The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-21 00:00:00

THE KEIGHLEY POISONING CASE.

FURTHER STARTLING DISCLOSURES-
APPREHENSION OF ANN BLAND.
KEIGHLEY, WEDNESDAY EVENING.

John Sagar, the late workhouse master of this
union, was again placed in the dock of the Keigh-
ley Court-house this morning, on suspicion of being
concerned in the murder of his wife, Barbara Sagar,
who died recently from poisoning by arsenic. The
prisoner, who is a short, square-built fellow, of
middle age, and with countenance " villanously
low," was defended by Mr. Wasney, barrister, who
was instructed by Mr.. Burr, solicitor.
On Monday, the 14th December, Mrs. Sagar
was taken suddenly ill. Her usual medical atten-
dant, Mr. Milligan, was not called in until Tues-
day afternoon, and when he did see her he only
considered her to be suffering from inflammatory
action of the stomach, and treated her with saline
and. aperient draughts accordingly. One of these
saline draughts was an effervescing mixture, and
required two bottles to make it. From Tuesday
till the death of the deceased on Saturday morning
evidence has already been called to show that the
deceased was exceedingly sick after taking some-
thing out of a bottle kept by her husband, and that
this something was not taken out of the two regular
bottles of medicine, but out of another bottle, and
did not effervesce. On Wednesday evening the niece
of the deceased, a young girl named Mary Ann
Scarbro, was in the bedroom when Mrs. Sagar had
just been taking the mixture from the hands of the
prisoner. As was usual, the deceased immediately
threw up the stuff, and then exclaimed, " Oh, I
can't take this medicine, it almost burns my inside
out." The prisoner then went down stairs, and
while he was away, deceased said to Mary Ann
Scarbro, "Oh, he has killed me 1" When prisoner
came up stairs again, shortly afterwards. he gave
his wife some more mixture out of the bottle, and
the deceased vomited it immediately, and was so
exhausted that it was some moments before she
came to herself. As Mrs. Sagar again complained
of the medicine burning her throat, Mary Ann
Scarbro asked to be allowed to taste it. Prisoner
gave her a spoon to hold, took down the efferves-
cing mixture and the jalap, and poured it into the
spoon, and told Mary Ann Scarbro to drink it while
it boiled. Deceased, who was then in bed, saw the
proceeding, and immediately exclaimed, "That is
not the stuff he gives me ; my medicine does not
boil." Prisoner therefore took the other bottle
from the top of the organ, and went down stairs
with it. When he returned he produced another
bottle, which he said he had obtained from Mr.
Milligan, and some of it was given to his wife.
After taking a dose of this new preparation do-
ceased did not vomit, and was not again sick until
Thursday morning, when the prisoner administered
another dose to her. From this time until Friday
afternoon prisoner always administered "medicine"
to his wife, and she was as regularly and conse-
quently sick. On Friday afternoon Mr. Millig in
saw that Mrs. Sagar was getting worse, but still did
not suspect from what she was suffering. He now
apprehended that erysipelas might supervene, and
treated her accordingly. Before he left the work-
house on that afternoon he told the prisoner that
his wife was worse, and told him also to send down
for some medicine directly, and to apprise him if
any change for the worse took place before ten
o'clock that evening. A little after ten o'clock the
prisoner, who had been previously told by his sister
that Mrs. Sagar was much worse, presented himself
at the surgery of Mr. .Milligan, and said that his
wife was about the same, and that she was no worse
than she was in the afternoon, Another change
took place in the condition of the deceased after
midnight on Friday, and about four o'clock on
Saturday morning the woman expired, no one at-
tending her last moments except the prisoner and
his own sister, that no intimation of the alteration
being given to Mr. Milligan. The subsequent
stages of the drama have been already reported.
An inquest was held on the body, the jury found
that the deceased bad died from the administration
of arsenic—but by whom given there was no evi-
dence to show—and the prisoner, who had until
then been in custody, was discharged. The sus-
picions against Sagar, however, were of so grave a
character, and the new evidence which oozed out
was of so much importance, that it led the magi-
strates to take the matter in hand, and Sagar was
again arrested. The body of the poor woman was
exhumed, and the stomach and its contents exposed
to a series of elaborate analyses by Mr. Morley (who
was similarly concerned, it will be remembered,
in the case of William Dove), and the result
of that gentleman's investigations led him to
the conclusion that Mrs. Sagar had died from
arsenic, which had been internally administered.
During the course of the investigation it has been
elicited that the prisoner was in the habit of brutally
abusing his wife ; that on the Saturday previous to
her death he had "licked" her so cruelly as to leave
her insensible against the drawers for four hours ;
that on another occasion a dressmaker found the
poor wife chained and handcuffed to the bedpost,
in such a manner as to incapacitate her from either
sitting, standing upright, lying down, or of kneel-
ing ; that she had frequently expressed herself to
be in fear of her life from the violence of her hus-
band ; that during the fatal week she told several
witnesses that the prisoner was poisoning her, and
requested them to break the bottle she suspected ;
that the whole family of the prisoner, nine children
in all, had died off before they were older than four
years of age each ; that Mrs. Sagar was of the
opinion that they had been put out of the way ; and
finally, that Sagar himself, from having once kept
a druggist's shop at Cullingworth, must have been
familiar with the use of deadly drugs. A circum-
stance in his favour we must not omit to state :
the possession of any arsenic has not hitherto been
traced to him. In the elucidation of a dreadful
crime like murder it is natural to ascertain whether
or not any party is interested in the removal of the
murdered person ; and if so, what is the actuating
motive. In the case before us certain disclosures
of a character truly infamous seem to throw a little
light upon the matter. The prisoner appears to lie
one of those beastly sensualists whole passions are
more than human, and who are always in search of
new quarry for their depraved appetite. And this
is the most extraordinary part of the case. Not
only do we find the poor wife, herself the slave and
the victim of her husband, calmly suffering the
most cruel injustice which a man can commit upon
his partner in life, but by way of securing her own
immunity from his detestable treatment we actually
find the deceased aiding and instigating him in the
practice of infamy. The evidence of Ann Bland,
a girl of 22, aed a daughter of one of the members
of the board of guardians, is a disgrace to any civi-
lised commenity. She coolly tells the Court that,
so long back as four years ago, Mrs. Sagar wanted
her to sleep in the nuptial bed along with herself
and her husband. Ann consented, passed the night
oil tahrree et oo
between Sagar and h's cruelly-used wif', and lost
her virtue. The same a' rocious outrage w repeated
When, however, M s
her occasions, always at the request, if
to some forriebetuhdlei:w_ve Anti Than of the deceased.
Saga. leaves home on a vi-it
,keil
ihas h e
r beenc
absence,on sti te ec (11
declines
to Alan) the bedAoo;frth. eparols:ue. r. " She thought it
toalso stated that several other
wife would notTh
ibsewriitguheesso in the absence of his
girls had been " procured" for the prisoner
by the deceased, and names and dates
are given.
As this witness, in common with her fatherBgiven s
mother, gave very reluctant evidence, and.
tale is supported by the general t,nour of the dee
positions, we do not see any reason to doubt her
veracity. This being so, we leave the matter, fully-
assured that our readers will draw their owe con-
clusions.

WEDNESDAY EVENING.

Sagar was, to-day, committed to the York
Assizes, for the wilful murder of his wife, Barbara
Sagar, by arsenic.