“THE WORST WOMAN."

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1967, 31 December 1906, Page 3

“THE WORST WOMAN."

A real oaso of “Tho 'Worst AVoir

on Hurth” (as she is described in tho American Press) is at present, engaging this attention of criminologists in America. hi/.y.ie Llalliday is Use mime of the problem, and some extremists are solving her by suggesting the lethal chamber. . She is a homicidal maniac, who thinks no more of killing than of eating—if is a sort of function with her. She is at present at Mattoawan, an asylum for insane criminals, but she is Us crafty as a wild beast, and as ferocious, when she gets an easy chance; so the work of constantly watching her to prevent murder tends, in the words of the superintendent of the asylum, Dr. Dumb,'to “a meutai condition which is nerve wearing,” .Itocently she killed a ,i-..rse. Mvs AVickes, with whom short®!’be-in very friendly. Miss AVlokes wns N t.t.o asylum, Imvi>;,g obtained ai;ik”>'r appointment. she told the mad woman, who threatened the girl she would kill Dei - sooner than let her leave the .place. This she actually did, latiycf by securing ilm nurse'.keys, leaking the door, and staid ing the rytTortunnte girl in the throat witl’/a pair of scissors That made iiejc fifth murder. She had killed a Ipfsbaml, her stepson, and two women friends. These murders are proven. She is suspected of others also.

This uncanny woman is -15 yours of ago, and was horn in Ireland, emigrating to America in 1867. She has been married six times. Her last husband was Paid llnlliday. She set fire to his house and burned his son. hater, llnlliday disappeared, and when neighbours searched lor him they found the bodies of two women, Mrs. and Miss McQuillan. The daughter had been a servant with the Hollidays, and the mother, it appears, had gone to the Ilallidays to see why her daughter had not come homo. Subsequently, Airs. Halliday attempted suicide three times, and was so violent at the coroner’s inquest that she had to be chained.