Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1892-10-27
Mary B1andly, Parricide.

In the High Street, and nigh to
the: Angel Inn, lived, in f751, an
attorney-at law, Mr.. Francis
Blandy, ia.W a Widower with one child,
Eathe arling of ,hissoul, the COM
fort. Of ;hisage.p p -a.t sesdaYsS the
line separating town and county
society was very definite, and :Mr,
;Btandy sWas oolish 8 enough, 50
that his; Nary ght vault I. this
barrier, to give out shat his dau-
ghter would have from him S10,5
600 as dowry. il chance Cap
tain Cranston, a married man, of
old border birth, and debauche Of
the first degree, came to Henley
in commanded a recruiting party.
He heard, saw, and loved Mary
and her famed f1o,ooo, and for
Igetful Of his wife in { Scotland,
proposed to;her. The father, dis
liking the; man and distrusting his
story, was ayerse to Ethe marriage
and forbade it. There upon the
captain, as alnxiousfor ii Z the money
as Mary was for him, determined
on slow poiso ming. As early as
the month Of August, 1850, he
endowed himself with conven-
lent second sight, and with.infnite
cunning gave out that he saw Mr..
Blandy's wraith, q certain sign Of
death, he said. However, it was
not until November that Mary,
under his instructions began to
poison her doting father, when
Cranston left, for Scotland and
sent her Scotch pebbles as a love
gift;sso Thoughtful was he, indeed,
that wishing his jewels should
ever look their brightest on his
ladylove, he even provided q spec
ial powder to clean them with.
This powder was arsenic, and in
the early spring of the next year
our slow-poisoning damsel had the
satisfaction Of seeing her fathers
teeth dropping whole from their
sockets out Of his head. On her
perceiying this, she damned him
for a toothless old rogue, and
wished him at hell" In March, by
accident, she gave the -charwoman,
Ann Emmett, some Of the poisoned
tea; but was. s.horriied when the
daughter came ming with tie
m news of Emmett s Illness. Shs sent
for remedies at once, and cared
tenderly for the sick woman till
she recovered; a few days after
another of the servants tasted the
tea and fell i'll. Mary became
alarmed; she did not care to
poison others; it was only her
father she wished away, for, "who
would grudge to send an old
father to hell for G10,000?" She
wrote again to Cranston for fresh
instructions, who bids her "not to
put the arsenic in tea, but into
some liquid of a more thickish
substance" Time was getting on,
and Cranston, whose debtors were
becoming more eager, writes again
impatiently on July 18th: "I am
sorry there are such occasions to
clean your pebbles; you must
make use of the powder for them
by putting it in anything of sub
stance, wherein it will not swim
OH top of the water, on which I
wrote to you of in one of my last.
I am afraid twill be too weak to
take off the rust, or atleast it will
take too long q time" He also
described the beauties of Scot
land, and tells her that his mother,
Lady Cranston, has employed
workmen to fit up a room in
Lenell House. On receipt of this
letter Mary began to double the
dose, and soon after nearly killed
the unfortunate charwoman again.
Mary was in bed at the time, but
on hearing how dangerously i'll
Emmett had been, "Poor woman, I
am glad I was not up; I should
have been shocked to have seen
her." she said. The sight of her
dying father never shocked her, as
relentlessly she completed her
task. The servants now suspected
cause of their masters illness,
and one of them, Susan Gunnell,
with every precaution told Mr..
Blandy the strong ground they
had for thinking that his daugh-
ter was the cause of his illness.
l.