasion asking me
if I would go on an errand for her. I said I would.
She asked me to go to Mr. Maynard's shop and get her
six pennyworth of large chocolate creams, and she gave
me ed. for that purpose. I went and asked a young woman
serving in the shop for six pennyworth of large chocolate
creams. She took them from a large glass case and put them
in a paper bag. wlilch she gave to me. I noticed that they
were large. I went hack to the lady who sent see; she was
then walking up and down near the bottom of Portland-
street. I gave her the bag, and she undid it, and then all
it up again, saying they were not the right sort. I
returned to the same shop and brought back a sixpenny
box of small creams and gave them to her. She said they
were the right sort, and gave me a large piece of chocolate
cream which she took from a paper she had in her hand
when I came hack. She then went down North-street, and
I saw the same lady again about three months afterwards
at the top of K ingstreet. She inquired of me if I would
go an errand for her. I asked if I could go and aek my
mother. She said "Yea," I went and asked her, and then
went the errand for the lady. It was to take a note to Mr.
Garrett, the chemist. I took it and brought hack something
Ilk,' a book in a brown paper parcel. I found the lady not
ln the place I had left her, but in Duke-street, and gave the
parcel to het. She gave me 45,1. I did not see her my
more that day. On another occasion, some time afterwards,
met her and she gave ice some bull's-eyes." It waii
between ten and twelve in the day when I went first for the

Anne Meadows said she was shopwoman at Mr. Maynard's
In May and June last, aml knew the little boy May. About
the beginning of June he came and asked for six penny-
worth of chocolate creams—the best French. they were
large. She took them front a Oats case, which was
divided into compartments, one of which contained the
large size. The boy left the shop with them, and
returned in about ten minutes. She had put them
in a paper bag and twisted it up. He brought the
bag with him, and she replaced the creams in the same par-
tition as she had taken them from. He asked for a sixpenny
box of creams. They were English, and smaller. She re-
membered a young man named Miller calling at the shop
about a week after she had served May with the crouton.
The compartments of the glass case were Sad up
every morning, whatever remaining in them before being
still kept in them. Miller came on the Momlay. No creams
had been added that morning, anti she believed that parti-
cular compartment was then almost empty. She thought
she quite emptml it in giving the quarter of a pound to
Miller. He left with them. Four other yonng women
served at the counter besides witness, and Mrs. Maynard
occasionally served in Chrintsnas time. Witness filled the
compartment up from the regular stock after Miller lead
made the purchase. Next morning some of the creams in
that compartment were taken out to be analyzed, but not all
of them.
Kate Page, an attendant in Mr. Maynard's shop, said she
remembered a boy named George Brooks coming there on
the filth of May and serving Mtn with an ounce of toter.
pearly creams. Before she served him she had given cer-
tain instructions to a person named Parker, and she saw
Parker follow him out of the shop. She had employed a
man immed Schooley to watch boys who came to buy choco-
late creams. The boy Beaks had come for two ounces of
hreepenny creams, and she had supplied them. He came
back and asked to have them changed for a shilling's-worth
of the best. She noticed that slew of them were broken, and
those she put in the broken drawer.
Cliarles Schooley, an assistant to Mr. Maynard, said his
attention had been called to two boys svho had c.ble to the
shop. lie bad befere that seen some chocolates brought
back to the shop by a boy, and had intoenseqesenco followed
the boy to the top of North-street, and area them given to
the prisoner.
George Bmmks, a boy, living in ilussellstreet. Brighton,
laid he remembered a lady speaking to hio in rinnbourne.
street, Brighton, about the middle of last year. He after.
wards saw her at the police-court. She asked him to.go to
Mr. Maynard's and get an ounce of chocolate creams,
giving him ed. to pay for them, and telling him tel bring
them back to her. He went and got the creams with two-
pence change, and gave them to the lady with the change.
She gave him a penny for his trouble. Another boy went
with him.
A boy named William Guy, 12 years old, gave similar evi-
dence as to having purchased three ounces of chocolate
creams in April last at Nlaynard's shop for the prisoner and
taking them to her In a neighbouring street.
Mr. John Goddard Maynard said he was now nearly
blind. He had carried on business as a confectioner in
West-street, Brighton, for more than 25 years. fie did not
make the creams at that time. Mr. Cadbury and Mr. Ware
manufactured them for him. He had sold such creams in
large quantHies in Brighton for many years—ever since they
were introduced. In February or April last the prisoner
made a complaint to him about the creams, which she said
were bad, and had nearly poisoned one of her friends. She
mid a gentleman, a friend of hers, intended to have them
analyzed. Witness replied he wished she would. His wife
on that occasion ate one in her presence. He never heanl
that the prisonerhad them analyzed. Ile had never had in
his establishment strychnine or poison of any kind, and he
could not tell how poison had found its way into any of the
cresols.
Mr. George Robert Ware, a chocolate manufacturer for
33 years. said he had supplied Mr. Maynard for Is or 20
years with chocolate creams, and no complaint had ever
reached witness as to any deleterious matter in them. He
kept no strychnia or any other kind of poison on his pro-
mises.
Mr. David Black, the Brighton Coroner, was called. and
proved that the inquest on the hody of the boy Barker was
begun on the 13th of June and adjourned to the 22nd of June.
Os that occasion the primmer volunteered to give evidence.
She said " I bought some chocolate cream at Mr. Maynard's
In September last. A young woman now present sold
them to me. I ate two of those which I bought. I did