CHARGE OF MURDER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1225, 6 September 1911, Page 4

CHARGE OF MURDER.

KINGSLANG. MYSTERY. SUPKEME COURT tRIAL BEGINS. (By Tclfßi-apli-PrcFS Association.) Auckland, September 5. Martha Jnnc O'Slinughncssy, a woman of middle-age, bolter known in Auckland as Jli'S. Maxwell, was placed in the dock at the Auckland Siipivinc Court to-day on an indictment that .she did, on or nbout iluno 13 last, at Kingsland, inurilor a young woman named Elsie Alexandra Holland. Mr. Justice Chapman occupied (ho Bench. Jlr. Tolo prosecuted, and Mr. Singer appeared for tliu accused, who pleaded not guilty. Mr. 'i'olc said the facts of lite case were simple enough. For some years the ac» cused had carried ou the business of a nurse, and attended to women in her house in (heir confinements. The young woman, Miss Holland, went to the accused's house in First Avenue, at about 8 o'clock in tho evening. She was a woman of about 2b years of ;\««, and at that time, evidence showed she was iu excellent spirits and health. It was staled she went to the house carrying a dress basket containing clothes, giving tho impression that she intended making a liltie stay in the house. Sho look up her quarters in a bedroom,. which tho evidence showed had by arrangement with someone in the house been vacated ou , thut day by a hoarder, tho previous occupant,- who took another room, jJc* ceased occupied the room which was near the bathroom, and made it her quarters, undressed as though retiring for tho night, put up her hair in three plaits, and apparently went to bed. Late on Tuesday night or early on "Wednesday morning the woman was found dead in tkit room. The accuseds husband rang up -the doctor and the police alter the woman's death, and the .subsetiueut post-movvem made revealed the fact that she died from bloodpoisoning as tho result of a wound indieted in performing an operation with some mechanical agency. When the accused was asked tor au explanation slio practically set up the story that the whole affair was a mystery. She had not known the deceased before. There was no previous arrangement for tho woman, to.visit the house." Sho knew nothing about her. She was let in by another woman, who happened to bo in tho house that evening, and prisoner was surprised w'hun she got home Irani her shop at 11.30 on tho Tuesday night (tho night after tho Crown said the deceased was admitted) to find tho. woman lying seriously ill in the room. On tho evidence the Crown submitted that it was an incredible story. Tho Crown said strangers did not walk into strange houses with a dross-basket and clothing, and make for. a particular bedroom, undress, and go to bed without aniy previous arrangement. • It would be shown, said the Crown Pros-ccutor, that tho deceased was seen by witnesses on tho Monday, and she was accompanied to within a few yards of and going in tho direction of prisoner's house, carrying a dress-basket. The medical evidence showed that an illegal operation must have been performed, possibly, aad most probably, oa the Monday, and death to have ensued late on Tuesday night or early on Wednesday morning. Mr. Tolo referred to the fact that there had been no communication, with, tho police nor with a medical man until after Hie woman, was dead, and ho regarded as significant the circumstance that when the police arrived they found a hot-water rubber biig on deceased's chest, and on the table by the side of the bed was a bottle- of tabloids containing a most deadly poison known as corrosive sublimate, together with a glass of water alongside. In tho mouth of the woman they found one o£ the' poisonous tabloids. 'However, the doctors showed that not a particle of tho poison had been swallowed, and nono was found in tho stomach. Therefore, tjio deduction was that the tabloid must liavo been put in deceased's mouth when she was unconscious, when sho was dying, or when sho was dead. It was further claimed that she could not have put the deadly poison in her mouth herself, and the b'ig question was, who put it there? Aad why was it put there? The prosecution submitted that it must have been done by someone in the house for some designing purpose, probably to deceive any future investigation that might bo held. The first witness, Florence Amelia Cruicksbank, a sister of tho deceased, repeated her former evidence to the effect that deceased, who had been staying with her left with a dross-basket about seven ■o'clock oir tho night of Monday, June 12, and she was then iu excellent health and spirits. James Warner repeated tho statement previously made that ho accompanied fclsio Holland on the evening of June U, and left her at a spot not less than 100 vards from O'Shaughncssy's house. Ho had known her about 18 months, and know of her condition, and o.lso where she said she was going. Albert Edward Williams, tho young man who was recently arrested for attempting to leave the country, and has siuce been hold in • custody, stated that ho was living at O'Shaughnessy's from time to time, and occupied a room near the bathroom. Dnrin-s tho night on the date in question ho heaTd moaning in the house. Evidence for the prosecution had not concluded when the Court adjourned.