St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-22
BLINDED BY ACID.
A Husbands Terrible Revenge
Upon His Wife.

New York Morning journal.
Give me some vitriOl,' said Joseph
Cottrell, in the drug store at the corner
of Pearl and NeWChamberS streets yes
terday afternoon.
He explained that he wanted some
very strong acid to burn iron, and the
clerk put him up an ounce.
He returned in about fifteen minutes
and said it was not strong enough, as il
would not eat iron.
AS the clerk said he had given him
what he wanted and refused to take the
sulphurc acid back, Cottrell emptied
the ounce bottle in the street, and then
had it filled with muriatic acid, which
is more powerful.
He tested this on a caryingiknife a
foot and half long, as the mark Oh this
afterward showed.
On the fifth floor at No 81 Roosevelt
street his wife was living.
She was residing with her brother-in-
law, Mr.. Flood. Her sister had been
buried from there the day before, and
Mr.. Flood and his two children were at
deaths door when Cottrell called.
lie had been there before during the
day, and had asked Mrs. Cottrell, fine
looking woman, whose Christian name
Is Alllld. 10 return 10 MIN.
She had left him several years ago on
account of his ill treatment to her, and
she refused to live with him again.
He told her he would .'tiX' her if she
did not. Other men, friends of the
Floods, were in the apartments, and he
had to leave.
He fingered on the sidewalk until
about 3 O'Clock, when he went to the
nearest drug store and got the acid.
He was not excited at the time, so far
as the drug clerk saw. but he said he
was IN hurry when label was to be
pnt on the bottle, and that the label
might as we'll be left off. So no label
was put on.
When he again saw his wife it was
after Z O'Clock. He probably thought to
find fewer people in the house than In
the afternoon. He had the bottle UNI
corked when she came to the door to
meet him, and through the wide glass
neck he emptied the ounce on her face,
saying: Il guess you'll come now"
de ran down stairs. A shout went up
after him. He turned the corner and
ran up Madison street. but two police
men happened to be near, and he was
soon caught.
The bic, keen knife was found on him
at the Oak Street Police station, to
which the injured woman was brought
before being conveyed to the Chambers
Street hospital.
Her means were heartrending. One
eye was burned out; the other was SO
badly Injured that she will not be able
to See distinctly, if at all, from it should
she survive. Her right cheek was
burned away and tie features
of the rest of her cheek were
gone, her nose being partly DESTROYED.
Her lips showed the terrific effects of
the acid. She had put up her hands to
her face, and both of them were burned
in streaks. Drops of the acid had fallen
on her dress, ''and," said the police
sergeant,''a hundred holes were burned
IN the bosom of it," 81.
She could not speak; all she could do
was moan. 80
81 wish | had killed hero said Cot-.
trell. -
1T would have been mercy to her.
ii you had," remarked one of the police
men. so
Il came here to harm her, if she did
not do as l wanted" said Cottrell.
He was locked up. The police ser
geant said he did not appear to have
been drinking, bat was evidently des-
perate man.
Cottrell said he was clerk at Purdy's
Station OH the Harlem railroad. He
was not very we'll attired. His age is
thiFty-SiX.
His wife is thirty-three. She had a
head of golden hair of unusual length
and beauty. Drops of the acid had fallen
upon it.
The hospital physicians say there are
hopes of saving her life.