Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-09-16
GIRL KEEPS POISON
PEN NOTES SECRET
FROM THEIR FATHER
When He Receives One
Himself Postal Authorities
Are Called In and Dress
maker Is Arrested.

to four members of Sharon Hill family
Miss Anna stahl, Sharon Hill dress
maker, is held today under $500 bail tc
await the action Of the Federal Grand
Jury next Monday.
e. p. Tlmmons and his daughters, Mary
81 Helen, Il, and Agnes, 15 who live In
large house at 20 Chester Pike, were
the objects OF the writer's attacks. The
attacks extended over a period Of two
years and might have continued had the
anonymous writer confined attentions tc
the girls.
But in December the writer began ad.
dressing Mr.. Timmons, who then learned
for the first time that his daughters had
been receiving letters. He appealed to
the postal authorities, who accused Miss
stahl after an investigation lasting nearly
four months.
Mrs. Timmons' daughters, who had
been getting the letters for nearly two
years, tore them up and kept the attacks
secret. But two received by Mr.. Tim
mons and two more which came to Miss
Helen Timmons, who was the principal
object of attack, were turned over to the
postal authorities.
They have been investigating since
May. Miss Stahl was arrested in a Ger
mantown house where she had gone to do
some dressmakng. She denies any
knowledge of the letter writing
Mathew McVicar, postofflce inspector
assigned to the case, went to Miss Stahl
on June I and induced her to copy two
of the letters received by Miss Helen Tim
mons.
When Mr.. Timmons. a FISH and oyster
commission merchant at Water and
Dock streets, received the letter, he had
1t put in the hands of the postal authori-
ties. Three months work by Inspector
Not ai n q
of Miss Stahl. She denies having written
tho letters, though her handwriting. ac-
cording to experts, conforms closely
with that in the poison pen letters which
have been streaming into the Timmons
home for the last two years.
The four letters. two Of them written
by Miss Stahl. were submitted to T. II.
NcCool, a handwriting expert. who de-
clared they were all the work Of the same
person. The writer OF the poison pen
letters had tried to disguise her writing,
but after the first few lines assumed
characteristics disappeared and the script
grew natural.
100 LETTERS RECEIVED.
All the letters sent to the Timmons
girls were unprintable. There have been
more than a hundred in all, McVicar be-
lieves, and they came at intervals OF a
few days. Most of them We're mailed in
Philadelphia, but two which will be Of
fered as evidence came from Darby.
OF all the letters only four remain. The
Timmons girls tore them up as soon as
they arrived and said nothing about them.
Finally. irritated, 1t is believed by the
failure to arouse the girls to showing
they had received the letters, the mysteri-
Gus writer addressed Mr.. Timmons The
first note reached him in December and
the second in January. Both warned him
that his daughters should be watched and
contained vicious accusations.
For some time Timmons tried unsuc-
cessfully to find who was writing the
letters, and then offered the reward of
$500. That failed, and no turned to the
postal inspectors.
were inspired by jealousy, and on that
assumption several Sharon Hill young
women were closely watched. When sus-
pIcion fell on Miss Stahl, however, that
theory was discarded.
There has never been "a man in the
case" according to the investigators. A
youth who was boarding with the Stahls
was sent away the day after McVicar
questioned their daughter, in order that
suspicion could not be attached to her
through his presence. It is said he called
twice at the Timmons home. II am old
enough to be his mother, anyway" Miss
Stahl declared when his name was
brought into the questioning.
The case is a mystery to Mr.. Tim
mons. the father OF the girls, who re-
ceived the letters
OFFERED REWARD FOR AUTHORS.
Mr.. Tlmmons offered a reward of $500
when he first learned the letters were
coming into his house. but efforts OF
private detectives to find who was writ
ing them were futile.
In Nav he appealed to the postal in
spectors, and Mathew McVicar set out
To learn the identity OF the writer.
''It was a process of elimination that
led us to suspect Miss Shaw" said Nc
Vicar today list OF persons who might
have written the letters was prepared
but 1t was cut down until only Miss
Stahl remained. This was last May.
The evidence on which Miss Stahl was
held yesterday was secured by MoVioar
on June l. That day he went to see
Miss Stahi at her home Miss Stahl is
a woman of At. She and her mother and
a younger brother have lived in a small
double house at Sharon Hill for ten
years The accused woman Is dress
maker, often employed by wealthy Phila-
delphians and residents OF the suburbs.
McVicar found Miss Stahl at home and
told her she was suspected of having
written the letters to the Timmons girls,
She denied IT,
why. Just 10 prove that those letters
were not mine I'll write you a specimen"
she told McYicar. He had her copy two
of the notes sent TO Miss Helen Timmons.
Miss Stahl was very nervous while Mo-
Vicar questioned her. he says, and denied
repeatedly that she had had any hand in
the poison pen letters.
IT never have seen Miss Stahl. or II I