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 the last week been in the most -dreadful state of excitement, 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. cir-, cumstance 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 dn Thursday the 12th instant, and though medical assistance was procured, she died at five the same afternoon. Mr. Cremer, the surgeon, as soon as -he saw her, pronounced her to have been poisoned. An inquest was held on the body on the .following Saturday, when the jury, after sitting till eleven at night, adjourned the inquest ti II Monday, and ilea having .no evidence as ti) how the deceased came by the arsenic which had been found in the stomach, returned a verdict to the effect that she died by taking arsenic, hut that it was unknown by what means it was administered. There were certain rumours that the husband of the deceased had been connected with a married woman named Fanny Billing, who lived at the next dour, and this connection seemed to have been a great cause of uneasiness between Taylor and hiS wife and a weak or two beforelhe' deceased had, it seems, taxed Billing with it. and they had had a quarrel. It was also discevered-that Billing had a short time before bought three pennyworth of arsenic of a druggist. Some flour that was in Taylor's house was also fouud to contain a quantity of arsenic, and from this theileceased 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' and 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 beard to say to her, "Maw, hold your own, and thoy can't hurt us." This led to further suspicion, and Frary was apprehended. It was then recollected that Frary's husband, and a child they keut, 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 Tues. ay Billing was fully committed to take her trial for the murder at the forthcoming assizes. She is nearly 50 years old, has had fourteen children, and nine are alive. She has confessed the whole, but says that Frary 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 bad marked out as their victims. She had made an attempt to poison her husband about the same time, but he did not take suflicent quantity, and recovered. Taylor is still remanded, and Frary has been taken speechless since Tuesday, and cannot be 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 sent for to attend on Mrs. Taylor, and a witness by the name of Rowley says, when he Vk as in at Taylor's to be shaved, he saw, Frary, in making her sonic gruel, put something into it from a paper on the point of a knife, white, almost like flower, so that in all probability, to make assurance doubly sure,. she poir. soned also her gruel. It was too the merest wonder in the world the poisoned flour (forit 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 .17 of age, and he is about the same. , •