A REMARKABLE IMPOSTURE.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 344, 1 April 1884, Page 5

A REMARKABLE IMPOSTURE.

*. : MrT. T. De Lassaux, coroner, held an inquest- at Whitstable, on the- body of Frances Wood., alias Fanny Jordan, aged 35. The deceased had. for over 20 years carried out the imposture of pretending to be a confirmed invalid and '■ bedridden, and that she had been strijken black in the face by a marvellous visitation. She elicited much sympathy and charitable help in the way. Harriet Jordan, mother of the deceased said deceased had never been very strong. "When she was 14 years of age she was afflicted with typhoid fever and when she got better she went to a situation, but did not stay long. When she was 15 years of age she had a fright. A deaf and dumb man used to come to the house, and she was always alarmed at him. On one occasion she saw him with a large knife in his hand, and she was so frightened that she was never well afterwards. She was for eight weeks an outpatient of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, and after that she took to her bed. She could not 'eat anything that was solid, but lived upon wine, brandy, custards, jellies, sponge cakes, and oysters. She vomited every thrig, and had no natural evacuations. She was apparently paralysed, with the exception of one hand ; but with this hand, however, she could write letters. For many years her face had been almost black, with the exception of a white streak down the nose. Witness had never suspected all this time that her daughter had been practising a wicked deception ; but a fortnight ago she confessed that she bad done so, and had carried on the imposture for twenty years. Witness happened to say to deceased, "Fanny, you do not seem happy ; have, you anything on your mind V 7 She said she had a loid on her conscience, and she ihen confessed that she had never been paralysed that she had the use of boih hands ; ' and the dark hue of her face was artificially produced, she having blackened it by means of burnt cork. Replying to the jury, Mrs Jordan said the blackness of her daughter's face disappeared all at once, and when she questioned her about it, deceased attributed it to the shock she had sustained upon hearing that her brother had been committed to prison. All these years witness detected no black marks upon the sheets or- pillow of deceased's bed. Deceased always wore a handkerchief over, her face aftd head, witness never saw her put it on or take it off. Deceased always through the handkerchief into the hand basin '» herself, and she never noticed any discoloration of the water. Deceased would have no difficulty in getting corks, because she frequently had ginger beer and other bottles. She always had a piece of caudle always at hand, as she rubbed her sore side with tallow. Witness admitted that she had never washed deceased. She used to take water to the deceased for that purpose, but never remained while she washed. Several medical men had seen deceased but not of late yews ; she did / not seek their aid because she thought they could do her daughter no good. She remembered Lady Sfc. Vincent calling to see the deceased on one occasion. She understood that her ladyship expressed the opinion that the deceased's face was painted, but she , (witness^ iopkno stepsto satisfy herself whether i •blared emphatically that the 'deception practised by her daughter , had not been carried on by hsr connivance ; she had .no suspicion of it until sne' confessed. Later on, the Coroner said, that in his 64 years', experience : as a coroner this. Was the, most; extraordinary case which hadcbme^under liis notice, and he was bound to 1 kay-of Mrs Jordan ' what he had never said of a witness before, that h.e< did not believe . a single syllable of her evidence. Alfred Beeves, a member of the' Plymouth Brethren, who had visited the deceased for many years, deposed to a confession made voluntarily by decased to . him, which was in very similar terms to that deposed,to;m Mrs Jordan's testimony. Deceased said to him, " Mr Reeves, I declare to you, before God, that my mother knew nothing of this." The (jury returned a verdict that the deceased died from disease of the lunge ■and consumption, and they expressed the opinion that gross deception had been practised, as well as neglect shown in not providing*sufficient medical attendance.