Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-10
A MODERN LUORETIA BORGIA,
Who is Accused of Poisoning Two
Husbands and the Wife OF Her First
Husband

Husband.
From the Louisville Ledger, Feb. 8.
! Some twelve years ago there came to
| Louisville from Germany very attractive
! looking German girl of about eighteen
years Of age, named, if our recollection
| serves us right, Catharine Melchior. She
was what is termed a beautiful woman,
finely developed, with faultless form and
! graceful motion-a woman who would at
| tract attention wherever seen. She re-
manned at Louisville but a short time, when
| she left the city for the town of Rockport,
| on the Indiana side of the river, about fifty
| miles above Louisville, where she soon OBJ
! tanned service in the family of an old and
wealthy farmer named Sharp, residing some
! two and a half or three miles above the
| town.
Mr.. Sharp and his aged wife lived alone
| together, their children having all married
| and removed from the old homestead. The
| old people were highly esteemed, and were
well known to nearly all the citizens of the
! county. Catharine found her new home a
very pleasant one, and was apparently well
| contented and happy. About two years af-
ter she had entered the Sharp family, Mrs.
Sharp was taken i'll. She was confined to
her bed for some time; but, growing better,
her speedy recovery was fondly hoped for
by her husband and children. Very sud
denly, however, she was taken worse, suf-
fering intense pains in the abdomen for
some hours, when she died. The symp-
toms of her fatal illness, it was remembered
a few years later, were decidedly those of
poison from arsenic or stTychnine.
Mr.. Sharp and his children mOurned her
death; but no one seemed to feel it more
deeply than Catharine, and this was re-
marked throughout the neighborhood and
so Mr.. Sharp prevailed upon her, which was
not difficult, to remain in his house as his
housekeepeT and general superintendent of
the domestic department of his extensive
farm, paying her handsome salary for her
services. Time wore on, as time is always
doing, and the wounds that grief at the de-
mise of his wife had inflicted upon the
heart of Mr.. Sharp, were healed. And
then it bethought him that, with Catharine
as his wife, his declining years would be
full of comfort. and so he paid court TO the
young maiden. She was ayerSe TO the
union proposed by the old man; it would
be too much like uniting June with Decemz
Der, she argued, as she looked mp languish-
ingly from her lustrous black eyes and
beautiful face into the countenance of her
aged lover. These glances, as she well
knew, were not to be withstOod; and so the
old mans passion was only in1lamed and
his suit pressed with more earnest deter
mination.
Catharine took few days to deliberate
over the matter, and then she returned an
swer to her persevering but gray-haired
lover that she would marry him on condi-
ton that he would deed her his farm, val
ued at about twenty-five thousand dollars,
and certain moneys and other property.
This the old man agreed to do, and in due
course of time all the necessary papers for
the transfer were legally drawn and placed
in Catharine's hands. Then the wedding
took place, and for a couple of years or
more the infatuated old man bathed in the
sunshine of her smiles, and received her
toyings with all the delight of a child. But
suddenly he died. His disease was Ian
gushing enc at first, and indicated toward
its fatal termination speedy recovery.
But those dreadful pains that had been no
ticed in the illness Of his wife, Immediately
prior to her demise, supervened, and as
suddenly and painfully as his aged wife had
died so died he. His children and many of
bis neighbOrs believed that both he and his
first wife had died from poison at the hands
of Catharine, but they dared only breathe
their suspicious in suppressed whispers, lest
the law should take hold of them in the
shape of an action for SANDER.
Catharine was rich. She had just reached
the prime of wOmanhOOd, was the most
beautiful woman in the county, and it is not
at all surprising that the days of her widow
hood were made bearabe by the attention
she received from both men and women. In
due course of time her grief was so much
assuaged that she received, as a sutton for her
hand, Well-knOwn and popular merchant,
named Bachelor, who did business, we be-
lieve, at ROckpOrt and Evansville. Mr..
Bachelor was supposed to be wealthy,
and so his suit for GATHERINGS heart and
hand prospered, and they were married.
The course oftheir married life ran smoothly
enough. Indeed, their apparent happiness
became subject of remark. Both were ap-
parently deeply devoted to each other.
But after a year or two of bliss Mr..
Bachelor was attacked by a languishing
illness, which increased and diminished by
turns, until the disease, which puzzled the
skill of the physicians, took a favorable
turn, and strong hopes were entertained for
its speedy and favorable termination. 1t
was a noticeable feature of Mr.. Bachelors !
disease, as it had been of the disease of Mr..
Sharp and his first wife had died, that it |
was seated in the stomach, and no medicines |
seemed to control it. His partial recovery |
was therefore unaccOUntable to the physi- |
clan upon any other hypothesis than the |
great physical recuperative powers of Mr.. !
Bachelor. But in the midst of the fond |
snticipations Of his friends for his recovery, |
Mr.. Bachelor suddenly died in great agony, |
suffering intense pain in the stomach.
He was buried, and the widows wall |
sounded over his grave, and was re-echeed |
from the old Forest that skirted the cemetery. |
But the dead husband was a Mason, and in |
the lodge his sudden death, and the sudden |
aud similar deCease of Mrs. and Mr.. Sharp, |
were discussed, and the conclusion arrived |
at was that poison had aided their sudden |
exit from the world, and that Catherine |
Bachelor was the poisoner. And so the |
remains Of Mr.. Bachelor was qnietly disin- |
terCd, and the stomach taken from them, |
and sent to a noted physician and chemist !
for analyzatiOn. The result of the analysis |
was the discovery Ofenough mineral poison |
to produce death, and the evidences that |
Mr.. Bachelor had died from poison.
Mrs. Bachelor was arrested, lodged in.I
Jail, indicted by the grand jury, and in due |
time arraigned for trial. But upon affidavit !
made by her that she could not have a fair |
trial at RockpOrt in consequence of the ex-
element against her, a change Of venue was !
granted, and the case taken to Perry county. !
The trial will commence at Cannelton on
the 26n of the present month, before Judge
Laird, when, if proved guilty, it is to be
hoped this modern Lucretia Borgia will be
placed where she will have no further occa-
sion to practice her murderous arts. Mr..
Bachelor was well known to the merchants
of Louisville.