The sun., 1903-12-07
CHURCH SCANDAL IN UTICA.
STRANGE CONDUCT or 4 WOMAN
ADDICTED TO OPIUM.
She Wrote Letters TO Herself and Her
Pastor DefaminE Her Own Character
and Accused Two Other Women OF
writing Them - Her Explanation.

Pastor DeIHnlInB f1er VNu SuuTac'Vi
and Accused Two Other Women OF
writing Them - Her Explanation.
| UTICA, Dec. 8-The strange case or Mrs
Mart ha Owens Of this city, whose DR.. Jelyll
and Mr.. Hyde career has just been revealed
in public print. has created stir here
abouts. At a special meeting Of the mem-
bers of the fashionable Tabernacle Baptist
Church on Friday night the society decided
to withdraw from Mrs. Owens the hand Of
church fellowship. The action was unani-
| nous, vet there were only few in the
meeting who knew exactly why the woman
wss o be robbed OF her church connections.
The facts in the case have just leaked
out. The nominal charge made against
| the woman was walking disorderly.' and
her retirement from the high place she long
| held in the Tabernacle Church was the
sequence to mysterious case that rivals
anything that has ever been encountered
in Utica religious circles.
| AZ early as last spring the Rev. Mr.. Wal
| lace, pastor of the church, received an
anonymous communication signed "A Good
| Church Member" In It was an attack
| upon the character of Mrs. Owens and was
scathing In its terms. The letter not only
| DETAINED her character. but demanded an
investigation. lnlB PtltT wac NIttSH III a
feminine hand and showed plainly that the
writer had endeavoreo to disguise her
style. The pastor glanced 1t over and
dismissed it temporarily from his mind.
a. one is justified in doing with letters from
anonymous writer's.
A few days later Mrs Owens called at
the pastors house and announced to him
that sle had received an anonymous com
munication. She had called for advice
and was surprised when informed by the
IL kDxl tn1h =
lette-. The letters were compared. They
werc he product of the same pen and
We ,.'iilary signed.
ii" .etter to the woman reminded her
that she was conducting herself improp-
eriy and mentioned the name Of promi-
nent church member in connection with
her alleged misconduct. To the pastor.
the woman stoutly denied that any OF the
charges was true, and characterized the
attempt to harm her reputation as work
of spite She was advised to pay no heed
to the letters.
few weeks later Pastor Wallace re-
ceived another letter in the same strain as
the first demanding that the woman
be removed from the church. Again Mrs.
Owens conferred with the pastor, and upon
being questioned she disclosed the names
of two women she suspected of writing
the malicious letters. Both were meIn-
bers of the church. She gave no reason
why these women should desire to injure
them was responsible for the annoyance.
When a few weeks lister the woman APP
pealed to the pastor again, showing another
latter she had received even more forceful
than the first, the minister and the church
board, which had been consulted, decided
that il was time to take steps to end the
matter. The women Mrs. Owens mentioned
as the possible or probable writer's were
consulted They were told that charges
of that nature had been made against them
l. ha NJ rho communion fi0nS.
and they were asked for an explanation.
The women became indignant. They
not only made a fiat denial but took ex-
ception TO being accused Of such thing.
and he at once began proceedings TO clear
his wife of the accusation.
Mrs. Owens, who had up to this time
received eight letters in all. was called to
the office of the Assistant District Attorney
and there was questioned very closely about
the letters she had received. 1t was there
that the work of New York handwriting
expert was OF value. The woman was
compelled to write from dictation dupli-
cate Of one Of the letters she had received
The letters and her copy looked entirely
different. yet the expert. after examining
them closely pronounced them the product
of the same hand,
At first Mrs Owens denied the intimation
that she was the author of the letters. But
later, with the spirit OF one who had awak-
ened from a dream, she gave the church
board the startling explanation which
resulted in the erasure Of her name from
the church books. She told the minister
and the deacons pitiful story Of how she
had been and was still leading dual life
She said that for quite while she had
been addicted at times to the use of opium,
with mixture of ipecac and sulphte of
potash,
After taking about so much Of the mixture
she said she usually lost self control and
lived another life. She can scarcely ever
recall when the spell leaves her what she
was doing when the spell was upon her,
but she does know that her hallucinatlon at
such times was that she was her own enemy
or rather that she was some one else who
had grudge against the woman she ia
when her mental condition is not altered by
drugs
viewed by THE SUN representative and be-
tween sobs admitted that she had come to
the conclusion that she had written the
letters which she had accused others of
penning She appeared perfectly rational.
She does not recall having written the letters
which she received. yet, after careful con-
sideration is willing to believe that sne
wrote them while crazed by opium and
ipecac.
The theory as now set forth by the woman
unnatural condition, and had recovered
her senses when they arrived by mail.
She declares that she did not remember
having ever seen any of the letters before
receiving them, but acknowledges that
she has some stationery OF the sort used.
There seems to be no doubt In the minds
of the church heads, the District Attor-
ney. the handwriting expert and the woman
herself, that she was her own accuscr-that
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