The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1896-10-15
WOMAN TORTURED
MARIE yIyOID NARHATEs A STORY
OF MALTREATMESr
Fiendish CrucIties, She Says, Were
Inflicted by Italians Near
This CITY.

Spokane, Wash, Oct. lion bed
in the farm house of d. j. Bal
lard on White Bluff prairie Marie
Vivoid. a Polish woman. lies, mass Of
cuts and bruises. If the story or even
half the story, told by her is true. she
| has suffered a great wrong and been most
| brutality and cruelty maltreated
| The woman is "a years OF age, and an
| ignorant Pole. She can speak but Il few
| words of English, and when seen yester-
| day by a Spokesman Review reporter
was so weak that she could hardly talk,
| hut made strenuous efforts to tell her
| story and how she received her present
| injuries.
Five months ago Marie yivoid. then
| living in little town in Poland. having
lost her husband, came to America at the
| request of her brother-in-law, who sent
| her money for the passage. He was
| then In Spokane, and she at once came
| to this western city among strangers
and unable to speak with or understand
| them. The brother-in-law evidently was
not as well pleased with his late broth
| ers wife as he expected. He took her to
the Sacred Heart hospital, where he ire
vailed upon the sisters to let her work
l
| the girl She was to get $12 per MONTH and
that he was going away to get work ana
would write to her as soon as he could
When she discovered she was receiving
no pay she left the hospital and fell in
with a Polish woman whose Identity or
residence Is unknown.
! Here lombard, an Italian gardener
with ranch some six miles west of the
| city came looking for a girl and hired
| her. This was three months ago. Last
| Sunday morning the barn on Lombardi's
| place burned. He said he had lot of
money hidden in the barn, and that the
| woman had stolen 1t and set FIRE TO the
barn to conceal the crime.
| Wednesday he came to the city and
| swore out a warrant for her arrest for
stealing the money The same day d.
| II, Ballard. a farmer living about four
| miles from Lombardfs place also appear
ed at the court house and told the Off
Gals that the woman in question had
been most brutally beaten, and was then
at his house. Constable Fink went out
with the warrant for her arrest sworn
to by lombard, while DR.. Newman went
along to attend the wounded woman.
AS she could not move, the warrant was
| not served
| FrIgbtfuIIy MaItreatcd.
Yesterday Spokesman Review report
er, accompanied by Max FOX as inter-
| prefer, went out to see the woman. She
is still at the house of Mr. Ballard, un-
able even to turn over in bed. She is
a strong looking Polish woman, "a years
of age, with the constitution of a big
man. She is uneducated and speaks a
peculiar dialect of Polish so that she
is hard to understand even by one speak
ing her language. She knows but a few
words in English. AS she told her story
she several times started to raise her
head from the pillow to emphasize some
word but dropped back exhausted and
called FOR water in a whisper. Several
times she came near swooning.
She presents a frightful appearance.
! Her throat shows the prints of a hand.
S'lAers she aeii she lse,4 sev11 eioitoti.
the skin is scratched as If with finger
| nails. The back of her head Is badly
swollen, where she says she was struck
by her assallant On her face are num-
Der of cuts from knife blade. There
are two slashes across her lip from the
nose down to the corner of her mouth
another under the nose, and still another
small cut on the bridge of the nose Then
there are several marks as though the
sharp point of a knife had been stuck
into her face. There is a cut on her
breast, another on her abdomen, with
quite a deep one on her left hip Her
abdomen Is black and blue, while from
her waist TO her feet she is almost solidly
black and blue Her ankles are badly
swollen and bruised, with the skin cut in
several places. Her back IS also almost
a solid mass of bruises.
She was quite weak, and spoke with
some difficulty, but through the inter-
prefer. her few English words and her
dramatic way of illustrating things the
following story was secured from her.
The woman's Story.
| II came to America as my brother-in-
law wanted me to- He got me place
IN the hospital, and afterwards 1 met
Polish woman. l could not talk En-
gliah, and she said she would get me
place, and lombard came and hired me-
did not want to go, and cried three
days, but she told me he was a good
man, and l could do nothing else. so l
went When I went out he told me
should occupy his room, but ] told him
l came to work, and not to be his wife
He had glass needle, in which he nut
some white medicine (she meant a hypo-
dermie syringe and morphine) and he
said if I did not yield to his demands
he would stick me with that | said |
would not do 1t, and when / turned my
back he put some of the white medicine
In my coffee, but l threw the cup away
and would not drink it. He made me
occupy the room with him. Last Sunday
| morning at o'clock l was sleeping ana
lombard had his arm over me so | could
not get away when John (another Ital-
ian) came into the room and said the
barn was aflre. We got ups and LON
bardi said he would lose his money and
asked me II l took 1t. | did not know
where he had any money, and said il /
took 1t they could take me to town ana
put me In jail. / then said / would go
to town, but lombard said No, no.
| Marie / no want you to go away
like you, Marie. You stay here Then
he did not say any more about the money
Monday night he came in and got his
coat and said he was going to Five Mile
prairie to get a load OF hay, and would
be back In the morning at o'clock. /
| wash the dishes and the cook say l must
come TO his room. l told him no, bat he
took me In the room, locked tho door
I and tied u handkerchief over my mouth
| so | could not make any noise. All the
/ night l could not sleep, and once 1
looked at the window and saw lombard
looking in. About ) o'clock in the morn
! ing | went out. and lombard was there.
| He grabbed me by the throat and cholxed