The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-08
TAKES POISON AND
CRIES INGRAT|TUDE
Mrs. Kathleen Burke, Trained
Nurse, Claims Fresno Banker
Didn't Pay Reward

Ingratitude on the part of Thomas
Patterson, a prominent Fresno banker,
and his wife, whom she claims to have
rescued from a gang of blackmailers
is advanced as the reason for the act
of Mrs. Kathleen Burke, a trained
nurse, who made an unsuccessful at
tempt to commit suicide yesterday by
swallowing an overdose of morphine
at the Hotel Argonaut. Sensational
and weird in it's every detail is the
narrative of the woman, but on the
other hand strength has been given to
the theory that she planned an unsuc-
cessful attempt to end her life for the
purpose of securing publicity and
wreaking on the financier and his wife
vengeance for real or fancied wrong
Whether Or not she took enough pol
son to end her life is questioned by the
authorities because of her apparently
quick recovery from the effects OF a
dose which under ordinary circum-
stances would have been fatal.
WOMAN SOON REEVES
Attaches of the Hotel Argonaut were
attracted by screams coming from the
room Of Mrs. Burke, on the fifth floor,
about 1870 o'clock yesterday afternoon
and rushed in. They found the trained
nurse in great agony and begging Tor
ice DIR. w. F. Jackson was summoned,
but when. he arrived the woman re-
fused to tell him what she had taken.
She was taken to the central emer-
gency hospital, where she eXh1plteo all
of the symptoms of morphine poison
ing and an antidote for the drug was
administered.
Mrs. Burke revived quickly, and with
in a short time was relating her story
to newspaper representatives and de-
tectives She said that in the fall OF
1904 she was living at the home OF
Thomas Patterson and his wife in F'res-
no, when a gang Of blackmailers de-
manded of the banker $4,000 under
penalty of publishing alleged harmful
facts. Patterson, she claims. asked her
to secure certain papers from the gang
and agreed to pay her $1,000. Mrs.
Burke claims that she secured the de-
sired papers and turned them over to
the police. On her return to Fresno
she claims, the Pattersons refused to
ray her, and have since refused, al
though at one time she went to the
extent of beginning suit against them
DECIDES TO END 1T ALL
Mrs. Burke said that she had ex-
pended all of her money in attempting
to collect from Patterson, and had be-
come disneartened and being in bad
health, decided to end it all.
The seriousness of Mrs. Burke's con-
dition, however, was questionable dur
| ing her narrative because of the fact
that she did not seem to be suffering
any great pain, and at times laughed
and chatted pleasantly, and seemed
keenly alive to every point in the story
She also told how she had written q
play embodying the details of the al
legged transaction between herself and
the Pattersons.
That the woman desired great pub
licity is stated by DR.. t. B. w. Leland
who for a number OF years, gave her
employment as nurse, and to whom
week ago she wrote a letter saying
that she intended to commit suicide in
order to punish the Pattersons for their
ingratitude. Numerous other details
also point to the fact that she Gid not
have any serious intention of killing
herself.
The hospital authorities said last
night that she was in no danger.