The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-26
DECEIT. THEN DEATH.
The End of q Career and the Dense Mys-
terry Surrounding the Case.

The End OF a Career and the Dense mys-
terry Surrounding the Case.
Philadelphia, March 25.-There IS lit
tie doubt to-day that Annie McGrath,
| found dead at No. 1926 Girard avenue
| Monday night, was either killed as a
result of a plan for a double suicide
with Samuel Langdon, a wealthy coal
| operator, whose mistress she was, or
that she alone committed suicide. The
| evidence thus far adduced points al
most conclusively to the theory that
Langdon took her life, then attempted
to commit suicide, but forsook this
| purpose and fed.
The most Terminating fact is that
the girls lips and almost the entire In
terror of her mouth were burned and
discolored as If by acid poison, while
Langdon's tongue from the tip of the
palate is a series of ulcers and mucous
patches which, according to his own
statement were not there before Mon
day. This condition is almost exactly
similar to that existing in the girls
mouth. except that in the latter Ii is
more aggravated.
Bertha Stewart, a colored servant
employed by the couple, was the last
person except Langdon, who saw the
girl alive. This was about half past 3
O'Clock Sunday afternoon. Mrs. Lang
don. as she was known. came down
stairs and told the servant to prepare
dinner She then returned to the bed
room, where her supposed husband
had been with her all day. There was
no further sign from the upper part of
the house until 4:30 o'clock, when she
heard a piercing scream. She hurried
up stairs and knocked at the door.
Langdon, clad only in his night shirt,
opened the door and told her her mis-
tresS was suffering from a bilious att
tack to which she was subject. Through
the aperture the servant saw her mis-
tress lying on the bed with a towel
on her face She was motionless and
may have been dead then. Langdon
evidently had been lying on the floor.
AT o'clock he came down alone to
dinner, and told the girl not to disturb
her mistress who was not we'll He
gave her the keys to the house, and
left, saying he was going to New York.
That night the body was discovered
The girls relations deny that she was
ever subject to bilious attacks. Thurs
day morning the Stewart girl received
postal card from Langdon, mailed
after he left the house the night before
instructing her II her mistress was no
better by Tuesday to notify her father,
Henry McGrath.
When arrested yesterday Langdon
complained of being i'll and shortly ant
erwards vomited copiously He told
Ponce Surgeon Andrews his throat and
tongue were liberated from excessive
smoking, but he had not before been
troubled with such an affection The
surgeon found the throat in good con-
dition, and says smoking does not pro-
duce such liberation as in this case
The mouth looked as if il had been
burned by an irritant, such as ether
or chloroform. The condition might
have been produced by mineral acid
In small quantities.
Bertha Stewart made the further
statement to-day that Monday morning
she Went up to awaken Langdon, but
could not arouse him. She heard him
snoring. She made another attempt
later in the day with a similar result.
The father of the dead girl told Coro-
ner Ashbridge to-day his daughter de-
ceiVed him. Her excuse for her alb
sence three or four days at a time was
that she had been visiting friends, and
this was accepted without question.
1t was learned this afternoon that
Mrs Langdon, the wife of Samuel p
Langdon, who is held by the Philadel-
phia police authorities pending the in
vestigation into the cause of Annie Nc
Grath's death. has been living with her
parents at Springdale, Allegheny coun-
ty, ever since Langdon applied for
divorce. The petition was filed in Blair
county last July and was for an abso-
lutte divorce on the ground of cruel
and barbarous treatment