Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-09-11
CRIME OF A WOMAN
And Remarkable Plea Made in
Her Defense.
A REOURRENT MANIA FOR MURDER

Her Victims Five in Number. Two of
Them Her Husbands-A New York Com
munity Much Exoited-Choked to Death
and Robbed on Busy Street at Kansas
City-Fate of Jane Wright-The Delta
Robbers Identified.
MIDDLETowN, y. Y, Sept. n-This
place is shaken to its very center just now
by three emotions-horror anger and won.
der. The horror began when some days
ago, and entirely Unexpectedly, the bodies
of Sarah McQuillan and her daughter
Margaret were found. They had evident
ly been murdered; but who was the muir
dereri Suspicion soon rested on Mrs.
Paul Halliday and she was arrested.
The evidence against her was strong but
she acted before the court like an insane
woman and gave unmeaning and unin-
telligible replies to all questions asked
her. With the assurance that she was the
murderess came anger
Nobocrutic Movement Started.
The mobocracy here popped up, and
Judge LyLch was Immediately in evil
dence, but the sheriff wac shrewd enough
to get the prisoner out of the way until
mob talk ceased and order was assured
Then it was remarked that Paul Halliday
was missing and his Grand Army friends
quickly repudiated the suggestion that he
was participant in the crime and set TO
hunting for him. They found him stark
aud stiff under the floor of his own house
-foully murdered. Here the Indignation
and anger grew hotter hut the mobocracy
did not put in an appearance. and law and
order took its course. Saturday the woman
was indicted for the murder of the Nc
Quinlans and she will be indicted for the
murder of her husband
Where the Wonder Comes In.
And here is where the wonder comes in.
The case against Mrs. Halliday is clear
She Is ndOubtedly-speaking humanity
the criminal who must answer for three
lives. The counsel for the defense prac.
tically admit it, by the plea they put in
a most remarkable and startling one and
gathered from a statement of Robert Hal
liGay, eldest son of the murdered man
is Hecurrent insanity, the time of re-
currence being when the woman is in the
way Of becoming a mother. In other
words that at the time when she is
about to give the world a life she is i'm
PEELED by this insanity to take one also.
Robert HalIiday's Strange Story.
And this is Robert Halliday's story,
upon which the defense will be made:
"My father told me that this woman came
from his native county in Ireland; that soon
after his marriage she told him that he
was not her first husband. but that she
had been married in ireland. She did not
like her first husband, and one night when
he was asleep she killed him with big
stone and afterward mutilated his body
She also told my fat er that she could
commit any crime or crimes she cared TO
and that she could always escape detec
ton. She had never been suspected of
the murder of her first husband and she
would never be apprehended in any other
crime which she chose to commit. She
boosted then of having deceived the physi-
clans at the Middletown asylum and
added that she could fool the best doctor
by playing off insane.
Responsible for Fourth Life.
at was soon after this that the burning
of the house, barn and stable occurred
When the stable was burned my younger
brother persisted and we all knew that she
had set the place on fire. Then came her
escapade at Newburg when she hired a
horse and sold it, for which she was tried
but escaped conviction on the ground of
insanity. Speaking of these crimes my
father told me that when Lizzie his wife,
committed them she was in a condition
peculiar TO married women. Shortly after
she got rid of the physical cause of her
spells of insanity she resumed her normal
condition of life. 1t was a knowledge of
the fact that my fathers wife was again
In an interesting condition, as he had in
formed me, that led me to make a search
for the old gentleman when it was reported
that he had not been seen for several
days"
A Very Wonderful Woman, Indeed.
''When your father knew this why did
he not leave the woman"
''Ee was infatuated with her. We tried
to get him to leave her, but he refused. He
said she WIS the most wonderful woman
he had ever met"
This the latest sensational feature of the
Halliday murders. 1t is further believed
by persons who have studied the woman
and her actions that she is afflicted with
mania which is not unknown, though
rare, in criminal Jurisprudence. This
murderous impulse always occurs to her
when she is approaching motherhood. She
is believed to be in that condition now.