The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-02-20
A ROMANCE OF CRIME.
THE STRANGE STORY OF CHRISTINA
EDMUNDS.

Her Love, Her Jealousy and Hel
Crfme-The Trial at the Old Bailey
Extraordinary Scene after the Con
victfon.
We have had another most remarkable ant
sensational trial at the Old Bailey, writes the
London correspondent Of the New Yorh
World under date of the 18th ultimo, result
ing, az did that of the Rev. Mr.. Watson fol
the murder of bis wife. In a sentence of death
But in this case the criminal was q lady:s
lady of means, refinement and some cohsid
erabie personal attractions.
Last summer this lady, Miss Christina
Edmunds, was living with her widowed mother
at Brighton, where they had resided for some
years.. The family had been In many respects
an unfortunate one. The father Of Miss
Edmunds died In lunalic asylum; her sister
suffered from hysteria and died at an early age;
her grandfather on her mothers side died 10
| fit at the age of forty-three. and suffered from
dementia many years before his death; her
cousin on her mothers side was an imbe.
Gle, and Miss Edmunds herself had suffered
| from hysteria, had been partially paralyzed,
and occasionally walked In her sleep. Some
months ago, by an unhappy late, Miss
Edmunds formed the acquaintance of one Or.
Beard, a physician of Brighton. Dr.. Beard is
| married, but Miss Ednuuds conceived for him
a criminal passion. She claims now that ne
seduced her, and at this moment sue Is preg-
nant by him, Be this as 1t may, she came 10
believe that Mrs. Beard stood In her way, ana
she seems to have resolved to remove her from
the way. She called one day upon Mrs. beard
and while sitting with her took from her pocket
| a bon bon box, and from the box chocolate
bon-bon, which she placed In that ladys
mouth. The bon-bon burned Mrs. Boards
mouth; it had strong metallic taste, and
she elected 1t as soon as possible. Neverthe-
less, she was taken i'll, and suffered as If from
the effects of some strong poison. she recoV-
cred, but not long afterwards she received
box containing cakes and sweetmeats, some
Of which were also poisoned. DR.. Beard now
had au interview with Miss Edmupds, 10
which 1t appears he accused her of attempting
to poison hfs wife. Thus far the case Is NOT
very strange-women madly in love have
sought to poison their rivals ever since the
world began, and Ipresume they will continue
to do 80 untll the world ends. But now some.
thing strange occurred. Part OF the case is
the testimony of DR.. Beard was, excluded for
technical reasons But It, seems that Miss
Edmunds was greatly hurt by what DR.. Beard
said TO her, and that she devised plan by
which she might make him believe that she
had not intended or attempted to poison MS
wlte She had given her poisoned bon-bon,
1t was true; but If she could chow tnat pol
soned bon-bons were cold at the confectlon.
ers In Brighton az common thing, aud that
she had bought her own poisoned bon-oons at
this shop, she could make fair show of inno-
cence Her mind devised this scheme-she
would herself poison quantity Of bon-boDs
exactly like those sold at the shop IN question;
she would conlrive means to get these poison
ed sweets mixed with others 10 the shop;
a hi,ky n0i6nnPh.
then she would say to Beard, "See, am iuno-
cent The poisoned bon-bon which gave to
YOUR wife innocently bougbt!n This sounds TO
me very much like the shrewd calculations OF
lunatic; to carry out the plan would bring
about the death Of an indefinite number oil
people, whom she did not know, and against
whom she had no hatred; 1t mattered not to
killed with her poisoned candy and she would
rejoice If only thereby she could win her lover
back to her. 1t was not q case Of saving her
own life; DR.. Beard had not threatened 10
prosecute her; he had only cast her on, aud
was ''cold" towards her because be believed
she had tried to poison his wife. She must re-
move this belief at any cost.
Two things were necessary to be done, and
both were difficult. She must procure the
p0lson without being known to procure 1t;
and having pOlsoned some bon-bons she must
get them mixed at the conftcuoner's shop.
Before this she had procured some poison at
chemlst's in> Brighton by representing herself
strychnine to kill rats with, and bringing with
her tradesWoman of the town, to whom she
had introduced herself as Mrs. Wood, 10
s'identify" her. She forged O note purport-
ing to be written ey one chemist and ad-
dressed to another, stating that the first was
send him some at once. She sent this note by
boy whom she picked up In the street, the
unsuspecting chemist gave him the poison,
and he took 1t to Miss Edmunds. She now
had her poison; she went to the CONNECTION
er's, purchased quantity OF chocolate
creams" and went home with them,
where, as is supposed, she impreg-
stood, with strychnIne. 1t remained to
convey these deadly sweets back To the shop.
At first it seems that she despaired of accom-.
pishing this, and contented: herself with
dropping them about the town In a very PRO
| mscuous" manner, but always In paper bags
having the name and address of the confec-
| toner. She left one of these bags In station
| er's shop; boy found 1t, ate the candies, and
was taken very Ill, but did not die. She left
another bag In another shop, and similar re-
| suit followed. Perhaps these were only ex-
perlments, to ascertain how much poison a
''chocolate cream" could hold. AT last, how
ever, she matured her plans. One day she
walked QUIZ SIG III uSE uuuu d paper
| bag containing chocolate creams" fully i'm
pregnated with. strychnine. She found boy
| in The street, she gave him some money and
| told him to 70 to the coDfectionef's and buy a
quantity Of chocolate creams of certain
| description; he obeyed, and returned to her
| with The sweets, which were In paper bag
exactly like the one she carried In her mutf.
| Turning her back to the boy for mo-
ment she exchanged the two bags, and then
handing the one containing the poisoned
sweets TO the boy, told him That he had made
a mistake, and that he must take them back
| to the shop and exchange them for The same
quantity of another kind. This was done-the
| poisoned sweets were emptied back among
| others, and were ready 10 be sold TO the first
conner. Miss Edmundss messenger returned;
she rewarded him for his trouble, and she
| went home 10 walt for results. Perhaps she
| wondered little that night as to VINO her in
nocent victims were to De-and perhaps she
| felt q little idle pity for them. II was sad that
she must kill some little child or some young
mother In order that her lover might be
won back to her; but oil the children aud all
| the mothers In Brighton must be killed sooner
| than her lover should not be won again. And
| thus she waited tor results.
She had not long TO wait. She had sent the
| poisoned creams to the shop on the Sth OF
June. On the 18th man named Miller, who
was in Brighton on visit 10 his friends,
went to this shop. bought some chocolate
creams" took them to his brothers house,
and gave one of them to his little nephew, q
child only four years old. In ten minutes the
child began 10 cry; in twenty minutes more he
| died. Miss Edmund5 had at last succeeded In