Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-02
SHE CONFESSES.
Mrs. VIM. Deering Of Brewer
Shot Her Husband.
Driven to Deed by Brutal and Inhuman
Treatment by the Man.
She Is Dying of Cancer and the Law
Will Not Act.

Bangor, Me-, April Whatever
terry of the death of VIM. A. Deerlng
in Brewer on the night of March IA,
was furnished, today, by the wife of
the dead man. Mrs. Mary H. Deer
ing, who is dying of a cancer, and
who has been charged by coroner's
jury with having killed her husband,
has made statement under oath to
County Attorney Smith and in this
statement practically confesses that it
was she alone and unaided who COM
mitted the deed.
She does not clearly state just how
the fatal shot was fired, but says that
she took the revolver from beneath the
mattress of her bed and went to her
husbands room with the intention of
killing him and then herself
She says that her sister, Mrs. e. ID.
Jones. knew nothing of her intentions
until after it was too late
Mrs. Deering deposes that she was
married q years ago and that her life
for the most part since then has been
most unhappy. She says that Deering
has beaten her numerically and has
made life a burden for her for many
years.
Once when they were living at q
Bangor hotel and again when in Buff
falo, he threatened to kill her, saying
that he would split her head open.
She says he has entered her room in
the dead hours of the night, seized her
by the hair and dragged her from room
to room. He has then stripped her
clothing from her in shreds and dared
her to move a muscle or to cry for
help.
On one occasion when he was slightly
i'll and in bed, she was caring for him,
although she was herself very i'll and
weak. He asked her to bring him
something. She did not respond inn
mediately, whereupon he leaped from
the bed and struck her with a heavy
dining chair. From the effects of this
blow she lay in bed three weeks, unable
to turn over. Her attending physician
told her that three ribs We're broken.
Two years ago he struck her a fearful
blow with his fist, causing great pain
which became worse. A physician
whom she consulted told her that the
bruise would result in a cancer and it
has She is dying from the effects of
the cancer.
On the very afternoon previous to the
shooting Deering came into her ROOM
He stood by her bedside and coolly
told her that she could not last long
and that he constantly prayed that her
end would come soon. He tainted
her with her condition and told her
what JOY would be his when he should
look within a coffin and view her
corpse.
1t was the years of brutal treatment,
followed by cruel taunts such as these
that drove the dying woman to des-
peration and nerved her to determine
ton that she would end everything that
night.
She decided then and not before then
so she says to kill him and then COM
NIT suicide. Her greatest fear was
not that Deering would kill her, but
that he would kill her sister.
Such in brief is the story of Mrs.
Deering, who for the first time explains
the nature of the provocation which in
duced her to kill her husband.
Mrs. Deering is failing. She cannot
live very long and County Attorney
Smith has decided that the law can do
nothing. Nature will be allowed to
take it's course.