Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-01-21
WAS IT POISON?
The Mysterious Death of
Mrs. B. d. Fargo.
THE CORONER NOT NOTIFIED.
1t is Believed that She Committed
Suicide While Suffering From
MelanchOlia.

On Thursday night, in the Moro Castle
lodging-house on Main street, Mrs. B. D.
Fargo, wife of clerk in the Peoples
Store, died in a manner that suggests
poisoning, and was buried on Saturday
without any inquest having been held
over her remains. The history of the
case is as follows: Mrs. Fargo was the
only daughter of the late Mrs. Mckenzie,
who piled the vocation of dressmaker on
Fort street near Third, and whose de-
mise was duly noted about two months
ago. Mrs. McKenzie's death is said to
have been almost as tragic as that of
her daughter, for it is related that one
night the two women, both, presumably,
in good health, stood at the window with
their arms entwined around each others
waists looking at the full, white moon
and the starry skies above.
''How l would like to be up there and
at rest," said Mrs. Mckenzie, and as she
turned away with sigh from the scene
she suddenly became pale, for a terrible
pain had stricken her in the side. A few
minutes later and her alarmed daughter
was summoning doctor, but medical
aid was all in vain, for within few
days Mrs. Mckenzie had found that
peace for which she had asked, the
physician diagnosing the case as one of
acute Inflammation OF the bowels. As
the dying woman lay waiting for the end
to come, she beseeched her daughter,
who had been engaged for some time to
young Fargo, to be married, but her
grief. benumbed child 'moaned that she
could not think of such g.
thing. Two weeks after the funeral
however, the wedding took place and
those who at first marveled at what
would appear heedlessness on the part
of the daughter, hushed their tongues
when they learned that she had been
left practically destitute. Mrs. Fargo
was never bride in the true sense Of
the word, for her great grief at the loss
of her parent choked down at times the
newborn happiness of her welded life.
She seemed to be half demented and one
day her husband returned to find her
gone. He knew where to look for her,
for every moment she could spare she
passed in the cemetery and there he
found her stretched across the grave of
her mother.
"Let me stay here" she walled
when he attempted to remove her
and it was almost by force that she
was brought back to her home. She
complained at times Of severe pain in
the back of the head at the base of the
brain, and about week ago this became
SO insutferable that her physician gave
her very strong poisonous liniment to
apply externally. He warned both her
and her nurse to be careful of it as it was
extremely dangerous and would result
fatally if by any chance taken internally.
On Thursday afternoon she was up and
about as usual, and when her husband
came in at 6 O'Clock he WAS surprised
when after loving greeting she said, 81
will be dead in half an hour" He
thought she was only joking
and went out again on business
that detained him about forty-five
minutes. When he re.entered the
room he found his wife stretched across
the bed in the agonies of death, and
few hours later she was dead.
The inmates of the building where the
sad tragedy occurred are mostly of
opinion that the deceased took the
poison with suicidal intent during q
period of extreme melancholia, which
was further heightened by the absence
of her nurse. Others think that she
either took or had the liniment adminis-
tered to her in mistake for medicine.
The question arises, why was there no
inquest held by the Coroner before the
remains were inferred ?