The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1888-04-22
BELLE PICKETT'S DEATH.
A CORONER's JURY SAID 1T WAS
SUICIDE. BUT is THAT ALLY
circumstances Surrounding It That
Flavor Of Some Wicked Transaction.
But the County Court Is Miser and
Will Not Pay for Rigid Investigation.

Three weeks ago young man applied
to the lady managers of the Mission Home,
on Alabama street, for admission of a wom-
an whom he alleged 70 be his sister. He
gave his name as Edward Pickett, and his
residence as Arkansas. The sisters name
he gave as Belle Pickett. His object in
placing her in the home, he stated,
was to surround her with restrictions and
influences which might effect cure Of
morphine habit the poor unfortunate had
acquired, and which was fast sapping her
life away. Permission was given TO bring
the woman there, and the promise made
that everything possible would be done TO
eradicate the taste for the deadly drug.
She was at once placed within the walls OF
the institution.
Yesterday morning, about O'clock
Belle Pickett was found in her room dead.
Her face was fearfully discolored, her head
hung over the side OF the bed, and froth
which oozed through her partially closed
lips betokened that poison had done its
work. The matron of the home discov-
cred her in that position, summoned
Squire Gutenberg TO hold an inquest,
and before the jury impaneled by him re-
lated singular story, as follows:
Particular attention was paid TO the new
inmate from the time of her arrival, on
account OF the effects OF the drug pre-
viously administered. Melancholy OF the
most marked type seemed to have taken
possession of her. Nothing could be done,
1t appeared, TO effectually relieve her. She
was taken, as a spectator, into the kitchen,
sewing-room and other departments, in
troduced TO all the inmates, who Joined in
the effort to arouse her. On Friday night
she seemed unusually depressed, and
could not be induced TO leave her room
for any length of time. Though quiet and
with scarcely word TO say to any one,
something impelled the matron 10 believe
n crisis was at hand. She visited the room
at 9 o'clock, at 10 o'clock p. M, and in
tended doing 20 again at midnight. She
feel asleep, however, and did not awake
until o'clock q. m. She hurried TO the
room and made the frightful discovery
disclosed in the foregoing.
The matron stated further, in answer
TO questions by jurymen, that when the
young man first applied to her on behalf
OF his sister he stated that she lived in n
house on Main street She questioned
him as 10 the character OF the house, and
he stated that II was Of good reputc. us the
sister merely rented room and lived
alone. He said, also, that she had been
married, but her husband was either dead
| or separated.
DIR. Mciee had presided nj the Jury Of
inquest, but made nothing moro than a
| cursory examination, and gave il ~ his
| opinion that poison, self-administercd, had
caused the death. When the Jury heard
this and gathered all the details available,
though these were meagcr, verdict
OF suicide was returned. The young
man who had her placed there returned
TO Arkansas, where ho said he lived, the
same day, and since then nothing has been
heard from him. With no other DISPOSE
ton OF the body being open 10 them, il was
turned over TO the county undertaken.
Squire Gutenberg said that while he
| found a bottle that had evidently con-
! tanned poison, and while the appearance
Of the body showed clearly that II was the
work OF poison, the history OF the case was
rather suspicious. II the victims name
was Pickett, her brother" bone the
same name, and she had been
married, how did il come about Fur
ther than that, she was only twenty
four years Of age and n widow. Still, fur
ther, the brother" had gone, ms he said,
10 his home In Arkansas, yet he claimed
that his sister" previous 10 admission TO
the home, had lived alone in q Main
street house. The circumstances were
somewhat confusing for n straight
story. flo did not institute a
searching investigation for the reason that
the county would not pay for II. II was a
standing disgrace, aud no doubt forever
concealed many airocious crimes, still II
was 80, and he did not propose TO pay ex-
penscs from his own purse.
IL Is not possible, aye probable, that
there is some wicked transaction involved
In Belle Pickctts suicide2