The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1889-10-03
TIKI ART or POISONING.
Some Famous Life Takers Women Who
Have Figured In Judicial Dramas.
The Popular PoIsoa.-AFssnIe ~.
ways AAFSeulc''-.A Case 81 AR
senlc atNOt PFOVen.o


Of the unreiormed English criminal Law
the wife who murdered her husband was
done 10 death with additional ignomy.
Tie crime was regarded as something
moFethan murder; It was petit treason"
and the woman who committed II was
fiEst drawn on q sledRe, instead Of cart,
10 the place Of execution, and then stran-
gled, after which the body was burnt By
the common hangman. But sometimes
the hangman, was In q hurry The was u
busy man in me eighteenth century,, and
began the burning before the strangula-
ton was complete. For instance, the no
toriOus Catherine Hayes, executed at ~
burn on the 18th Of May, 1926. for the
murder Of her husband, was literally
burnt TO death. 'Theexecutioner, letting
70 the rope sooner than usual, in Conse-
quence Of the flames reaching his hands,
the FIRE burnt hercely around her, and the
spectators beheld her pushing the iagOts
from her, while she rent the air with her
cries and lamentations. Other fagots
were instantly thrown on her, but she
suffered amid the flames for q consider
able time, and her body was not perfectly
reduced to ashes in less than three hours."
The popular" poison, 30 10 speak, has
always been arsenic. II was . compound
Of aEsenical neutral salts that Hieronyama
SpaTa was accustomed TO supply her
clients, the secret society Of young Roman
matFons. This wonderful elixir," rs she
grizzly termed 1t, was "a slow poison,
clear, tas,eless and limpid, and Of strength
sufficient to destroy life In the course Of =
day, week or month, or q number Of
months, as the purchaser preferred" and
u appears 10 have been similar In its
properties and action 10 the acquetta sub
sequently sold In Naples BY Tofana. Nov
and again, In the English criminal rec
ords, We ind stTychnine, prussic acid,
colchicum, aconite, oil Of vitriOl and
laurel water used TO destroy human life.
But arsenic has always held the feld,"
and its use during the past couple Of cen.
turies has been painfully common, even
among the labOring and agricultural
classes.
Coming 10 the present century, we find
the story Of poisoning BY arsenic-arsenic,
touiOus arsenie-repeated with weari-
some iteration. At Bristol, In 1885, Mary
Ann Burdock was put on her trial before
Sir Charles Wetherell for the murder Of
Clara Ann Smith BY the administration
Of arsenic. This was q case Of murder
Tor gain. Mrs. Smith was an elderly
woman, and was proven to have been in
possession OF at least ElOO0 shortly before
her death. The prisoner, who was in
poor circumstances, kept q lodging house.
The evidence Sas eircumstantiAl but over
Whelming, and the prisoner was found
guilty and executed. She was sentenced
on April -. Monday, and executed on
the following Wednesday. Yet this was
only two years before Queen Victoria as
eended the throDel
The case Of the notorious Mme. Lefaree,
IN France, Tor the murder Of her husband
By arsenic, administered In cake and q
fowl, attracted great interest In this coun-
Try. It's most remarkable feature was the
astounding disagreement between the
medical men. On September Q, lS4J, the
chemists who had searched the remains
To- nsnanNlE uaHsa@Na1 Nkae L.