The Prescott daily news., 1912-11-19
ALLOWED FEW DAYS REST BE. FORE ARRAIGNMENT ON
 MURDER CHARGE.
IS SANE, OFFICIALS BELIEVE
Sheriff's Wife in Charge of Her After She Is Brought Back From Cali fornia-Confesses That She
 Killed Two Women.

Sedalia, Mo, Nov. 19.-Mrs Pansy Ellen Hastings Lesh, who surrendered and confessed voluntarily to the Los Angeles police that she killed two Pet. tis county (Mo.) women, years ago, when an orphan in their employ, .s here in the custody of Mrs. Hender. son, wife of the sheriff.
 Prosecuting Attorney w. D. O'Ban- non said Monday that he would allow Mrs. Lesh few days in which to rest after her journey from California with Sheriff Henderson. and that she will not be arraigned before Wednesday or Thursday. She is not in a cell and until then will be in charge of Mrs. Henderson,
 The criminal division of the circuit court is now in session, and the pros ecutor says that upon her arraign- ment she will be charged with first degree murder in connection with the death of Mrs. E. Nj. Quaintance and Mrs. Eliza Coe, both of whom she poisoned, according to her confession.
 Prosecutor OBannon states that ac- ISi Ni4iSo tO tilC ldN, d Jul lo pel iullleu to take whatever evidence a defend ant may offer against famself, and has the equal privilege of believing or dis believing any statement a defendant makes ill his own behalf.
 The prosecutor is of the opinion that in the case of Mrs. Lesh the court can accept a plea of guilty and pass sentence, Local officials are of the opinion that Mrs. Lesh is perfect ly sane and that the story she relates about her alleged crimes is true.
 Woman's Story of Her Life.
 Mrs. Lesh, in a statement to news papyA men alter arriving here, told what she said was the story of her life. After her father and mother sep arated at Spaulding, Mo, near Hanni- bal, she said, she and her father went to Poplar Bluff Mo. When she was F years old her father was convicted of stealing a COW and sent to the peni- tentiary. She was sent to the or phans home in St. Louis of which the Rev. c. c. Stahmann is director, and later was sent to Green Ridge, near Sedalia, to work for Quaintance and his wife.
 Mrs. Lesh alleged that Quaintance mstreated her and that she killed Mrs. Quaintance with poison. Later. at a revival meeting, she told of her treatment by Quaintance, and that night Quaintance killed himself.
 Returned to St. Louis.
 She then went to work for Mrs. Coe Here, she said, she was unhappy be cause Mrs. Coe was exacting about the housework. Mrs. Coe caught cold while on charity mission and it was then, Mrs. Lesh says, that she con. ceived the idea of poisoning her em. ployer. She said she gave Mrs. Coe some of the poison that was left after she had killed Mrs. Quaintance. After administering the poison, she said, she was overcome by remorse and gave Mrs. Coe salt and water as an anti dote, but it had no effect.
 After Mrs. Goes death the girl re. turned to St. Louis and after working for several families she was sent to the House of the Good Shepherd. In one of the families for which she worked baby became ill and she was accused of poisoning it, but was re- leased after a police investigation.
 After a year in the House of the Good Shepherd she escaped She trav- eled about the country working as a servant.
 Before her marriage to LeSh, she said, she told him the story of her life. Later, when Lesh stabbed a man with whom she had been going to dances, she feared that he would ex- pose her, she declares, and she de- cided to give herself up to the police and confess the poisonings.
 q have never regretted my confes sion to the Los Angeles police, and am prepared to take my punishment, whatever that may be-" said Mrs. Lesh. ''It almost broke my heart to leave my 2-year-old boy and my hus- band, but there was nothing else to