The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-08-15
STATEMENT OF BARONESS Won ROGUE.
She Says Her Daughter Is the Victim
of Women conspirators.
Details of the Alleged Conspiracy
Against Mrs. Maybrick.
The Baroness Denies That She Her
self Poisoned TWO Husbands.

NEW YORK, August 1.-THE Herald prints
the following report of an interview with
the Baroness Won Rogue, mother of Mrs.
Maybrick:
Baroness Won Rogue is well preserved
woman. She looks about 45, but must be
considerably older, as she is the mother of
Mrs. Maybrick. Her hair Is grey. She was
dressed.in black and wore jewelry when she
received the correspondent today. She had
at last decided to talk about the case which
all England is discussing.
The Baroness claims that her daughter is
being done to death by women, one of whom
she says, was in love with Briefly. She
said: 81 am woman, and perhaps take
woman's view of this matter But do not
know that woman 'ssview is necessarily the
wrong view. | am going to speak only Of
women, and am going to speak also OF mo-
tives. There has been great deal Of talk
about motive in this case. would like to
respectfully ask what motive my daughter
had for poisoning her husband when she had
plenty of evidence upon which she could
have obtained separation from him had
she desired. would like to ask if there are
not in the treachery land brutality with
which my daughter was treated at the out
set by other women, and in the very start
and beginning of the hue and cry against
her, evidences of motives far stronger, far
more active and far more important for con-
sideration when my daughters life is at
stake. 1t is of this--of the very beginning
of the matter-that wish to speak.
Mr.. Maybrick died on Saturday. Up to the
following Friday afternoon my daughter lay
i'll, Frustrated and helpless, without friends
She was surrounded by enemies whose bitter.
ness need not call your attention to, for it
is in evidence-who had prejudiced her. con-
demned her in their own minds as murder
ess, without even telling her their conclusion,
and who were h0tly ransacking her house
in which they had no legal or other right-to
obtain evidence in support of the conviction
which they had chosen to entertain. These
conclusions started with a nurse, the woman
Yapp, whom my daughter had some months
before reprimanded, and las she wrote) felt
that she would be compelled to discharge.
Miss Yapp, knowing or not knowing ar
senic, communicated her suspicious to Mrs.
Briggs. Mrs. Briggs telegraphed to Michael
Maybrick. Mrs. Briggs was the moving
agent in what ensued. My daughter was sat
isfactorily convicted of murder before Mr..
Maybrick died by Miss Yapp, Mrs. Briggs
and Michael Maybrick, who was acting only
upon the information, suspicious and conclu-
SiOns of the two women. Now, | respect
fully suggest that Mrs Briggs actions, Mrs.
Briggs motive and Mrs. Briggs character
are things that should be considered and
have not been considered in this case.
up to Wednesday night, or Thursday
morning in fact-for was at dinner party
i knew nothing of my daughters trouble.
l, her mother, the sole friend she had on
earth, was kept in Ignorance. She was too
i'll to notify me, and nobody else was kind
enough to do so. Finally, however, there
came a telegram from her, saying
Jim passed away on Saturday.
Half an hour after receipt of my daugh-
ter's first telegram a second came, which
said:
Did not know when telegraphed before
81 left Paris on Thursday by the first train
ana arrived in Liverpool at Lime street sta
tion on Friday afternoon at o'clock. AS |
was going out of the station l met Michael
Maybrick Unexpectedly.
HE said abruptly and grufliy: This is a
nice state of affairs
II asked him what he meant.
"'I mean a question of MURDER was his
reply, and there's man in it
81 tried to question him, but he said:
You had better go up to the house and see
her. She's in dying. condition. Edwin
will tell you everything,
creie. went mes straight Edwin to MasbTiet Sfttls
in the vestibule of the house. 1 asked
him at once why had not been allowed to
come before. He said they had all lost their
heads, that Fl0rrie was too ill to know any
thing and that Mrs. Briggs did not know or
had forgotten my address.
'He said:
81 would never have believed one word
against Florrie if it had not been for that
letter to Briefly
Now permit me to say that there was
great deal of surreptitiousness about that
letter to Briefly. 1t was written with the
knowledge of a woman who had already
come to the conclusion, honestly or dishOn-
estly. that my daughter was murderess at
heart. 1t was given to that woman to post
and that woman opened it.
81 may be Mrs. MayDrick's s mother, but it
looks to me as If that very strange and very
unnecessary letter-a letter so queerly and
ingeniously compromising that no other pos
sble combination of words could have been
equally harmful-was simply trap, sue
cessfully laid and triumphantly executed. .
"My daughter is not woman of very much
penetration. If you could see her you would
not wonder at the ease with whichshe has
been deceived. Kindly remember that Mrs.
Briggs testified in court that she advised my
daughter to write to Briefly to get mo ney
enough to send some kilograms, and then
walked straight out of prison with the letter
and at once handed it to the policeman.
"Please consider that here were two wom-
en- both protesting warm attachment to my
daughter. She gave them her fullest conf
dence at time when her position of pros
traton and misfortune should have gained
her sympathy and pity from a stone, and
they were opposing her in every way they
could:
81 do not know, but it seems to me that
that kind of moral character is scarcely a
thing on which to base sentence of
DEATH"
Pardon me, but what conclusions are you
aiming at?"
81 believe know that James Maybriek
died a natural death. believe that these
two women-ignorant of all the private cir
cumstances, Ignorant of Maybrick'S exten-
siye use Of arsenic--came to the conclusion
that my daughter was poisoning him, and
did everything they could to build up their
case. | am not disposed to say that they did
not reach this conclusion honestly. l think
it is proper, however, to show that neither of
them was friendly to her, and that. if they
were animated by any malice, they were not
without grounds for those feelings.
The idea is simply absurd to begin with
that you can poison man with arsenic who
has been using arsenic for eleven years with
out his knowing or suspectiDg it. Maybrick
knew his own constitution perfectly well.
He had been experimenting on it with drugs
ever since L knew him. He was deep STU
dent of medicine from personal standpoint.
If there was one man on earth who would
have secuted the idea that anybody could
poison him with arsenic without his know
ledge it was James Maybrick. And he would
say so if he stood here today.
Mrs. Briggs was a very intimate friend of
fore he met my daughter. He permitted her
to visit the house most freely. She is wo-
man about forty-five years old who has been
divorced from her husband, though she OBJ
tanned the obtained the divorce on account of
his conduct, and there was nothing in the
proceedings to reflect on her. Mrs. Maybrick
told me this
"Mr. Maybrick was an intimate friend of
her father, Mr.. Janion, and had been on
close terms of friendship with the Janion
family all his life. When Mr.. Maybrick
married my daughter he was man of 43 and
she was girl OF IS.
Mrs. Briggs from the outset was potent
factor in the household. She kept a general
eye upon affairs. Mrs. Briggs had an un-
married sister, and | have no doubt that the
opinion prevailed that if Mr.. Maybrick's
taste had been all that it ought to have been
he would have married a Janion.
Gertrude Janion, her sister, has been
known for long time IN their circle to be in
love with Mr.. Briefly. Miss Janion. through
Mr.. Hughes, the husband of another sister.
caused quarrel between Mr.. and Mrs. Nav
brick at the race grounds. He was inspired
to do this by MissJanion because Mr.. Brierly