A FEMALE POISONER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1022, 11 December 1883, Page 4

A FEMALE POISONER.

The murder market" is rather flat at present—in fact, I seem to have nothing belter to serve up for the delectation of those of your readers who gloat upon “horrors ” than a somewhat commonplace poisoning case. This little affair took place in Liverpool, and what makes it interesting is the supposition that poor folks are beginning to comprehend some of the abuses to which lUpi insurance and provident societies may be put. The heroine of the drama bears the historic name of Catherine Flannigan, and she is accused of making away with her brother-in-law, a certain Thomas Higgins, who died very suddenly one Saturday morning under extremely suspicious circumstances. It is stated that Flannigan, who was sister to Mrs Higgins, had insured the deceased in several friendly societies, and the allegation is that she brought abotlt his death in order to secure the amount for which she had insured him, A brother of the deceased, having his suspicions aroused, took steps to prevent the funeral taking place, and communicated with the police and Drs Rimrick and Whitford. When the police interfered there was a hearse at the door of the deceased’s residence to take away the remains to the cemetery] but the hearse was sent away and a post mottem examination made on the body, when it was stated traces of poison were found. The woman Flannigan, on seeing the police enter the house, hurriedly left, and her whereabouts has not yet been discovered Mrs Higgins, the wife of the deceased and sister to Flannigan, was taken into custody, on suspicion of being concerned in Higgins’S'death. An inquest was opened on the following Friday by the City Coroner into the circumstances attending Higgins’s death, and adjourned for a week, pending inquiries being, made by the police. It is alleged that Flannigan has been in the habit of insuring the lives of the people in the neighborhood, and drawing the atoQunt (or which she had insured them on their death. The police, it is stated, have seized a large number of receipts for money thus received by Flannigan, and are said to be in possession of information which will lead to revelations of a very extraordinary character. The Home Secretary has ordered the exhumation of the bodies of several persons supposed to have been poisoned by Flannigan. Insurances amounting to upwards of Ll5O had been effected on Higgins’s life. Jennings, a former lodger, made the following startling statement: —I am a laborer, and have, with tiie exception of three or four months, lived with Mrs Flannigan for about twelve years. My daughter and my wife also resided in the same house. My wife died soon after I went to live with Mrs Flannigan, and my daughter, after about three days’ illness, in January last. Shortly after dinner on a Sunday, Margaret, my daughter, became very ill with violent vomitting and purging, and died three or four days after in great iagony; Mrs Flannigan had insured her for LSO in the Liver Office, and for various sums in other societies unknown to me, I thought it strange, and asked Mr Higgins what I should dp. . He advised me to take out letters of administration, and apply at the offices of the Liver, but when I wept .to fdraw the money Mrs Flihtiagan and her daughter followed me “ like detectives.” Out of the LSO I.gave Mr? Flanai an L3O and her daughter L 3, k*a. 1 17 for myself. Mfs Flannigan -.reived L 9 from he Scottish Tv "ociely, out of Which she gave me sovereign. I ' kb heard ’hat -’1« : my wife for

Li 6. Sh .denied v, but ''afterwards ascertained ‘ at sh: had doi During my daughe Mines* M Flannigan frequently adni'nhteicd m edicine to : her, which f .t sa d she q tained from the “sixpenny d cl- rV in Waltop road. ; When wa* absent her .daughter (the wife o'the deceased nm -Thomas Higgins) gave t’v: meiicme - After that I was afraid to live in Mrs Flahnigan’s house any longer, and took fVesh lodgings. But one night, some time afterwards, when I was “ on the . tieer,” she persuaded me to go and live ~with: her. The neighbors often remarked about the suddenness of my daughter’s death, and one said : “ God 'help ybu, poor man. Mind yourself _while you are there.” I saw the deceased man Thomas Higgins on the day before he was taken ill. In fact, he was in a publichouse in the neighhood of Athol street on the Sunday. He was taken ill on the Monday, and died on the Tuesday. Mrs Flannigan went to the house just before the funeral was to take place, but when Mr Patrick Higgins and the doctors came she disappeared. I saw her an hour afterwards going in the direction of her house in Latimer street, but shortly afterwards she was not there, and I have not seen her since. Two members of the Liverpool detective; force or Thursday visited a house in Bootle, where it was suspected Mrs: Flannigan was concealed. It was found, however, that she had left to go to some friends in Linacre, but the police visited the latter place also without: success. There being good grounds for .supposing that the woman would endeavor to cross over to Ireland, and thence to get to America, the steamers •flailing- from Liverpool for Dublin, Drogheda and other Irish ports were narrowly watched by the police, and handbills were issued for despatch to - Ireland with a complete description of the person wanted. The Liverpool chief constable has offered a reward of Lg to the officer apprehending Mrs Flannigan. All the books, documents aha insurance policies belonging to the - absconding woman were removed from her house soon after her flight by a Stahtdh, whose whereabouts has notfbeep. discoyered. At a meeting of rifo*hoird.of management of the Royal Liver Friendly Society, all the collecJorswere requested to go through their ’ bopks anql hand' in the names of any perfsbris 1 who might - have been insured m th*e sbciety by either Mrs Flannigan . or, her friends, as the society would de;£line, to have anything more to do with • them, f One woman, named Catherine Walabj in still on the books of the Solelyisf* having been insured for LSO by MrS ; Flannigan, who stated that she was her sister. Piior to taking up her m ; Ascot street. Mrs Flannigan resided in Limekiln laine. and Si Martin, Skipping and Latimer streets, and iniinors are rife that while she lived m each of these thoroughfares deaths oc-

curred under circumstances equally as suspicious as those attending the decease of Thomas Higgins. On Friday morning Mr Clarke Aspinall, the city coroner, resumed the inquest on the body of Thomas Higgins. —Mr Marks, prosecuting solicitor, watched the inquiry on behalf of the police; Mr Quelch, solicitor, on behalf of friends of the deceased ; and Mr S. Hannan, solicitor, on behalf of the Royal Liver Friendly Society, in which Catherine Flannigan had insured her own son and daughter. The coroner said that since the jury last met the case had been assuming daily more extended proportions- He had been in communication with Mr Davies, the analytical chemist, and he had had several conferences with the prosecuting solicitor, and in consequence of what had taken place an adjournment was inevitable. —Dr Whitford was called, and said he attended the Ideceased Thomas Higgins. He died on the 2nd October, and he made a post moftem examination on the 4th. Apart from the subsequent analysis, th (t post mottem led him to be strongly of opinion that death was due to arsenical poison —Dr Davies, who analysed the contents of the deceased’s stomach and bowels, said he found they contained a fluid grain of white arsenic, which, allowing of absorption by the body, would be sufficient to cause death. — London correspondent Dunedin Star.