The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-15
Spun By Pretty AntOinette BARGE In
San Francisco.
CLAIMED TO BE APOISONER
SAID SHE HAD MURDERED NU-
NERVOUS SALT LAKERS.
But 1t Was All to Create a Sensation
and to Impress Her Lover With
Her Importance" = The Lover
Became Frightened and Told the
Police.

San Francisco Call: W. e. Althey.
gripman on the Suffer street cars, star
tied the police department few days
ago by telling them story of multitudin-
Gus murder confessed to him by Antoin-
cite Baree a young Austrian woman with
whom he has been living for the past
month at 2714 Suffer street. The story,
he says, has so disturbed him that, as
means of securing peace and quitude of
mind, he revealed the history OF the
crimes to the police.
Althey met the woman, who is very
pretty and about 10 years OF age. apout,
month ago. At that time she was work
ing in Mack's restaurant on Ninth street
He formed friendship which soon grew
so strong that he made her a pro1er OF
marriage. About ten days ago his feel
ings underwent a revulsion and he began
to fear for his life, for, he says, in mo-
ment of confidence the woman revealed
to him a story which in its coldblooded-
ness and the hideousness of execution has
not been surpassed by the famous Bender
family whose victims were numbered by
the score. He says she detailed TO him a
story of murders perpetrated IN croWued
cities in broad daylight and actuated by
no motive of gain, but simply to aVenSe
petty spite or fancied wrongs
According to the story which Althey
says was told him by his consort, she is
in Salt Lake City.
About a month ago. said Althey.
this woman told me that she and
friend whose name she would not give,
but whom she described as being very
beautiful had killed two men in Salt Lake
City. She would not give me their names
One of the men was friend OF her
friend and one day while he was in a
room at their house they had a quarrel.
The man said something mean to the
girl and Antoinette, who was in an ad-
some poison He fell over and they
dragged the body to the bathroom and
locked the door.
A few hours afterward, according to the
story told by Althey, the girls went to the
landlady and told her that there was
something the matter with the bathhOuse
door. When the landlady opened the
door she found th6Tnan there dead:
The girls, so the story goes, had letters
which purported to have been written by
the dead man, in which he had said If
they did not treat him better he would
commit suicide. That was the theory
on which the case was cleared up and the
girls saved.
At another time Althey says that An
toinette told him that she had made sew
eral men shuttle off, When he asked
what she meant she had informed him
that they had been killed.
Althey said she also told him she had
studied medicine under doctor who mad
taught her the use and effect of poisons,
and that her preceptor had subsequently
fallen a victim to a drug administered by
her hand.
Tt
she had managed to murder so many PEG
pie without being detected. she told him
she and her friends had taken the pre-
caution to get letters from their victims
in which they had stated that if their
suits to the hands of the charmers did
not prosper that they would commit sui
eide.
These letters, he said, were produced at
the coroner's inqueSts and helped to con-
firm the juryInen in the idea that the VIC
tins had committed suicide
Althey stated that he had attempted to
learn from the woman the names of some
of the victims. but could not do so. All
that she would say was that one of them
was named carl, and he had been muir
dered in Salt Lake City. The woman con-
fessed to him, so he stated, that Carl had
died by her hand.
The woman stated that after she left
Austria she went to Germany and France
before coming to California. Althey says
she told him she and her friend, whose
she alluded to as Miss had disposed of
several men in those countries. After
leaving the old country she came to
Vacaville where she stated that she
worked for Mrs. Buck.
Althey says he became so alarmed at
the story of crime related to him by the
young woman that he thought he should
report the matter to the police. and he did
afraid that the woman would murder him.
and he gave that as the reason why he
had disclosed the secret he says was con-
fided to him.
Detective Gibson saw the woman yester-
day She did not deny having made the
statement, although she denied that there
was any truth whatever in the stories.
She told him that she had come to Salt
Lake direct from Austria, and had not
stopped in Germany nor France. She
claims to have. lived with a family named
Blum at 635 South Main street She
worked in a hairdressing. DarlOr there.
The woman alleged to have been her as
sociate. she said. was Mrs. Blum, and
that the Miss she referred to was a
myth.
When seen last night the woman did
not deny that she had told stories of
crime to Althey, but in explanation of the
act said that she had done so in order to
try him. The police are of the opinion
that the girl is a romancer and has been
telling Althey fairy tales in order to i'm
press him with her Importance.