The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-10-21
AN ETHER DRINKER.
Her Curious Story of Abduction. Which She
Now Admits Was a Lie.

Bo~ToN. October 1G.-The story of Miss
Elma Turner. who claimed to have been alb
Quoted from the Old Colony Depot one week
ago tonight proves To have been a pure
phantasm of her Imagination. Her story
was that she was seized by two men in front
of the ticket Office, taken in hack by them,
carried through tOrtuous streets to a lonely
spot, and there put out of the carriage, after
having been robbed and an unsuccessful at
tempt made to etherize her. Her story was
first published in Mondays Globe and Her
add. She had then gone to New York, to
take position rs nurse in the hospital
there. She returned TO Boston on Tuesday
morning. went over the scene of her adven-
ture and repeated her story in every
particular to detectives who accom-
panied her After working hard on
the case and following every possible clew
the four detectives to-day confronted Miss
Turner with evidence that her story was un-
true. so tar rs the abduction was concerned.
She burst into tears and confessed that the
main fact which the detectives had charged
her with was true. The fact was that she
was an ether drinker. Miss Turner acquired
the habit when she was in the hospital, and
she claims il is quite common among pro-
fessiOnal nurses i'm hospitals. She Supposes
that last Thursday morning she must have
taken larger dose than usual Tor while she
was at the Old Colony station she lost all
control of herself. She took her handbag
and threw il upon the track at the station.
Then she hired n carriage and got in, telling
the driver she wanted to be driven around
through the back streets. She saws the
driver looked at her rather quiHically and
muttered something about her having been
ION tear as he mounted the box. She
was driven slowly around Boston Tor about
an hour. Every little while She would feel
an impulse to throw something away or
BREAK SOMETHING.
Then she would cast ont upon the street her
handbag, pOcket-book, shawl or piece of
iewclry until one by one all her parcels and
belongings were gone, except the clothes she
had on. She seemed gradually to lose her
power OF speech, and when she found the
carriage rolling over Charles River bridge
was unable to hail the driver to stop him.
The driver asked her several times where he
should carry her Unable to get a reply. he
remarked that rs he lived in Cambridge She
had better get out there, for she had got
about all the ride she had paid for. After
she got out of the hack, Miss Turner followed
the streetcar track TO her uncle's house,
where she told the story of the abduc-
non ana r0Dpery. she says she was coil
scious at the time that she was lying, but
had 80 lost control over her mind, although
speech had been restored TO her, that she
could not prevent telling the story as fast as
it came TO her. OF course, after the story
had been circulated and published, she was
10th to convict herself of faisehood by ac-
hnowledging the truth until forced Ia by the
accumulation OF circumstantial evidence.
Some of the things she threw from the car
riage window have been found along the
route and identified. The hack driver sup
posed she was full of liquor, although he
detected no odOr of it, aud being well paid
he knew his business too well to give away a
lady he thought was only out for a little
racket