Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-10-23

Action for divorce had been insti lted
in Vermont, SO that MacFsrland could
be free to marry the pretty blonde
Bromley girl, but the proceedings were
delayed, as the prisoner admitted, be-
cause his wife demanded custody Of
both children. MacFarIand would not
consent to parting with his 6-ycar-oId
boy, Robert This dispute prevented
them from obtaining their divorce.
MacFarland told his counsel that his
wife had known very well he considered
Miss Florence Bromley "more viyacious
and more interesting" than his wife.
:" Go live with the woman you Lowell
she once told me- he said.
The intended divorce was talked of
by the MacFarlanads up to the very
time of the wifes strange death rom
poison, the custody of the boy being
the continual source of friction.
Not only was positive evidence se-'
cured today that MacFarland had
planned to divorce his wife and that
he then contemplated marrying Miss
Florence Bromley but ii was further
learned that Miss Bromley herself Is
divorced woman. She lived with her
first husband only two weeks before
seeking her freedom.
A part of the prosecutors evidence is
in the form of a score of love letters
sent by Miss Bromley to MacFarland,
the latest of which was mailed and de-
livered at the Fifth precinct police sta
tion last Friday.
Friendship Very Marked.
An Evening STAR reporter in
Philadelphia today learned that tho
friendship between MacFarland and
Miss Bromley had been so marked that
all the neighbors of the two families
had commented upon it.
In September, 1910, MacFarland left
Philadelphia, saying he was going to
Newark His wife had been told by a.
friend living in Germantown that Mao
Farland's attentions to his beautiful
young blonde stenographer had been
very noticeable. Mrs. MacFarland went
to her fathers home in Rockland, Me.
After that MacFarand spent a large
part of his time in the Bromley home.
Miss Bromley was employed by Mac
Farland in his office at the Mutual Life
building as stenographer at $40
week. Since they lived next door to
each other they went to and from the
office together
In this letter the girl said that she
was glad the time would soon CONS
when she would be MacFarland's
real wife" She apparently expected
he was instituting divorce proceedings.
Instead, he was held in custody, sus-
pected of having murdered his wife
with cyanide of potassium poison,
thereby making his children motherless
and giving himself the prospect OF
being able to marry again.
Then he came home last Wednesday
morning from New York. where he had
spent the night, and found his VIE
dead from cyanide of potassium poison,
which he himself had put in a medicine
bottle which had previously contained
a headache cure.
Added to this, as the Evening STAR
discovered, the poison label was placed
over the "bromidia" label after, and
not before, the death of M. MacFar-
land
Upon this the prosecutors office will
base their case.
In spite of the prosecutors assertion
that the denials of the Bromley family
could be ignored, Mr. Bromley speak
ing for his wife as well as himself. in
sisted today that his daughter had
never written letters to MacFarland,
and branded the story lie.
He could be reached only by tele-
phone, having barricaded himself and
his family in his home at 42S7 Viola
street.
An Evening STAR reporter first in
terviewed the Eromleys last Thursday
before the existence of the letters was
known even to the police, who searched
the Park avenue residence of MaeFar-
land that afternoon.
At that time Mrs. Bromley main-
tained that sh knew nothing whaf-
ever about MacFarland and had heard
nothing about the poisoning case.
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