The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-09-11
A MURDEROUS MANIAC.
The Many Grimes Charged Against
-. Lizzie Halliday.
AMANIA LIKE JACK THE RIPPER"
sho Killed and Mutilated Her First Hus-
band In tho Same Manner as Her seo-
ond-The McQuiiian Women Murdered
Through Thirst for Blood.

Dlnu IN tno same ds hoE soo-
ond-The Mcouiiian Women Murdered
Through Thirst for Blood.
MIDDLETowN, N. Y, Sept. 1.-THE soln-
zion of the mystery surrounding Lizzie
Halliday's awful crimes will be found in
che history of her previous life and her re-
latons with her husband.
Young Paul and Robert Halliday have
told their stories, and when all this new
and old information is put together there
Is produced story of very unusual, but
not of unprecedented criminality.
Lizzie Halliday, herself type OF low
humanity, was merely an ignorant, mean,
cunning and revengeful woman with the
belief that she possessed the power to de-
ceive everybody she chose.
This appears to have been her character
under ordinary circumstances, but at GER
tain periods she appears to have become
possessed Of mania. On each occasion
when she was in this wild mental con-
dition she was expecting to become a
mother.
She never did, however, so far as is
known, give birth to d living child. This
mania, which is not without numerous
precedents, assumed in Lizzie Hallday's
case phase almost tunbelievably shocking
In fact, there is excellent reason to as
sumo that her case and that of the
mysterious London assassin, known as
slack the Ripper" are very similar
In both the mania appears to have de-
Seloped crimes of similar nature, the
difference being chiefly that in one it de-
Veloped in man and in this last case in a
woman.
Lizzie Halliday has killed two men in
her life, both of them husbands, and she
mutilated both.
1t has just come out, through the stories
told by Paul Halliday's two sons, that the
woman confessed to old Paul soon after
her marriage to him that she had been
married before, and had killed and then
hacked her husband.
Old Paul professed not to believe this
story, and undoubtedly did not But it
now appears that she treated his body
after she had killed him as she had that Of
her first husband.
Her two subsequent crimes, the killing
Of the McQuillan women, must have been
committed In pure thirst for blood, in
luced by her mania and probably whetted
by her fearful crime of n few days before.
Che did not mutilatc the bodies Of the
women, which shows that it must have
been merely thirst for blood which
prompted her to the deed.
In q protracted interview with Robert
Halliday, the eldest son of the murdered
man, he made the following statement:
''This woman came from the same county
In Ireland as my father. He told me this
himself He first met her in an intelli-
gence Office in Newburg, where he secured
her services rs housekeeper. Some time
after he married her. None of the family
liked the woman. Her appearance was
against her She did not conduct herself
Rs wife should. My father, however,
was infatuated with her, She held pc.
-puliar influence over him which nothing
pould shake. Soon after his marriage to
the woman, who gave her name rs Lizzie
Brown, there began the peculiar success
sion of crimes which finally led to her be-
ing committed to the insane asylum.
First there was the burning OF the
house. Then the burning Of the barn, and
finally the burning of the old mill where
my father, his wife and my brother John
lived, In which fire my brother lost his
lfe.
"Following this at stated period came
her theft of the team of a Newburg livery
man. She hired horse and buggy in
Eewburg on the statement that she was
poor Irish servant who wanted to visit hei
sick mother. The man let her have q
horse and buggy She drove out of town
got an old man to go with her as she die
not know the country, and within twenty
four hours had sold the rig and horse tC
some gypsies.
''She was arrested, tried and found not
guilty on the ground of insanity.
1.-Two fires in my fathers place occurred
In quick succession. After longer period
eame the conhagratlon in which my young
brother perished For this crime she wa,
arrested, but on the ground of insanity
vas remanded to the insane asylum Al
Middletown. She remained there awhile
was then sent to another asylum, ant
finally was released as cured at my father
request.
MY father told me subsequently to thes'
affairs that his wife, at the time of thcil
commission, was in a condition peculiar t
women. That when in that condition sh,
was subject 10 spells of insanity. Will
the disappearance of the physical condition
there was disappearance of the crimina
tendencies. I begged my father to leave
ihe woman, but he would not listen t.
me.n
After a great deal Of deliberation tn
coroner's jury arrived at this verdict. wv
do say upon our oath that Margaret j
McQuillan and Sarah J. McQuillan cam
Co their deaths from bullets fired from
pistol In the hands Of Lizzie Halliday
That said Margaret was killed on or abou
Aug 3o and Sarah j. McQuilau on o
about Sept. o."
The inquest on the body of Paul HALL
day was resumed at 8 o'clock this morn
ing, but nothing new, it is believed, viii
be elected. After that the case will sinl
out of sight until Mrs. Halliday is calle,
to answer at court some time next month
---------------
Tho Vatican win Investigate.
ROME, Sept. 1.-THE Vatican is abou
70 open an inquiry of the most searching
character into the latest opposition t.
Mgr Satolli in the United States, an or
position which has ramifying influence
extending to Rome itself. The vatican ha
resolved to act with tho greatest energ