Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1865-09-09
News and miscellany.



Recently the British journals have
been giving the most narrowing details
of the Borgian practices of DIR. Prich-
ard who was hung at Glasgow for pois-
oning his wife, while exhibiting the
manifestation of the most ardent affec-
ton. To this they have added case
still more revolving, that of Stevens
Forward, a baker of Ramsgate, who
poisoned three little children of the ages
of ten, eight and six, from the appre-
hension that they would come to want,
and afterward murdered his little girl
and wife. The mau Forward seems to
have entertained the idea that he was
performing a blessing to these children
by sending them out of the world
But these cases. horrible as they are,
bear no comparison To the fright
full revelations concerning a Mrs. Mar
tia Grinder, of Allegheny City, oppo-
site Pittsburg. Her poisoning opera
tions have been carried on for the past
two wears. She is quite n handsome
looking woman, aged about thirty. Her
husband is a small oil trader, and lived
neatly and respectfully. She was very
fond of inviting her neighbors to dine
or sup with her, and subsequently they
were seized with some sickness. Six
persons thus lost their lives. For a
while all suspicion was aveIted from
Mrs. Grinder, rs she went to their
houses and nursed them with the most
assiduous attention. But finally Mr..
Carrothers, one of her neighbors who
had been poisoned, and whose health
had been wrecked thereby, and whose
wife, a strong, robust woman
had died, under every appear
ance of poison, made a complaint
to the Mayor. Her house was searched
and packages of corrosive sublimate-s
deadly poison, were found in the house
Mrs. Grinder was so respectable that il
was deemed unsafe to arrest her on 8
warrant for poisoning. But Mr.. Car
fotherS swore out q warrant for larceny
against her, alleging that she had car
Fied away some of his wife's valuables
during her last illness. She is now con.
fined in the Pittsburg prison, and the
bodies of her victims are to be exhum
ed, and their stOmachs examined in or.
der, if possible, to detect poison within.
One of her victims, n Miss Buchanan,
whom she had employed as waiting
girl, has been buried eighteen months.
The brother OF her husband was one OF
the parties thus murdered, and it is also
supposed one of her children. Her hus-
band seems to have retained confidence
of her innocence. He went to the jail
to see her, but was refused admittance
Her little girl remains with her in her
cell. Mrs. Grinder seems to have come
to the conclusion that her neighbors had
cause for suspicion, and when she was
arrested, she was at the railroad depot,
preparing to leave the city. She is a
native of Kentucky, has resided In In
diana, and claims TO be niece of the
distinguished Governor Morton. What
can be Mrs. Grinders motive for this
series of diabOlical crime, cannot now
be solved. 1t may have been avarice,
but she attempted to poison people by
whose death she could acquire neither
money nor income of any kind. The
impression is current that she did il
for the love of the thing. That is,
her natuIe was so demOralized, that, like
the fiend Wirz, the anguish of her vic
Tins was to her a thrilling 10Y.