The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1835-03-31 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

MURDERS BY POISONING.  The town of Burnham Market, in Norfolk, and the Vicinity,. for some miles round, have for (tie last week been in the most dreaUfel state of .excitetneet, caused .by the discovery of three diabolical murders which have already *been committed, _and a plan laid for taking.away the lives of several others. The:circumstance that led to the discovery was as follows:A woman named Mary Taylor, the wife of P.- Taylor, a • journeyman shoemaker, was taken with a violent retching after. dinner on Thursday the 12th initant, and though medical assistance was procured, she died at five the same .afternoon. , Mr. °tenser, the surgeon, as soon as he saw' her, pronounced her to have been poisoned. An inquest W3B held on the bo- y on the following Saturday, when the jury, after silting till eleven at night, adjourned the inquest till Monday, and awls having no evidence as to bow the deceased came by the arsenic which had been Nand in the stomach, returned a verdict to the effect that she _died by taking arsenic, but that it was unknown by what means, it was alininistered. - There were certain rumours that the husband Of the deceased had beets connected with a 'married, woman named Fanny.,Billing, who lived at the next door, and this connection seemed to have been a great cause, of uneasi-, ness between Taylor, and his wife, and a week or tivo before the deceased had, it seems, taxed Billing with it. and they had bad a quarrel. It was also discovered that Billing hail a short time before bought three pennyworth of arsenic, eta druggist. Some flour that was in Taylor's house was also found to contain a quantity of arsenic, and from this the deceased had made some dumplings on the day she died. These facts coming out, the Magistrates thought proper to hold , a special meeting on the Wednesday, for' the further investigation of the matter, add Taylor and Billing were brought before them, examined, and remanded for further examination. As Billing, however, was going away, a woman living next door, named Frary,' who was frequently in and out of Mrs. Taylor's, was heard to say to her, "Maw, hold your own, and they can't hurt us." This led to further suspicion, and Friary was apprehended. It was then recollected that Frary's husband, and a child they kept, died about a fortnight before very suddenly. Orders were then given to have them disinterred; their stomachs were sent to Norwich to be analysed, and they also were found to contain arsenic. On Tress ay Billing was fully committed to take her trial for the murder at the forthcoming assizes. She is nearly 51) years old, has had fourteen children, and nine are alive. • She has confessed the whole,. but says that Fray>, gave the poison to Mrs. Taylor. She has also confessed to other acts of the same kind with Frary, and that there were several other persons that they had marked out as their victims. She had made an attempt to poison her husband about the same time, •but he did not take sufficient quantity, and recovered. Taylor is still remanded, and Frary has been taken speechless since Tuesday, and cannotsbe recovered. Tne, wife of her brother, who liVed at Burnham Overy, died about the same time suddenly, but has not yet been up. Taylor says he was taken sick on the Thursday with his wife, but that he threw up and got better. Mrs. Frary was seat for to attend on Mrs. 'Taylor. and a witness by the name of Rowley says, when he was in at Taylor's to be shaved, he saw Frary, in making her some gruel, put something iuto it from a paper on the point of eiknife, white, almost like fiowdr, so that in all probability, to snake assurance doubly sure, she poisoned also her gruel. It was too the merest wonder in the world the poisoned flour (for it had not then been found to be poisoned) was not taken to provide for the funeral—indeed this seems to have been anticipated by the wretches, and then the whole family would have been their ,victims; but the management was fortunately taken out of Frary's hands, and the flour providentially unused. Taylor has borne a good character for many years until he got connected with this woman. . His wife was a very • industrious person, and although they hal no family they had lived very comfortably together. She was 47 of age, and he is about the same.