The San Francisco call., 1905-05-16
STORY
OF 'VE|[ED''
MURDERESS
After Fifty Years
Her Secret Is
Revealed.
Once Noted Beauty s
Career Marred by En-
forced Marriage.
Sinks to the Lowest Depths,
but Protects an Unfeeling
Fathers Name.
Special p,spateh to III. Cali.


CHICAGO, May 15.-After a lapse of
surrounding the identity of the "yeiled
murderess' of Troy, N. V, was cleared
to-day, and the story of her strange
career given in detail.
Death, which came to her Sunday
blotted out forever the world in which
she found .scant pleasure. and released
from her obligation the only person
who knew her name, and who. thus re-
leased. revealed the story to-day lnat
none have been able to guess through
the fifty years she was confined in pris-
on and an insane asylum.
She was Charlotte Ward, daughter
OF a wealthy Canadian merchant, the
wife of Sir William e. Elliott. an Eng
lishman of rank, and a graduate of the
famous Emma WillardxSchooi at Troy,
N gFsaid Mrs Eharl9 te p Norris, of
Chicago. today when news OF the
woman's death was made known TO her.
Mrs Norris was a cIassmate and an
intimate friend of the dead woman.
She visited her once at Sing Sing more
than thirty years ago, and the bond of
secrecy that was entered into at that
time was held sacred until death broke
the seal which hitherto had been in
violate.
"BOrn to luxury and reared with all
the advantages which luxury gives"
said Mrs. Norris, cher life was as Bit
ter as 1T Is possible to conceive. Beau
tiful and accomplished, with the com.
mand of several languages, she was
forced to marry Elliott because her
father demanded it. She ran away
from England two years after her mar
riage, but her father spurned her and
she turned from his threshold broken
hearted.
AT first she sought to get employ
ment as a teacher at Miss Willard's
school, but before she had filed her
application she met New York poll
tician, with whom shs fell in love- She
lived with him unit. he deserted her,
and from then on she sank lower and
lower until she killed two persons
with poison-why, no one has ever
been able to tell.
"As Henrietta Robinson she was
tried convicted al d sentenced to i'm
prisonment fol life That was in 1853,
and for thirty years she remained with
in somber walls of States Prison until
her reason left her and she was sent
to the insane asylum at Matteawan,
N. T., ner reason nOpeleSSly gone.
After the murder, and during the
time that the prisoner was waiting for
her trial, a reception was given at Miss
Willard's school. At its height the
father of the woman. William Ward,
and his sister" Lady William Elliott,
were announced.
at was Charlotte Wards last mn.
pearance I'm the society that was hers,
and had 1T not been for the desire Of
her father to protect his name from
the result of HIS own unreasonine oh
stinacy, and an arrangement that was
made with local authorities, she would
not have been there as Lady william
Elliott.
1t was like a slap IN the face TO the
woman who had once had such hopes
and such prospects, but she never
breathed a word. and she suffered ali
the tortures of imprisonment, coupled
with the consciousness OF failing rea-
son, blaming only herself. and she
would have welcomed death long be-
fore 1t came"
At the trial she wore a veil, which
was never lifted but once during the
proceedings, and that was to receive
the sentence of the court.