Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-09-06
The smethurst Poisoning Case in England

A very remarkable murder trial has been
attracting much public attention in England,
and has terminated in the conviction of the
accused and his being sentenced to the death
penalty.
The facts as developed by the trial are
these There were two maiden sisters resi-
ding in London named Isabella and Louisa
Bankes. The first named, who was the
victim Of the tragedy, had passed the period
Of life at which the tender passion is sup
posed to have most force. She was forty
three years of age; and yet she fell in love
with retired physician named Thomas
Smethurst man some five years her senior,
and who, to her knowledge had already one
conjugal partner. The wife of Smethurst,
it seems, was an old lady of seventy, who
did not attempt to keep tight rein over her
husband, but assented to the very agreeable
and unusual arrangement that she was to
make no inquiries as to the cause OF the Doc
tors repeated absences from home. All par
ties appear to have been i'll good circumstan.
ces, the Doctor having retired from practice
with a competency, and the two BankeS sis
tiers enjoying each an income Of over Il thou
sand dollars from invested property.
This was the condition of the parties when
they became acquainted, toward the close of
1858, at lodging house where they resided,
in thesuburban village of Bayswater. There
the Doctor and Miss Isabella appear to have
conceived wonderful fondness for each other,
and so little regard did they pay TO appear
ces that the mistress Of the establishment,
with an eye to its good reputation, required
them to find accommodations elsewhere.
Soon after this, at date variously given
in the reports as the 9th, 18th and 18th OF
December. 1858, a marriage was celebrated
between Smethurst and Isabella, at Batter
sea church. 1t has not been explained how
it was that this unfortunate woman was de-
luded into contracting marriage which She
must have understood, from her knowledge
of the existence of Mrs. Smethurst, was void;
but it is supposed that he persuaded her that
his first marriage, contracted in 1873, was
not legal one, and that, rs the old lady was
so far advanced in years, it was not worth
while gong to the trouble Of having it an
nulled in legal form. However it was, they
were married in public church, and took
up their abode at Richmond, in the neigh
borhood Of London. The old lady, mean
while, gave them no trouble asked no qucs-
tons, but continued to occupy her apartments
in Kildare terrace.
Whether it was that SmcthurSt was haun-
ted with fears lest he should be brought to nc.
count for the crime of bigamy, or whether he
loved Miss Bankes' money better than he
loved herself, is one of the secrets in this
case. The motive will, probably, never be
divulged. At all events, lie resolved to get
rid of one of his wives; and, strange to say, 1t
was the youngest and apparently best loved
whom he doomed to death. She became
i'll. Skilful doctors were sent for ami pre-
scribed remedies for the disease, which at
first appeared to be dysentery To their sur
prise, however, the medicines prescribed had
actually no effect whatever. They did not
know what to make of it. Neither yeseta-
bic nor mineral drug appeared to affect the
patient. At length their suspicious were
aroused, and each came to the conclusion,
independently Of the other, that the malady
was not a natural one, and that the medicines
ordered by them were being counteracted by
by an irritant poison. At their request
physician Of great emincncc was summoned,
and he Immediately came to the same conclu-
sion.
1t is to be remarked that during the three
weeks of the woman's illness, Smethurst was
her sole nurse By day and by nj ght he was
by her side, administering food and medicine;
and attending to all the various unpleasant
duties ola sick room. Her sister he kept
from her on the prctcncc that her presence
was a source of irritation. 1t was also very
singular circumstance that during all that
time, no morscl of food or drink ever came
again out of the sick chamber. He accOun-
ted for it by saying thathe himself consumed
what she did not; but the prosecution referred
to it as link i'll the chain Of circumstantlal
evidence against him, tending to show that
all the food and drink We're poisoned, and
that therefore the residue was made away
with by him to guard against discovery
Finally, two days before her death, and on
the Sabbath day, he introduced an attorney
in the sick chamber and had Il will executed
be1ucathing to himself her whole fortune,
between eight and nine thousand dollars
The next day Monday the attending physi-
clans caused him to be arrested on suspicion;
but there was 50 little on which 10 ground
the charge-his person and residence being
searched and no poison diScoyered-that he
was QlSCnarBeu OH Ills OWN IcCOs,iI"hiSc'
But, Immediately after the death OF his VIC
tim, he was again arrested and committed for
trial, and, as we see, has been tried and found
guilty.
In all its aspects this was most remark
able case. The prisoner was convicted al
together on circumstantial evidence. No
traces of poison were found in tie liver or
body, or at least the trace was 50 faint rs to
warrant the COUNSEL for the defence in trying
to have it ascribcd to the ordinary medicines
prescribed by the attending physicians
But, rs in the celebrated case Of Palmer,
and as in the case of Stephens, convicted re.
Gently in this city, the SYMPTOMS exhibited
before death We're regarded rs more conclu-
sive than the tests for poison that were alter
wards applied. All these cases show conclu-
sively that it is no less dangerous for the
murderer to resort to slow, than 1t Is to resort
to rapid poisoning. -Nor lork HeraH.
The Small Pox in Western Africa.
A few days since we had advices that the
small pox was prevailing to an alarming ex-