The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-06-15
4 STRANGE STORY.
What a Medical student offered.

Ono of the most singular cases IN
o~;-,oi,,ol records has just been brought
- I;c,bt in the Bow Street court, IN Lon
Jo,, Rv the merest chance OF mis-
corriad letter, a plot was discovered to
take the life of a person by the most de-
liherate and careful means, IN winch
Mot the person whose life was to be
taken is believed to have taken prom1-
nent il not the leading part. The facts,
as far as developed, are these 1t seems
that letter was returned uncalled for,
and found it's way into the Dead Letter
office at St. Martin sic Grand. The
clerk who read the letter found its con-
tents SO extraordinary that he deemed it
his duty to communicate 1t to his chief.
It proved to be written by young med1-
cal student named Vance. After saying
that &C there is risk of discovery In what
ever mode of death, Vance went on
to explain at length a device by which
the desired death might be accom-
plished, and at the same time the aveng-
ing steps of justice arrested. The IN
strument of death was to be chloral,
and, with a GOODNESS which would Oe
amusing were it not SO CHASTITY, ne re-
marked that the PRISONERS Pr1tcnard ana
Palmer were, indeed, detected, put tnaC
" they lived before these chloral times.
Death having ensued, suspicious cir
cumstances were to be admitted when
the case came before the coroner, IN the
hope that no real clew would be found,
and that verdict of death by mlsad-
venture . might be obtained. Consid-
ering that this letter was, in all proba-
bility, written to the very person upon
whom the experiment was to be at
tempted, young DIR. VaRce's sugges-
tiOns are nothing less than amazing.
He says elf you like, chloral might
be administered to dog or cat, or
you might try, yourself, an ordinary
dose, and be thereby cognizant of the
bona fides of the agent. He then tells
his correspondent that he wishea an
early meeting, s. to have it off my mind,
which is natural and human - and, very
luckily for the police, proceeds to give
the correct address of the office in which
he was at work, and where, as he says,
by the way, he has access to the drugs,
bottles, and labels
Young DR.. Vance was thus easily
found at one end of the string; and the
devices of the police soon discovered
that woman was at the other end. Let
tiers came asking for the miscarried let
ter, and by responding to these and
watching for the person who asked for
the responses, q woman named HeIen
Since was duly caught and arrested.
Meanwhile, Vance himself delivered into
the hands of the police a letter presum-
ably written by her, which evidently in
Dictated that Helen Since was the person
whose life was to be sacrificed. g am
tired of lfe," she said in this letter.
81 could do a great deal of good to a
person I am interested in by leaving the
world just now; and one way or another,
I am resolved to do SO: but, if possible,
I should prefer not to wound the feel
ings of the person who will gain most
by my death by allowing it to be sup
posed voluntary" The arrest OF Helen
Since to a certain degree cleared up the
mystery. She had advertised for the
assistance of q medical man, and Vance
had answered the advertisement. Her
proposal to him was that, to accomplish
her object of putting an end, as 1t would
now appear, to her own existence, she
would pay 9100; and, as an installment,
she had in fact RENTED him two guineas.
She had admitted that she had already
received "some drug in paper and
some stuff in bottle =" from Vance, but
had not had the courage to take them,
I" as they smelled so horrible" 1t would
also appear that she either wished to die
in order that, by her will, she might
benefit some unknown person, perhaps
a lover, or that she was trying to learn
the secrets Of toxicology, under this pre-
tense, in order to do murder. In either
view her conduct is most extraordinary,
and, whatever may be said of her motive
or criminal intent, no epithet could be
too severe for the medical student who,
for paltry hundred pounds, could enter
so coolly and deliberately into muir
derous conspiracy.