Glasgow Courier. — 1847-08-14 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

SUICIDE OF A MURDERESS.  Ltwente, Aro. S.—At the recent assizes for this county Mary Ann Milner was sentenced to death by Mr. Baron Rolfe for poisoning her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece, in the village of Rarnethy-le-Wohl, by mixing arsenic in food which they partook of. Her execution was appointed to take place on Friday last, at noon. She, however, avoided so ignominious a fate by hanging herself in the cell she was confined in during the previous night. The inquest on her remains was held on Saturday, and the Rev. Mr. Ritchie, the chaplain, stated that he last saw her cfir Thursday night about eight o'clock, when she seemed reconciled to het Fate. She had made a confession, and declared that she had nothing more to confess. She said she felt that she had 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 hint 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 Thursday 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. Deceased kept her clothes on an arm-ch tir by the side of the bed. She had no person to sit up with her. There was 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 yenta matron of the prison, and during that period had had no order to have a person sit up with the 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 boas iti 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 lit up in the cell. There was no order on the books for a person condemned to death to have a person to a:tend, and in this case there had been no depaiture from the prison discipline. The jury returned a verdict of filo de se. The Rev. Mr. Ritchie, the chaplain, has caused to be published a correct statement of the confession the wretched murderess made. Ile says, "On Wednesday morning, the 21st of July, she confessed to me that she did poison her brother's wife, bs inviting her into her house to eat a cake made of hatter, into which she put arsenic for the purpose. No further confession was made till the morning of July 26, 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 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* rice pudding; but she declared solemnly that 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 oft. This is the amount of her confession ; and she gave the following reasons for perpetrating the critnesi—The prisoner said, that with regard to her brother's wife, there had been much disagreement between the husband and wife, ins hich she herself was mixed up; that the wife was continually vexing her, and making herself very unpleasant to her, and that, in revenge, she determined to rid 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 othey reason, and constantly declared that she did not intend to plaiSoli 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."