The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-11-26
.DiSOWNED FOR LOVE
Slayer-Suicide Posed as Grace
Bulkeley of Hartford.
KILLINGS BLAMED TO MANIA
Friends Insist That Woman Who Slew
Husband, Fired Her Home and Then
Committed Suicide Was Daughter of
Noted Connecticut Politician.

Noted connecticut Politician.
New York, Nov. 26.-Although star
tied by the theory that Mrs Grace
Smith, who shot her husband, Nicholas
NJ. Smith, and herself and then set
| their New Rochelle home ablaze, had
for years been conducting an impos-
ture in posing as Grace Bulzeley and
that she was common adventures,
many of her New Rochelle friends re-
fused to believe that Mrs. Smith had
not herself thought she was member
of the rich Hartford family of Bulke-
| legs.
1t was suggested that the mania
which had once caused her imprison-
ment in madhouse might have had
permanent effect on her mind and pro
duced delusion that she had been
Grace Buckley, about whom she may
have known something through early
associations. Those who had been her
friends said she could have gained
nothing by lie and that she certainly
| believed her story that she was the
daughter of the former lieutenant gov
ernor of Connecticut, William H.
Buckley.
First Husband Heard From.
| 1t was said that she even went so far
as to give an account to many of her
childhood days in Hartford and that
when Buckley died she told many
that she had lost her father. She had
copy of Bulkeley's will in her home.
Her friends believed this mania caused
the murder and suicide.
II am positive that the Mrs. Smith
and the woman / first married in 1890
are one and the same" said Walter @.
Medhurst, an engineer of $50 East One
Hundred and Thirty-sixth street. "She
told me that she was Grace Buckley,
daughter of General William Buckley
of Hartford, that she was disowned. by
her family and girl cousin adopted
| in her place. And must admit that
was deceived seventeen years ago into
believing she was Buckley and that
l have since believed it, just the Same
as every one else has, until today.
Chum introduced Them.
SIN 1889 first met the. girl. A chum
introduced me on the street. She was
young, pretty and well educated. II
met her as Grace Buckley and mar
ried her as Grace Buckley. She told
me again and again that she was the
daughter of General Buckley, rich
man, but never said she expected to
inherit any money.
when | asked her to marry me in
1900 she told me what she said was
her true story. 1t was this: During
her school days at Hartford she had
met man named Alexander Middle
| ton. She loved him and ran away
with him to New York. Her father
disowned her and adopted a niece
about the same age to take her place.
Middleton, with whom she had fed,
soon deserted her.
II did not look into the truth of her
story. loved her, and we were mar
ried in an Episcopal chapel in Fifty
third street I knew she had been
leading a gay life, but overlooked it.
We lived happily together for two
years. Then she fell into her old ways,
and divorced her."
Denial From the BuIkeleys.
A member Of the Buckley family
who is in the city said that the only
| Grace Buckley was the wife of David
Van Setback of Hartford and was liv-
ing there now.
"In 1884, said this woman, 1--WE re.
ceived a telegram from some one in
New York saying that Grace was in
want at a certain number on Broad
way. 1t was the first of long series
Of reminders that there was some one
in this city claiming to be Grace Bulke-
ley, the daughter of w. Fl. Buckley.
Mr.. Buckley was puzzled over the tele-
gram but sent his son-in-law, Edward
Van Zile, the author, to investigate.
He found that there was no one of the
name of Buckley at the number Civ
en-. From then on for years we kept
hearing of this woman who posed in
New York as Grace Buckley.
I'm 1898 Nicholas Smith, Jr, of Bal.
timore, who had just come to New
York, came to Hartford and said he
had been living with Grace Buckley,
the daughter of Lieutenant Governor
Buckley, and that if he could be as
sured that her family would finally
recognize her he would marry her.
He was told that the woman in New
York who impersonated Grace Bulke-
ley was an impostor and that she was
no relation to u.s."
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