Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-04-19
JOIN N. PALMER.
THE POISON FIEND.
A Borgia Case in Virginia.
The Mystery of the LIOyds-A Mother
and Six Alleged Yictims-A Hus.
band, an Aunt and Four Chill
dren-EXcitement in
Leesburg.
From the New York Herald.

LEEsBURG, VA, April ID, 1872.-On the
9th Of March last this community was
thrown into a state of great excitement by
the announcement that Mrs. Emily E.
Lloyd, a lady of responsibility and means,
and a strict member of the Episcopal
Church, was suspected of having poisoned
her whole family, consisting of husband
and four children, as well as an elderly
lady relative of the family from Washing
ton, who was visiting her. The facts in the
case, as developed at that time, were to the
effect that four years ago the Lloyd family
consisted Of six perSons-Charles +. Lloyd,
| Emily CHS wife, the accused,) and four
! bright, beautiful children, two boys and two
! girls. In the winter of 1S69-T0 Mr.. Lloyd
was taken i'll with the pneumonia, and after
a severe illness became conYalescent, but he
! afterward became worse and died suddenly.
As he was an Incorporate man, no one
| thought strange of bis death, and he was
! buried without d pOSt-mOrtelR examination.
| After bis death the mother seemed o be-
! come intensely attached to the children.
| She procured for them nurse, began to
| dress them nicely and accorded them many
| privilege that the stern and cruel father had
| denied them. She sent them out with the
nurse and allowed them to 60 about as
! they desired, and it was a matter of re-
! mark among all the villagers how devoted
Mrs. Lloyd was to her family. In the sum-
mer of 1870 the two boys, aged eight and
| ten years respectively, accompanied the
nurse to the field to gather blackberries.
! When they returned in the evening the chill
| dren, who appeared to have been poisoned
| with poison oak, were taken sick, and
died suddenly. The mother seemed over
whclmed with grief at her loss, and ordered
from the village undertaken
HIS BEST CASKETs FOR HER DEAD
children, and made the most ample and
| lavish arrangements for their burial. So
sorrow-stricken did she appear that the
whole community sympathized with her in
a marked degree, and not the slightest
shadow of suspicion dwelt in the peoples
minds that the children had been foully
| dealt with. They were borne to the grave
side by side and buried together. After
their burial the mother seemed to dote upon
the two remaining children with great fer
vency, aud with ample means provided
| lavishly for their wants. She often remark
ed that she lived only for her children, and
their nurse seemed fully as devoted to the
two remaining ones as the mother. The
death of the father and two boys had been
almost forgotten, as well as that of an aged
aunt of Mrs. Lloyd, who was on a visit to
them in the summer of 1871, and their sud-
den demise was no longer talked of in the
community, when one evening it was an
nOunced that
THE ELDEST GIRL,
a beautiful, healthy child of some FIVE
! years, had been taken suddenly i'll, with
much the same symptoms as attended the
sickness of the father and the other chill
dren. The child fingered day or two and
died. Yet no suspicion attached to the
mother or to any member of the household,
| for she was a devoted member of the
! church, and seemingly attached to her chill
| dren. The child was buried without a
thought of its having been destroyed by her
hand, and time passed on until March %,
! when the announcement came that
THE FOURTH AND LAST CHILD
was sick with the same symptoms attend
! ing the sickness as had characterized the
! illness of all the other members of the
family. 1t was sick but day or two and
died, but yet no suspicion came to the peo-
pies mind that the child had been poisoned.
The evening after the death Of the last
child the singular fatility attending the
Lloyd family became the subject of much
earnest cor versation all over this little
village.
There is law of Virginia that requires
druggists when they sell poison TO note up