Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-12-02
SAY AUNT SOUGHT
LOAN ON POLICY Of
BATHTUB VICTIM
Continued from First Page.)

detective bureau, today. He declared
that Miss Virginia Wardlaw came TO
him two months G and sought TO
raise a loan on an insurance policy held
on the life of Mrs. Snead. With a Wit
ness the lawyer went to the office OF
the New York Life Insurance Company
and saw there a policy for $4,000. He
was told there was another policy for
$12.0 o0.
Carabba accompanied Miss Wardlaw
TO her home in the Flatland section OF
Brooklyn. He said that the woman did
not raise her veil even In the house
and that no had no opportunity to OBJ
serve her features.
Mrs. Snead was evidently very Ill.
said Carabba. and he suggested to Miss
Wardlaw that she should be sent to a
hospital. He was told to mind his w
business, that he had been brought to
h hous to arrange h oan and not
to pry into their business.
Chief Bell, of East Orange, declared
today that he had every reason to be-
lieve that Snsad, the husband, whom
Miss Wardlaw declared was dead, was
living. lie said an F. n. Snead regis
tered at the Brevoort Hotel, Fifth I'VE
nue. and Eighth street, Manhattan, No
vember %. Miss Wardlaw requested
today that she be given permission to
look at her niece once more before the
burial. Chief Bell was compelled to re-
fuse this request. The prisoner assert
ed today that she was not in the house
during all the twenty-four hours which
elapsed between the time when she pre-
pared the bath for her niece and she
discovered that the latter was dead.
When asked where she had been Miss
Wardlaw said she did not intend to
tell. Frank McDermit, of this city, ap-
peared today as counsel for Miss Ward
law. He said he had been retained by
a New York law firm to represent her.
1t vas proved positively today that
the white crystals found in a paper in
the Brooklyn House of Mystery" were
not poison, as the detectives believed.
In a statement made in New York
today Mrs. Mary Snead, mother-in-
law of the bathtub victim, iouted the
idea that her sons wife had been the
victim of foul r,ay. She said the girl
was the daughter of Colonel Martin, o
Confederate veteran, who left a large
estate, and that Snead was her cousin
Mrs. Snead is one of the four old
women" involved in the mystery. The
others are Miss Virginia Wardlaw, now
held for the murder of her niece; Mrs.
Martha Wardlaw, the grandmother and
chief beneficiary under the will
Martha, the sister of Virginia Ward
law. and Mrs. Robert Martin. the
mother of the dead girl. All but Mrs.
Martin have beer located. They are
from C~hristiansburg. Va. Mrs. Snead
refused to talk to the police.
1t is said hat in February, 1906
Fletcher Snead, a brother of the miss
Ing husband Of Ocey. was found burned
to death in an outbuilding near the
girls school maintained by the -four
women in Christiansburg. Miss vir-
ginia Wardlaw and Mrs. Martin cams
to New York to collect two life In
surance policies Oh young Snead's life
it is alleged. They were successful in
the case of one of them, but paymen,
of the second was refused on the
ground that the young man might have
committed suicide, and there was a sui
eide clause in the will. p
It Is believed possible that Miss Ward.
law, Mrs. Martin and their party lived
for a time at 1140 Broad street. A
thin, gaunt woman whom the others
knew as aunt" rented the house from
C. Wenham Smith, the owner. three
years ago. The rent was no paid and
the tenants, after fighting the case
through an attorney. were elected
After that they moved to East Orange
and then back to the old Pennington
house in High street, where they lived
for more than a year.
Recent developments in the case
which the police of East Orange persist
in declaring is a murder mystery but
serve to complicate it. That the near
est relatives of the young. woman who
was found drowned In a bath-tub de
liberately sought her death, which II
the police theory. is apparently toe
monstrous for general acceptance. Mrs
! Mary Snead and the two other rela'