Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-05-23

A WamRn who Con fesaed 10 Poison
ing Two Husbands and Two Lhil-
dren. f1T --i
New York World ...s
HARTFORD, May 16.-Mrs. Lydia
Sherman, the notorious Derby
poisoner, died in the Connecticut
State prison at Wethersfeld to-day,
where she was serving out a life
sentence for the murder of her
third husband, Horatio N. Sher-
man. She was fifty-four years of
age. Her conviction in New Haven
in the spring of 1879 was mainly
on the brilliant Psychological evi-
dence of Professor Barker then of
the Yale Medical School, but now
of the University Of Pennsylvania.
A Connecticut statute, which per-
mits q verdict of murder in the
second degree when the evidence ia
purely circumstantial and not equal
in the minds Of the jurymen to the
testimony of two direct witnesses,
offered the jury a way to escape
from hanging a woman, but Judge
L. +. S. Foster, the acting vice
president during Johnson's term in.
the White House, expressed his
regret when he pronounced the
sentence that he could not send
her to the gallows. lii January,
1873, she made confession of the
murderous crimes which she had
committed, confirming the belief
that her last husband was not by
any means the first person for whom
she had mixed the poison bowl.
According to this statement she
was born in Burlington, N. j.. and
learned to be a tailoress at New
Brunswick, where she also Joined
the Methodist church. In this
church she met Edward Struck,
whom she married and by whom
she became the mother of several
children. They lived together
eighteen years. Struck was ap-
pointed a New York policeman
and stationed at Manhattan.
vile. Mrs. Sherman's story is
that he was finally discharged
from the force upon an unjust
charge of cowardice. He became
disheartened, would do no work
and took to his bed, aud even made
tive efforts to commit suicide. The
police captain advised that he
should be sent to an asylum, but a
certain sergeant recommended a
dose Of poison, so the wife bought
ten cents worth of arsenic and
mixed it with his oatmeal cruel,
and the next morning she was a
widow. In the confession she re-
spectfully speaks of Struck as a de-
voted Christian. Soon after his
death she made up her mind that
her two children, a girl of six and
a boy of four, would be better off
if they were out of the way, and
after thinking the matter over for
several days, she made them some
of the same kind of Cruel their
father had eaten, The doctor said
they died of gastric fever. She
continued to keep house with her
remaining four children. The
Oldest, a boy Of fourteen, named
George Whitfield, was taken sick
with painters collie, the doctor
said. AS he did not get better his
mother became discouraged and
mixed arsenic with his tea. When
tie boy died the doctor still clupg
to his theory of painters collie,
When another young daughter, who
is referred to as the happiest child
her mother ever saw, was taken
down with the chills and fever,
Mrs. Struck became discouraged
again, aud put some of the ever
ready arsenic in her medicine. The
child died four days afterward.
The eldest daughter died not long
afterwards, but in this case the con.
fession says death was natural-at
least, the mother did not give her
anything the doctors did not order.
Mrs. Struck had supported herself,
so far, queerly as it may sound, by
going out rs nurse.
The bereayed and now childless
widow was at length free to 60 into
other pursuits. After being en-
ployed in several households, she |
became the housekeeper OF an old |
man in Huntington, Conn, by the
name of Hurlburt, lie had some
property, and in a few days after
she came into his house he married |
her. This took place in November,
1868, aud the happy bridegroom
lived fourteen months. lie b, came
sick after drinking cider in which |
he had put saleratus, but the con-
fession denies that its author had
anything to do with his death. He
had madea will in her fqyor three
tnonths after fbnir mnrriaoa o,l