"MAD JUDGE."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

"MAD JUDGE."

AFTER INTERNATIONAL CASE.

POISON STORY.

- 'Mary Elizabeth Chandler,' of Mobile, - .Alabama, was a' wholesome, carefree " American girl until, the age of 18.At that • time she . married j James Maybrick, of • Liverpool, and then her troubles began. They lived in a home near the outr> skirts of that English city, and became the parents of two children. One oi the '•. causes of their matrimonial 'difficulties, was that Ma'ybriek was 27 years older than his Wife. They lived happily for eight years, -; and at the end of that time the husband began to have periodical fits of jealousy. Not content with- reproaching , her, he . blackened heir eyes, and otherwise cruelly '•■ treated her. She instituted divorce proceedings, but for the sake of her children i became reconciled to him. • ■ -In the /spring of ISS9 Maybrick was taken iU and died. The family doctor had treated him for indigestion, but Maybrick's brother declared that he had died - from poison. An'investigation revealed the .fact that arsenic was kept in the house. The body was exhumed, and about one- -._ tenth of a grain of arsenic was found. _ } The young widow was arrested, imprisoned, and finally ,tried for the .murder of her husband.. . She protested her innocence, but the prosecution brought out :> a number of instances which tended to place her under'the-shadow of suspicion. • One of these was that she had purchased, fly paper containing arsenic, which she had soaked out. and used as a face bleach. ; That in itself was nothing terrible, but, . .- the fact that she had: gone about it secretly was insisted' upon as a matter of v great significance. , ■ -■■'.' :.'■'■' : - ;; ' .His Hobby; ■' ..'- '■ -'•' On behalf of, the accused woman it was claimed that JMaybrick: was a confirmed . arsenic eater, and that he regularly took' doses which would have caused the death of any ordinary man. : One of the family doctors testified that during the year pre: .i> ceding Maybrick's death his wife had. appealed to him to do ,whatever was' in . his power to persuade her. husband to give up the use of certain and tonics which he was in the habit of-taking; Also it was claimed in her behalf that she was one of the first to give the alarm "i when her husband had been taken violently ill. She sent her brcsther-in-law for the doctor, and while waiting for the arrival ' "of the physician had: administered. an : emetic which would have had the effect of counteracting any poison that might have been taken. . ■ ' . ' . When Judge Stephen began his charge to the jury he. favoured the woman, but suddenly; he turned against her, and the jury.brought in a verdict of guilty. . ';-. ■ 'v,: : ••' "; i. The American girl was sentenced to be kanged for the murder of her English _ husband. The first-note in the coutro- ' ?ersy which was to give the May brick '; fase international importance came after -. the trial, when the presiding judge stated that in 979 cases that had been tried , • before him that of Mrs. Maybrick was the only one where/'there could be any doubt i- of the facts/ , '■'. -'••••• ;•■ ";'"'/. "■•■?:'•

After the trial lie" brooded over it to such an extent that his reason became affected. The Liverpool '"Post," commenting on this phase of the case, said: "In' fancy one still hears the distant fanfare of ; the, trumpets as the judges, with quaint pageantry, pass down the hall, and still the mind's eye .sees the erimson-iclad figure of the great mad judge as he sits down'to try,his last case. A tragedy indeed was played upon the Bench no less than in the dock."

But, fortunately, at the last moment her sentence was cominunted to life imprisonment. She had been in prison eleven years, when it was discovered that Lord Russell, Chief Justice of England,- had written her a. letter before his death, m which he said:

"I feel as strongly as I have always felt that you should never have been convicted/ and this opinion I have clearly expressed to.Mr. Asquith, but, I am sorry to say, hitherto without effect." By persistent overtures the United Government finally secured the pardon of Mrs. May brick. . • ■ V. •'