Mrs Maybrick.

Manawatu Herald, 4 June 1903, Page 2

Mrs Maybrick.

TO BE RELEASED NEXT YEAR. Mrs Maybrick is to be released in July, 1904 “ This certain, is and is nothing new, except so far as the public are concerned,” was the answer of a Government official to an inquirer. A life sentence, where the prisoner obtains an unbroken good conduct record, means, in the ordinary way, 20 years imprisonment. The Home Office has, therefore, made the greatest rebate possible in Mrs Maybrick’s case. Her prison record, by the way, during 14 years she has served, has been the highest possible. The reason of the intimation of the Home Office as to what is intended 16 months hence, is in consequence of the existence of some important law suits before the American courts, which will require the evidence of Mrs Maybrick'"' before they can be decided. In order to ascertain when this eviwould be obtainable the British Government was approached through the proper channels, and the reply elicited. The Home Office has authorised Mrs Maybrick’s solicitors, in the case at Washington to make use of the fact of her release next year as a reason for urging the postponement of the trial of the law suits. The litigation in which Mrs Maybrick and iier mother, the Baroness E Von Roques, are engaged, involves immense tracts of land in the States of Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, and adds another romantic chapter to the history of the prisoner. The title and interest in two and a half millions of acres of land in those.states, valued at about seven and- a half million dollars, or roughly a million and a half, are at stake. It is . claimed that unless Mrs Maybrick is able to bear testimony in this case before the Virginian Courts, she and her mother will lose all claim to the land. The two women signed deeds’ which they assert purported to' allow certain persons to deal with only a., small portion of the lands, but which the holders now maintain represent the entire property They .contend,, in brief, that their signatures -Were obtained from them by fraud, and the prospective frial is the greatest interest in the U.S.