Middletown transcript., 1876-05-27

. doners. is PROBABLY forgotten, or a
least but little known in the United
States. Eliza Fennipg was fair girl o.
twenty-five, of more than usual intelli.
gence for one of her class; bright,
coquettish. but well-disposed and ami.
able. The daughter of poor couple
who dwelt in High Holborn, on the
very spot where Day & Martins black
, ing establishment now stands, she was
employed as a cook in the family Of a
, Mr.. Turner, law stationer in Chan
Gerry lane. The family consisted Of the
Turner's, man and wife. two appren-
tices named Gadsden and King; Sarah
Peer, housemaid, and Eliza Fenning,
the cook One day the father of Mr.
Turner went to his sons house to
dinner, and Mrs. Turner ordered Eliza
to make some yeast dumplings. When
dinner time came the three Turner'S
sat down at the table, and began to
discuss the sa,ory dish. The dump
lings had scarcely been tasted however,
when all three were seized with sharp
and agonzing pains. The dish was
taken out into the kitchen, and there
Gadsden, one of the apprentices, par
took of it, and also fell violently i'll
Eliza herself next ate of the dish, and
was attacked by the same strange
symptoms The apprentice, King, and
Sarah, the maid, who had dined earlier,
did not taste the dumplings, and were
not i'll.
The physician who was called de-
clared the symptoms of the sufferers to
be those Of poisoning by arsenic. Then
every component part of the dish of
dumplings was examined. 1t was clear
that the poison was not in the sauce,
of which the elder Turner had partaken
Neither was it in the -four, for pie
| crust made of the same flour had been
eaten by King and Peer with impunity
Some dough of which the dumplings
we're made was examined, and poison
discovered therein. 1t appears that
Turner used arsenic for killing rats,
and was in the habit of leaving it care
lessly in an open drawer.
Suspicion fell at once upon Eliza
Fenning, and she was arrested and
arraigned on charge of attempting to
poison the Turner's. From the first she
earnestly protested her innocence. 1t
was proved that she and she alone had
mixed and made the dumplings; the
circumstantial evidence went to show
that no one else could have had access
to them until they were served upon
the table. She had been in the kitchen
all the time they were there, and most
of the time alone. Here, then was
proved opportunity. 1t was shown that
when the apprentice Gadsden was on
point of eating some of the dumplings,
Eliza urged him not to do so. saying
they were cold and heavy.
1t was in evidence that Eliza had not
taken the poisoned food until she had |
observed its effect upon others, and it
was thence inferred that she either took
it to conceal the crime, or with sui
cidal design. 1t moreover appeared
that Eliza's statements about the matter
were inconsistent. contradictory. and
in some instances untrue. She de-
clared that the poison must be in the
milk and not in the dumplings Now.
the milk had been fetched by Sarah
Peer. 1t was thence inferred that Eliza
was trying to divert suspicion from her.
self to her fellow servant. The analysis
proved conclusively that the arsenic
was in the dumplings and not in the
milk. To further disprove the presump-
tion Of innocence raised by her eating
herself of the poisoned food, it was
shown that she had shortly before had
hearty meal off beef steak pie, and
therefore was not likely to have eaten
the "cold and heavy dumplings. as
she described them to Gadsden, because
she was hungry. Having tried in vain
to persuade people that the poison was
in the milk. she turned around and de-
clared that it was in the yeast. The
yeast was proved by analysis to be per-
fectly pure.
Here, then, was a group of important
circumstantial elements. Opportunity
was proved; so was an instrument (the
arsenic) at hand in drawer to which
she bad free access, and desire be-
trayed to conceal the crime by diverting
suspicion to another and by telling un-
truths. Upon the evidence as we have
sketched it Eliza Fenning was con-
victed by the jury and sentenced to
death. The case, however, created so
widespread an agitation in the public
mind that justice hesitated to execute
its fatal decree. The utter absence of
conceivable motive was serious blow
in the case Why should this light
hearted, amiable young girl. whose only
known fault was her coquetry with the {
apprentices, poison a whole family +?
The great Irish advocate Curran, then
in the height Of his fame, exclaimed in
burning eloquence against the horrible l
cruelty of her fate.
She was reprieved for three months,
in hope that new evidence would trans
pire to save her. None was forthcoming.
She was executed amid the greatest I
excitement throughout the metropolis
and on a warm July day she was borne,
amid the sorrowing faces of 10000 I
spectators, and her pail upheld by six s
young girls robed in white. from her q
humble home to the graveyard of the !
foundling hospital. One who lived
amid those scenes wrote, long after: 9
''Poor Eliza Fenning Cut down in i
The morning, with all life's brightness !
only in its dawn! Little did it profit .
5hee that city mourned over thy early
grave. and that the most eloquent Of
men did justice to thy memory"
For more than half century the Il
yuilt or innocence of Eliza Fenninp 9