THE BRAVO CASE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 242, 3 October 1876, Page 4

THE BRAVO CASE.

The following summary of this case which is creating so much excitement at Home is frcm the last letter of the Loudon correspondent of the Christchurch Press:-—

The inquiry into the death of the ) late Mr Bravo, or the " Balham Mys- j tery," as it is termed, is, in point of popular interest, running even the Tichborne case hard. I have not touched upon it in my previous letters, as I make it a rule to give your readers 89 email doses of " penny dreadfuls " as is consistent with my duty of keeping them au courant with passing events in this country. The Bravo case, however, has reached that point ( of' notoriety when I can no longer, as your London correspondent, be silent upon it. It is the principal topic of conversation. It may be as well to run I quickly over the story. In October j last Mr Bravo, a young barrister thirty ! years of age, and with fair professional prospects, met at Brighton a Mrs Ricardo, the widow of a Captain Ricardo, late of the Grenadier Guards. Mrs Ricardo was young, good looking, fascinating, and the possessor of an income of between four and five thousand a year. A mutual liking sprang up between the two. The courtship was short, and they were married iu the following December. After the marriage they resided at the Priory, Balham, three or four miles out of London. Here, according to tbe evidence of most of tbe witnesses, they appear to have lived comfortably together. Suddenly, one evening iu April last, that is to eay about four months after tbe marriage, Mr Bravo is suddenly taken 111. Numerous medical men are called in, amongst them Sir William Gull, who so successfully attended tha Prince of Wales iu his illness. Mr Bravo is found to be suffering from tbe effects of poison. All efforts to save him are unavailing, and he dies in three days. A coroner's iuquest is held, and a verdict of " Suicide " is returned. People's tongues, however, continue to w«g busily, and rumors get abroad that Mr Bravo did not die by his own hand. Certain facts are brought to the notice of the Treasury, whereupon the Attorney-General applies to the Lord Chief Justice to grant a fresh enquiry ou th- giounds ol insufficiency of evidetiCd at the former oue. This appli cation his lordship grants, the proceedings of the inquest are quashed, an authority for the exhumation of the body is given, and a fresh enquiry under the auine coroner ordered to be held. This iuquiry has now lasted nineteen days, aud the theory of Buicide is apparently beiug gradually upset. The most " astounding revelations " are beiog made, and a good deal of garbage is being served up on the public daily. Oue of the most striking and revolting features of the case is the criminal intimacy which hag been shown to have existed, beiore the marriage witb Mr Bravo, between Mrs Bravo and a Doctor Gully, Mrs Bravo is a young, good looking woman of thirty, rich and accomplished; .Doctor Gully is an old man just on seventy, with a wife ninety years of age! The advisability of exhuraiog tbe bodies of Captain Ricardo (Mrs Bravo's first husband) and Lady Catherine Ricardo, his mother, both of whom died suddenly some years ago, was broai'hed a few nights ago in Parliament, and it is thought that the necessary authority for the exhumation will ba given. It is long since so sensational a case has riveted public attention. Mrs Bravo's lather is aMr Campbell, a gentleman who amassed a large fortune ia Australia, and has resided in this country for many years.