The Sun. — 1847-08-07 (London, England)

SUICIDE OF A MURDERESS. , LINCOLN, At:G. s.—At the recent assizes for this county Mary Ann Millner was sentenced .to death by Mr. Baron Rolfe for poisoning her mother-in-law, sisterin law, and niece, in the village of Barnetby-le-Wold, by mixing arsenic in food which they partook of. Her execution was appointed to take place on Friday. last, at noon, and crowds kept flocking into the city from all parts to witness the dreadful ceremony. She, however, avoided so ignominious a fate by hanging herself in the cell she was confined in during the night. The sentence of the law not being carried into effect at the usual place and hour, led to the rumour that she bad been executed within the walls of the prison. The inquest on her remains was held on Saturday, and the Rev. Mr. Ritchie, the chaplain, stated, that he last saw her on Thursday night about eight o'clock, when she seemed reconciled to her fate. She had made a confession, and declared that she had nothing more to confess. She said she felt that she bad made her peace with the Almighty. She evinced deep sorrow for the crimes she had committed, and sympathy for those she had sent unprepared out of the world. She wished him to write to her husband and give him the best account he could of her, and beg of him to take care of her child. On this occasion she certainly betrayed more dejection than at former times, but it was not of such a character as to lead..him to suspect that she would destroy herself. He had no doubt of her perfect sanity. Ile did not order her a candle.  Mrs. Johnson, the matron, deposed that she last saw the deceased on Thur.:day evening, about a quarter past nine o'clock. She then seemed as well as she had been. Did not notice anything particular in the room. Deceas..4l kept her clothes on an arm-chair by the side of the bed. She had no person to sit up with her. There as no candle in the cell. There was no order for witness to visit persons condemned to death more frequently than others. She had been 18 years matron of the prison, and during that period had had no order to have a person to sit up with prisoners. She was the first person who opened the door of the deceased's room, and found her suspended against a cupboard door by a handkerchief which she had round her neck. It was affixed to a screw, which was used to secure books in a closet. - Mr. Nicholson, the governor, said that during his governorship there had been no instance of a prisoner having on the night previous to execution a person to sit up in the cell. There was no order on the books for a person condemned to death to have a person to attend, and in this case there had been no departure from the prison discipline. The magistrates intended to adopt some regulation for the future. He had noticed the handkerchief by which she had suspended herself. She had formed a knot of such strength that, having once put it round her neck, strangulation would inevitably follow. He had heard the opinion of the public executioner, who stated that the knot was made in the most dexterous manner. W. Millsom, one of the principal turnkeys, assisted in taking down the deceased. He felt her neck ; it was cold and hard, as if she had been dead for some time. There were two chairs near the cupboard door, and, by jumping off either, she would suspend herself. This being all the evidence, the jury returned a verdict of b'elo de se, and the body was interred within the precincts of the prison. The Rev. Mr. Ritchie, the chaplain, has caused to be published a correct statement of the confession the wretched murderess made. He says, "On Wednesday morning, the 21st of July, she confessed to me that she did poison her brother's wife, by inviting her into her house to eat a cake made of batter, into which she put arsenic for the purpose. No further confession was made till the morning of July 26th, when the prisoner said she poisoned the infant daughter of her brother's wife ; and when on a future occasion she was asked how ? she said she put arsenic into its drink (tea, she thought), and fetched the child into her house to give it to her. In the evening of the same day she confessed that she had intended to poison her husband's father, by putting arsenic into a rice pudding ; but she declared solemnly she never intended to poison her husband's mother, and that if she died of poison it must have been by accidentally eating some of the rice pudding that was put away after the father had partaken of it. This is the amount of her confession; and she gave the following reasons for perpetrating the crimes:— The prisoner said, that with regard to her brother's wife, there had been much disagreement between the husband and wife in which she herself was mixed up; that the wife was continually vexing herself, and making herself very unpleasant to her; and that, in revenge, she determined to rid both herself and brother of the wife and child. When asked what induced her to attempt to poison her husband's father, she said that his father and mother did not treat her well; that they came to her house on all occasions, as though it was their own, and took and did what they liked, without regard to her, and also that her husband gave them money and things, which so exasperated her that she told him she would leave him if he continued to do so; and that, finally, she determined to poison his father. The prisoner could give no other reason, and constantly declared that she did not intend to poison his mother, that she had made away with no one else, and that no one else was concerned in the crimes she committed and which she had confessed." • The Secretary of State will doubtless direct a strict investigation to be made into the affair, so as to ascertain if any of the gaol authorities were guilty of neglect while having charge of the culprit.