POISONED WIFE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 91, 17 April 1912, Page 8

POISONED WIFE.

HUSBAND AND GIRL CLERK, Allison Macfarland, a civil ongin'vr, has been convicted of poisoning .is wife Evelyn, in their home at 'N.-.v-ark on October 17th. The jury found a verdict of murder in the first degree after deliberating for thirteen hours. Macfarland’s crime was remarkable, because it would probably never have been detected but for the fact that another crime of the same sort was attracting public attention. Mrs Macfarland was killed by cyanide of potassium placed in a bottle similar to that containing “headache drops” which: she was in the habit of using. The poison was taken into the house by the husband, and was left in a cupboard where the “headache bottle” usually stood. The wife took the poison while Macfarland was absent on business in New York. When the Coroner was summoned to inquire into the death, he found Macfarland at home, imperturbable and self-possessed. The cause of bis wifes’ death was then uncertain, and the Coroner confessed himself puzzled. Macfarland objected to having a postmortem examination to determine this. “Couldn’t you make it heart disease, and grant a. certificate?” he asked. The Coroner declined, and subsequent investigations showed that the wife had undoubtedly taken cyanide in mistake for the “headache drops.” The killing of the choir girl, Avis Linncll, by the clergyman, Richoson, in Boston a few days previously by the same poison, caused the authorities to make a rigid investigation, and this disclosed that Macfarland was infatuated with a girl who had been bis stenographer. The girl produced letters beginning “Dear Bunnie,” in which Macfarland promised her to divorce bis wife and marry her. The case was pressed to trial, with the result that Macfarland was convicted with far less delay than is usual in murder eases here. He heard the verdict with his usual imperturbability, and, extending his hands to the detective to be hand-cuffed, walked out of Court without a tremor and without glancing at his white-haired uncle, who had been his main support throughout the trial.