The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1906-10-04
MAD MURDEREsS
KILLS GIRL NURSE
lizzie Halliday, Inmate of Mat
teaWan, Takes Seventh Life.
ACT PROMPTED BY AFFECTION
Woman Knows FavOrite Attendant is
About to Leave Hospital and At
tackS Her With Shears-Stabs
Victim 200 Times,

lacks Her With ShearS-StaDs
Victim 200 Times.
Matteawan, n. Y.-Mrs. Lizzie Hal
liday, upon whose head rests the gull
of Staying six men and women, added
a seventh victim to her list in the
hospital for insane criminals. when
she stabbed her nurse, Miss Nellie
Wicks, aged twenty-four, to death.
Miss Wicks had showed such tact
and skill in the management of forty
or fifty women patients that she was
promoted to be head attendant of the
women's department. Mrs. Halliday,
a woman of middle age and somewhat
imbecile, showed a great fondness for
her from the outset, and the attend
ant made her n OF. her most trusted
patients.
Recently Miss Wicks announced
her intention of leaving the hospital
to study to become a trained nurse.
Mrs. Halliday took the announcement
to heart and begged her not to leave.
The young woman laughed and
hundred her patient, but continued
her preparations for departing. Sew
eral times Mrs. Halliday had said she
would kill Miss Wicks before she
would let her go, but, she has made SO
many threats against different per-
sons since her Incarceration that little
attention was paid tt her. Least of
all Miss Wicks feared her.
Miss Wicks entered a Mushroom at
a quarter to S o'clock a. m. She was
followed Stealthily by Mrs. Halliday,
who had i'll her hand a pair of shears
which she was allowed to have to do
sewing. Creeping up behind Miss
Wlcks, the iunatic struck her ON the
head and felled her. Then taking
the nurses keys she locked the door,
leaving the keys in the lock so the
door could not be opened from the
outside. With the fury of a tigress
she returned to the attack. and, using
the shears. she stabbed the girl over
200 times over the heart and in the
face and neck. Miss Wicks' screams
brought help, and the door was
broken down.
Mrs. Halliday stood at a window. |
calmly watching the death struggles.
A maniscal smile of triumph lighted
her face.
"She won't leave ME now" she
said. and laughed as she spoke.
Miss Wicks was hurried to a cot,
but died within an hour, without re- |
covering consciousness. Mrs. Halli- /
day laughed gleefully when told she
vas dead. -,, "
When Coroner Goring asked her |
why she had committed the murder
L replied: "She tried to leave me-"
Mrs. Halliday will not be placed in
a cell. Superintendent Lamb says
she will be carefully guarded, but
there will be no punishment for her.
For years Lizzie Halliday roved the
Hudson and Mohawk valleys as queen
OF a gypsy tribe that made a living
chIeny through raids on the farmers.
1t was in 1898 that she led her band
into Sullivan County, when she met
Old Paul Halliday. then in his sixty
fifth year. He lived on his small
mountain farm with his bachelor
Later she married him.
q a been there four years
the McQuillans, mother and
daughter, who were lured to the
farm, were killed by Mrs. Halliday
the same time she murdered her
husband, ami the crime was brought
nome to her. Long before this She
had burned the Halliday homestead
the ground, and the imbecile and
son Of Halliday in it.
After the fire, which did not even
cause her arrest, she was discovered
stealing horses near Newburg, and q
term IL. an insane asylum saved her
from prison at this time. Set free
ancs more, she remained Quiet until
ne disappearance of Mrs. McQuillan
IND hSr daughter, Sarah, started an
.nVestIgatlon that resulted in the dis
;oVery or their mutilated bodies.
Her trial and her final commitment
% Matteawan are a matter Of history.
she had been sentenced to be hanged
petitions were circulated in her
)ehalf and a commission, which Mrs.
aided materially by her pre-
ended attempts at suicide in her cell
always when rescue was near
lnally adjudged her insane. :
Artemus Brewer, another of Mrs.
1alliday's husbands, died after a year
IT beatings at the hands OF the pow
woman, and yet George Smith.
IN old-time friend Of Brewer, who
Jaw MN die, married the widow. She i,
augh1ngly gave him a cup of pois-
'ned tea one day and left him. When
ne doctors brought him around the :;
Woman had fled with another man. !;
Hiram Parkinson. =
On the way to Matteawan Asylum
1rs. Halliday attacked Deputy Sheriff {
aorr1s and bit him in the hand. He $
alter died Of blood poisoning, caused {
" h bite. She did her best on the
to kill him. {