Year: 1873

The following from the Hartford Cou-
rier is given as the substance of Mrs.
Shermans confession:


Mrs. Shermans story is as follows:
She was born in New Brunswick, N. j.,
in 1925, and was early left an orphan.
At the age of II she joined the Meth
odst Church, and at love feast there
she met Edward S. Struck, whom she
subsequently married. Struck in time
became policeman at Yorkville, one of
the suburbs of New York city. One
night there was row in saloon on his
beat, and detective was killed. Struck
was off without eave.' He was repri-
manded and disgraced. 1t troubled him
very much, and finally it weighed so on
his mind that he became crazy and had
sottening of the brain. He then was
discharged. When he recovered it was
only to be very feeble physically and
unable to get work, so that he was only
burden to his wife. One day male
friend of hers suggested to her that she
could get rid of the man by poison. She
took kindly to the idea, and gave him
arsenic in his food, and she also, with
the same poison, killed their youngest
two children, so that they also should
not be burdens TO her, and should not
have, as she says, to grow up to life's
cares.


She was not suspected of this murder,
and soon after it went to Litchfieid, in
this State, to live. Here she met one
Dennis Hurlburt and married him, but
she did not get along particularly salts
factorily to herself with him, and so she
poisoned him.


Soon after his death she was told BY a
friend that there was a man in Derby,
named Horatio N. Sherman, who had
plenty of money, and had lost his wife,
and that by skillful management, if she
wanted third husband, she could prob
ably get him. Accordingly she went
there and applied to him for the place of
housekeeper in his family, and he en-
gagged her, and subsequently she sue
ceeded in marrying him. He had two
small children, Ada and frankie, and
these she determined to poison, and did
poison, but she did not plan to poison
Sherman. She intended to employ the
arsenic upon the rats in her house as
well as to kill the children. and she pur-
chased it in New Haven. at Peck s drug
store, with the first mentioned object
She took the package home and put it on
shelf beside similar package of sal
eratus. Sherman used to drink great
deal of cider, into which he would put
saleratus to make it foam. This was his
favorite drink. The saleratus and the
arsenic on the shelf became mixed in
some way, but she did not mix them,
hut saw they were so. One night some
friends We're present and they had some
''toddy" to drink. Her husband invited
her to take some, but she chose in pref
erence to drink some of his cider pre-
pared to foam. Soon after she took ii
she went out of the house to call upon a
neighbor, and was taken suddenly very
sick, SO badly that she was utterly unable
to do anything for herself, and had to be
carried into the house. But she rallied
in little while. She thinks that this
sickness was due to the arsenic that had
been mixed with the saleratus, and that
when he died it was because of taking
more of similar preparation at q later
period. In no other way did she know
OF his obtaining poison, and the talk of
the prosecution about her putting arsenic
into his tea and into his "slings" and
other hot drinks was all expended on q
wrong track. This was not, therefore
such clear case of murder as the others
In fact, she merely neglected to warn
him of his danger, and that she did moi
always remember it herself is shown il
the fact of her having taken some of tn,
cider. 1t is curious that the only deatl
for which she could not be held account
able, according to her story, should b.
that for which she had been convicted.