The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-11
GREAT POISON MYSTERY.
Death of Mrs. Bliss May Rank Among
Celebrated Grimes.
From the Phnadelphla Press.

From the Philadelphia Press.
New York. Sept. 5-When the jury
found DR.. Buchanan guilty upon the
charge of numbering his wife by means
OF poison, the district attorney is re-
ported to have said: THAT verdict will
put stop TO poisoning in New York"
Not very long before this extraordinary
case was successfully prosecuted another
Jury had pronounced Carlisle Harris
guilty of the murder by poison of a young
girl to whom he had been secretly mar
ried. To have procured two convictions
upon charges Of murder IN the first de-
gree with poison as the deadly agent was
thought not only BY prosecuting officers
everywhere as remarkable, since death by
poison, while il is not very difficult 70
establish, is by the very nature Of the
agency, frequently difficult to prove. 1t
is the one form of murder which pros
ecuting officers mostly dread to test be-
fore a jury. Circumstantial evidence
must be relied upon, since the actual ad-
mnistering of poison can he so done as
to escape the notice Of anyone OF the
considerable number of trials Of accused
prisoners which have been prosecuted in
the past fifty years in this state only
four or five have been established as MUIR
derers to the satisfaction of the jury.
MlLllln a rev months Two young women
were unnecessarily prosecuted upon a
charge of poisoning a brother that they
might therby come into the possession
of money.
Other facts than those whoch have been
reported in the newspapers here, but which
. the police and the prosecuting officers are
not justified a { present in revealing, cause
it to seem very likely that the prosecut-
ton of a woman who calls herself Mrs.
hrar trrta q Mary
Livingston, viii be sensation in the true
meaning of that word. 1t may become a
celebrated case. 1t may take its place with
the mysterious deaths by poisoning OF Jen-
ME Cramer. If she was poisoned, and Of
Mary Stannard, to whom arsenic was
given and whose throat was cut before
the poison caused death. In this case the
clergyman who was prosecuted, and
against whom strong moral evidence of
guilt was established. was nevertheless
not convicted because the circumstanti2l
evidence was not sufficient legally 10
connect him with the crime. Nor was the
son of the rich New Haven merchant,
who was accused of the murder of Jennie
Cramer, successfully prosecuted and for
the same reason.
Even il Miss Livingston be unsuccess-
fully brought before a jury, the case will
be remarkable, partly because of her
strange career, the story of tainted he
redity which it will suggest, because her
name and her blood suggests. her re-
lationship to one of the greatest of Amer
lean families, and her life in some way Is
comparable with that career which
made miserable a gifted descend
ant Of another great American
family which was closely allied with the
Livingstons. Moreover II is going to be
very difficult to establish by means Of the
testimony Of a legal infant who is also
the daughter of the accused person, di-
rect connection between her mother. the
administration of poison, and the death
of Mrs Bliss, which the physicians say
was undoubtedly due to a violent poison.
The story in a word is this: Mrs. Bliss,
the widow of the late Judge Livingston,
of one of the upper counties, and the
mother Of Miss Mary A. Livingston was
suddenly overcome by deadly Illness on
Friday Of last week, died in such manner
as to suggest that she had been purposely
poisoned. Her daughter, Miss Livingston,
was, 1t is said, to gain benefit TO the extent
of many thousand dollars by the death OF
the mother. Therefore 1t Is presumed, the
presumption being based upon the fact
that Mrs. Bliss died after eating.of dish
which the daughter sent her, and in the
remnants Of which the scientists have
found traces of poison; that Miss Living
ston sought her mothers death, so that
she might come into possession Of for
tune.
OF course when such terrible accusa-
lions are made, the first impulse OF the
police is to make inquiry so that the life
and disposition OF the suspected person
may be known. Unfortunately for Miss
Livingston that investigation was not
such as to make II impossible to believe
that she could have conceived or com
mitted this crime. She is a mother with
no marriage certificate. She, in fast, has
suing a wealthy and typically fast young
New Yorker for breach of promise ask
ing large damages for the sake of the
child, which was hers, and which she
claimed also to be his. Afterward she
made another accusation in legal form,
and like nature, which involved. IL true,
the character of a respected lawyer. That
came to paught. She was defeated, but
the first case she won, gaining as much
as $4,000 damages, but before a second
trial could be had upon appeal she made
private settlement of her claim because
as the counsel for the man she had sued
had said, he had discovered her wayward
impulses had dominated her even IN her
early girlhood.
These suits were the sensation of the
moment, when they We're brought, part
ly because the men from whom she
claimed damages, were conspicuous and
partly because the young woman was a
Livingston. The Livingstons were OF
the colonial aristocracy Of New York
They were wealthy, they were intimate
with the descendants Of the early Dutch
settlers, whose families to this day make
the exclusive aristOcracy Of New York,
and not that which numbers among its
members the new rich, or those who form
what is called the smart set. They were
powerful in politics. The head of the FAM
lily in the days just after the revolution
was one of the great inteliects of New
York. He was one of the early sachems
of the Tammany which numbered among
its members the two Clintons, Aaron Burr
and others who with Jefferson, formed
the Democratic party. A scion of the
family who went 10 Louisiana gained
the confidence of Andrew jackson, is
supposed to have written many of Jack
sons state papers, and served him in
his cabinet. Nearly all of the men Of
the family turned TO law, and Miss Living
ston's father, who was collatarally de-
eran6Q6 frOuo fha great Twin rycfo,, a..