PARSON’S CONFESSION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 21, 8 January 1912, Page 5

PARSON’S CONFESSION.

GIVES POISON TO ONE OF HIS SWEETHEARTS. INSANITY ALLEGED. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Press Association.) New York, January 6. At Boston the Rev. C. Richeson confessed to poisoning his sweetheart, Avis Linnsfl. The girl believed the poison Richeson scut her to be medicine. Richeson was about to marry another. It is alleged the clergyman’s mind is affected. A STARTLING ARREST. A recent message from New York read as follows: A great sensation has been caused in Boston (U.S.A.) by the arrest of the Rev. Clarence Riciieson, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Churcn, one of the most fashionable churches here, file clergyman has been arrested on a charge of being concerned in the death of Miss Avis Linnell, who found dead on October 14 in a room at the Young Women’s Christian Association, of which she was a member. The girl died through taking a dose of cyanide of potassium, and the circumstances surrounding the whole case are romantic and peculiar. Miss Linnell was a beautiful girl of 19, and while living with her widowed mother, was pursuing a course of study at the Boston Conservatory cf Music. She and her mother wore members of the church over which Mr. Richeson presided, and the clergyman was known to call at their house very frequently. It was rumoured that the pastor and Miss Linnell wore engaged to be married, and though Mr. Richeson denies that th s was a fact, it is known that the young girl had prepared her trousseau, and was looking forward to her wedding day. On October 14, the day xi which she was found to have taken poison, a notice was printed in the local papers announcing the forthcoming wedding of the Rev. Clarence Riche.son to Miss Violet Edmonds, the daughter of one of Boston’s millionaire merchants, and the date was fixed for October 31. Very shortly after this notice appeared Miss Linnell drank the cyanide of potassium at the Y.W.C.A. building, and it was naturally supposed that she committed suicide through grief. At the inquest, however, her mother, though not denying her daughter’s engagement, to the clergyman, declared that Avis had not seen the newspapers -with the announcement, and that in taking the poison she thought she was taking a harmless medicine. The inquest was postponed for further enquiry, and the other night a chemist, who had been reading the case in the newspapers, told the police that six hours before the tragedy of the young girl’s death occurred, lie sold to Mr. Richeson cyanide of potassium, which the clergyman said he wanted to kill a dog with. The arrest of the clergyman was most dramatic. Not finding him at his own , rooms,; the police 1 went; to the house of Mr. Edmends, which is a fine mansion in the exclusive Back Bay district, and there Look the parson in custody while he was assisting Miss Edmends in .the - receipt -arid , arrange ing ,of the'wedding presents, i which; were arriving in great numbers for the young [couple/ q u> , o <• i Mr. ; (Richeson was- arraigned -i in Court,: and; on the charge being read fca him, pleaded not guTty. The Judge, however, refused to grant him bail, and lie was confined in a cell. The clergyman, who is 33 years of age, has had ins-pastorate in Boston for some years, and is exceedingly popular. He will not lack friends to help him, and already he has received numerous offers of assistance) while several rich mem of his congregation - liaVe offered bonds for his bail if it should be al-’ lowed. ,