REMARKABLE STORY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1707, 26 March 1913, Page 3

REMARKABLE STORY.

A NURSE'S CONFESSION. A remarkable kory of thfc'alleged substitution of a live baby tor a dead one in order to secure succession to an, English estate worth ,£IOO,OUO has been tji'd in the California State Courts. Mrs. Dorothy Slingsby, the , wife of Lieutenant Charles Slingsby, ILN., claims as her son, telegraphed tho New York correspondent of the "Daily Express" ~11 January 21, a baby which,, according to the confession of a nurse, is really the son of a woman named Lillian Anderson.

Lieutenant Slingsby is said to have inherited a. large estate, in' his own right, but property valued at ,£IOO,OOO vested in his son is said to depend upon the .success of the attempt -to establish the latter's identity. ■ This .strange case had its'beginning in the prosecution of Dr. W. W. i'Vaser, a San .'Francisco physician, on the charge of falsifying a birth certificate, ill's. O- It- iilain, a nurse, testified beioie the Public Prosecutor that Dr. Fraser had certified as the son of Mrs. Slingsby nn infant that had been born to Lillian Anderson. According to Mrs. Blain's evidence, Mrs.. Slingsby was distracted wlu-n she gave birth to a dead ehikl in 1910. Mrs. Blain declares that she was induced to obtain another ohild to take the place of the dead infant. '■

"Our first plan was to got a child from some institution," said Mrs. Blain. "Mrs. Slingsby was in. a nervous condition; and she protested that'if 1 did not litlp her she would commit suicide, She said it was necessary that she should have n child in order to ensure tho succession to an estate. - f ' "Mrs: Slingsby then inserted an advertisement in a newspaper for a child. It was answered by Dr. Frascr,.who said he expected shortly to be in possession of a newly-born infant. On September 2, 1910, we .went to Dr. Eraser's office, and .1 left i£lo to pay for the baby- I went out of town, and'when I returned' I found' that Mrs. Slingsby had departed with the baby, and that the birth record had been changed." Mrs. lilnin said she had known Mrs. Slingsby for twenty years, and that she helped her because of her friendship. < ' Mr?. Amanda Koch, another witness before the Public Prosecutor, swore that, no child was born to Jlrs, Slingsby on September 1, 1910, the supposed date of tho birth.

Mr. Pickert, the Public Prosecutor, asserts that his .investigations indicate that Lillian Anderson and a chauffeur named Paul Calvin were the parents of the child Mrs. Slingsby asserts is her own. Local handwriting experts declare that Mrs. Slingsby wrote the newspaper advertisement asking for ,a child for, adoption. * Mrs. J.. P. Keleher, wife of a San Fran-i cisco lawyer, says that the evidence of the nurse to the effect tha^t- Mrs. Slingsby's bnbv was born dead on a certain date in "September,, 1910, is untrue, as she was with Mrs. Slingsby after that date, and she is certain that- the child had not been.born then. The California State authorities are said to have been notified .that the Slingsby family in England are arranging to bo represented at the further hearing of the case. ["Walford's County Families" stales that Charles Henry Reynard Slingsby. late R.N., married in 1900 Dorothy, widow of F. AYarncr, of tho United States, and that he has a son, born in 1910. The Slinesbys _of Scriven are an old, county family with three seats in ■Yorkshire. The head of the family is the Rev. Charles Slingsby Slingsby.]