The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-11-07

A SHOCKING TRAGEDY. 200,
Tho snd Story of the Death Of Youu
10 Wife In London-A Tale Of Starvation
and Terrible Cruelty Ventilated In tn
| Courts. ...s. .n. ...l........rr .....r .-
Olive Logan writes from London b
the New York Graphic, giving the de
tails Of the Penge mystery, the trial o
four young people for the murder b.
starvation of a fifth, woman, the wifi
of one of the four. The trial createt
an extraordinary sensation, and the court
room was crowded daily. The CORE
spondent says: , . ,.-. rr.. :. r.... ..
The murdered woman, whose Christia,
name was Harriet, came up to Londo1
from her home in the country four year.
ago. She was highly connected. Sh'
was niece of Lady Rivers. Her step
father is a clergyman. Her own father
had q good position. Her mother ~
lady. From various sources Harriet
was entitled to the sum of $15, ,0o0 or
her marriage. She was of rather veal
intellect, easily Influenced by any one to
whom she took a fancy, and she was
thirty-fve years old. .~ l.....>. e.
She stopped in London at boarding.
house, and there made the acquaintance
of young man, Louis Staunton, 8
good looking fellow, clerk to an auction.
eer. He informed himself of her inan-
cial prospects, and Immediately offered
her marriage, though he was more than
ten years younger than she was. She
accepted, and the astonished mother
in the country hurried up to town, took
in at glance what sort of man the
young auctioneer's clerk was, and his
motive for marrying her daughter. She
made an effort to reobtain control over
Harriet by trying to prove her Of un,
sound mind; but she was not successful
in this, and Louis Staunton took his
wife away. Her mother never laid eyes
on her again, dead or living. = f'.n' ~,
Louis had brother inhabiting lonely
place in Kent, and he now pleads. that
he paid to this brother FL week for his
wife's support. The brothers wife had
young sister, Alice Rhodes, and behold
them all living together in the same
house the two couples comfortably; the
discarded wife, whose 93, 900 have been
duly obtained, confined in a dark cellar
beneath, without food, fire or necessaries
for cleanliness. A servant named Clara
Brown, sort of remote poor relative
waits on the lot, and one day when the
milkwoman was at the door, a ghastly
spectacle of filth and emaciation came
peering up toward the light from the
basement below, giving the milkwoman
as great fright as if it had been ghost,
and Clara Brown flew toward the gaunt
intruder, shrieking, Go back! Go down
stairs I'll give it you /" The poor,
hunted thing fed away with the wild
look of fear in her mournful eyes. Do
you speak Like that to lady ?" asked
the milkwoman. ."She'sno more lady
than you or T." answered Clara Brown.
"Who is she?" Masters sister," The
milkwoman never dreamed she was Louis
Staunton's wife. How could sheG Alice
hQOOcS wills nIS. ,lOukS Othuutou w ao
who knew them thereabout. = ..r> .ArI,-
Now, this unhappy creature gave
birth to child. The child was seen
.about the house by several people; all
thought it either Alice's baby or her.
sister's-Mrs. Patrick Stsunton. One
day, however, this child was missing,
Patrick Staunton had taken it up to
London and placed it in hospital. The
Sister of Charity who received the babe
told him that it was dying of starvatioa,
which seemed to have been going on
since it's birth. He replied that he knew
nothing of that, for the child was nothing
to hint was the child of carpenter,
named Harris, whom he had promised as
a favor to bring the sick child to Lon
don hospital. He was told he must
fetch proper clothes for it. He called
the next day. The child had died during
the night. He promised to call again.
BE never did. The child was buried by
the hospital authorities, registered as
" Harris"
We must change the scene now and
ind these Stauntons and Alice Rhodes
looking for lodgings at Penge, q suburb
near the Crystal Palace. They engaged
sittine-room and bedroom at the rate
of 50 o week, and told the landlady that
the lady was i'll who was to occupy them,
and would probably not be able to come
over from the railway station before
morning. She left the front door open
that they might the more easily .go in
and ont, and at ten o'clock in the
evening, to her surprise, on going up to
her new dodgers rooms, she found the
sick woman lying in bed. She had been
brought in the house without noise or
warning. The landlady insisted on their
having doctor, and after some hesita-
ton Alice Rhodes and Louis Staunton
went out and called on the nearest
physician, DR.. Longrigg. He came and
saw the patient, but she could not speak.
He remarked the extreme flthiness OF
the body, and asked who had been her
previous medical attendant. They gave
the name of physician near their own
home, but who in reality never attended
her. j 81 .
When the landlady at Penge was
cleaning her doorsteps the next morning
the undertaken came up and asked to be
allowed to 90 upstairs and measure the
corpse. The good woman was astonish-
ed. and directed him to another house,
where there had been sickness, thinking
he had made a mistake in the number.
She then hurried upstairs and raped
at the door of the sitting-room. Alice
Rhodes answered it, and in reply to her
question, said : Yes, she is gone A
woman came from the undertaker's to
wash the body. The filth of it was some
thing indescribable. The feet were
horny, indicating that she had been long
without shoes. Her hair was matted and
impossible to comb. In disgust the
woman abandoned the task of cleansing
the body. Louis Staunton gave her q
SOVEREIGN not to mention in what con-
lition It was. When the undertaken
came to coffin the corpse he was stopped
by the law, DR.. Longrigg having given
notice to the authorities, after post
mortem examination which disclosed
evidences of long-continued starvation.
I,ouis Staunton's assertion that his wife
was of intempe1ate habits was distinctly
falsifed by the autopsy. Drunkards
have a large liver. This organ in Har-
riet Staunton was shrivelled and shrunk-
en- to nothing almost. After due inquiry
the whole four people we're committed
to stand their trial for wilful murder.
They had been in Jail ibuta few days
when both women were delivered in their