MYSTERY AT BALSAM.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 653, 22 July 1876, Page 3

MYSTERY AT BALSAM.

(From the Daily Telegraph, May 10.)

The death of Mr Charles Delaney Turner Bravo on the 21st ult, which occurred at his residence, The Priory, Bedford Hill road, Balham, under mysterious circumstances, has caused a great amount of excitement in the neighbourhood. Many stories of symptoms exhibited by him previous to death and of what took place subsequently to it, utterly without foundation, have been floating about, but what is stated below may be taken as accurate. Mr Bravo, a rising barrister, aged about 30 years, lived at the above address—a handsome detached house — with his wife, to whom he has been married but six months, the lady having a housekeeper, Mrs Cox, also in the house. There were several servants, including coachman and footman, in the establishment, ns Mr Bravo kept two carriages and two pairs of horses. On the night of Tuesday, the 18th of last month, Dr Moore, who lives about a quarter of a mile from The Priory, was summoned to attend Mr Bravo. He went to the house immediately, arriving there between 10 and 11 o’clock, and found Mr Bravo lying back in a chair, breathing heavily, and totally unconscious. He was partly undressed, and Mrs Cox was rubbing his chest. Dr Moore, who feared the pulse would cease to beat at any moment, made inquiries of those present, but could get at nothing to account for the alarming symptoms. The heart threatened to stop, and at one time the medical man fancied it was a case of opium-poisoning, but, on examining the eye, he found that was not the case. He had Mr Bravo laid in bed so that the horizontal position might relieve the heart, and then had brandy heart went better after an hour’s time. Mr Harrison, surgeon, arrived in the meantime, and both {medical men remained with Mr Bravo until morning. They had previously despatched the coachman to town to bring Mr Boys Bell, of Harley street, a cousin of Mr Bravo’s, and Johnson, both of King’s College Hospital, and these gentlemen arrived at The Priory between two and three in the morning. Before they arrived the sick man vomited for the second time, and Mrs Cox remarked that she had given him mustard, which might account for it. It was a black vomit, which the physicians recognised as partly digested blood. At length Mr Bravo began to regain consciousness ; and the first thing his cousin Mr Roys Bell, asked him was, “ What did you take, Charlie ?” The deceased looked round in a way as if he felt he was in a condition he could not account for and he recognised all present. Mrs Bravo was in and out of the room, and appeared much distressed. Before Mr Bravo was restored to consciousness, Mrs Cox told Mr Harrison that when she went upstairs in the evening she found Mr Bravo sick, and having asked him what was the matter, he replied, “ I have taken that poisonous stuff.” Dr Moore, who was in the house an hour before Mr Harrison, states he was not put in possession of the fact. At another time, it appears Mrs Cox said the deceased told her he had taken chloroform, and the double statement very much perplexed Dr Johnson. The medical men, however, were satisfied he had not taken chloroform, but that he had imbibed some metallic irritant, as he was suffering from violent tenesmus. Between 5 and 6 in the morning, all the doctors, save Mr Bell, left the house. ma arrernoon of that day, when he was a good deal better, as milk and champagne stayed on his stomach ; but the following day the pulse was rapid, and the symptoms were exceedingly bad. Sir Wm. Gull arrived at the house on the Wednesday, and having discovered where the deceased had vomited, had the matter scraped up and preserved for analysis. Mr Bravo died early on the Friday morning, having previously made his will. A post mortem examination of the body was made by Dr Payne, of St Thomas’s Hospital, in the presence of Dr Johnson, Dr Moore, Mr Bell, and Mr Harrison. It was found that the stomach itself had got over the effects of the poison. All appeared perfectly natural until the large intestines were reached, and then it was found the blood vessels were engorged, the blood lying on the intestines. Sir William Gull had the contents of the viscera sent to Dr Redwood, of London, for analysis, and that gentleman found in them a large quantity of antimony. Mr Carter, the Surrey coroner, and a jmy hold two inquiries into the circumstances attending the death of the deceased, and as there was nothing in the evidence to show by whom —the deceased or another person — the antimony was administered, an open verdict was necessarily returned. It is a strange fact that Dr Moore, the first medical man who saw the deceased after he had been taken ill, was not subpoenaed to give evidence before the coroner’s court.

The lady to whom the deceased was married six months ago was a widow at that time of Captain Ricardo, formerly of the Guards, Her maiden name was Campbell, and her father had amassed a large amount of money in Australia. Captain Ricardo, who first met Miss Campbell in Montreal, was of good family and large fortune. From circumstances which occurred at Great Malvern there was much unhappiness caused between Captain and Mrs Ricardo, resulting in a separation, with an allowance to her of £I2OO a year, and ending in the institution of a suit in the Divorce Court. While the suit was pending Mrs Ricardo lived at Leigham court road, Streatham hill; and before it was ripe for hearing her husband died. He bad made a will in her favor some years previously, and had not revoked it since the differences between them began, and hence on the death of her husband Mrs Ricardo became possessed of a handsome income, she having a considerable amount of property in her own right. W’hile residing at Leighamcourt road, Mrs Ricardo took Mrs Cox, then living in Brixton road, ns a companion Subsequently Mrs Ricardo took the Priory, in Bedford Hill road, and brought Mrs Cox with her. and it was while she was mistress of this house she married the deceased, whose original name was Turner, which he changed at the request of his stepfather, who resides in Kensington. When the coroner’s inquiry was concluded Mrs Bravo left the Priory for Brighton,_ where she is at present staying. Mrs Cox is understood to be in charge of the house in Ralham, which, r standing on the edge of Tooting Common, has become an object of interest to the curious in such mutters.