Nursed Lover, That She Might Later Kill Him!

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 660, 11 May 1929, Page 18

Nursed Lover, That She Might Later Kill Him!

“liriTHlX a few seconds of your dying I'shall die too, but ft I shall die gladly, for I shall feel I have had mv revenue' the one thing for which I lived.”

MURDER IN WARD FULL OF PATIENTS ... LETTER OF CONFESSION LEFT FOR WORLD TO READ . . .

N

author has ever written a drama in which a woman patiently nursed back to life her faiti less lover so that she might take his life in

again, but real life has provided such a drama in Denver, the parties to it being Farice King, a hospital nurse, and Robert K. Evans, a policeman. Right through the drama stretches the long arm of coincidence to an extent that is well nigh incredible. Years ago the nurse and Evans had been boy and girl lovers, but suddenly the affections of the man were switched to another woman, and. just when the girl was preparing for a happy marriage, lie iutimated his intention of marrying another. For a time the blow seemed to paralyse her, but soon she seemed to recover and married a doctor named King. The marriage was not a happy one, j and the husband deserted her, leaving her with a baby, who died at the age of 12 months. One day Fate brought her face to face with her former lover, whose married life was almost as unhappy as her own, and old memories were revived by the meeting. Evans protested that his love had not changed, and the woman believed him. Then there was an understanding that when he had divorced his wife he would marry her. Instead of divorce came reconciliation, and the disillusioned nurse went her way, trying to find consolation in her profession, but secretly cherishing thoughts of revenge. She accepted an appointment in the | principal hospital at Denver, and, while employed there, was called on to attend the case of a police officer who had been seriously injured in a street brawl, having been shot through the chest. His life was despaired of, and ni: one chance of recovery lay in careful ; nursing. When Nurse King recog- > nised her former lover she devoted herself to him, and in due course his ; complete recovery was announced, j

but no one dreamed that the ministering angel who watched over him and nursed him back to life had done so with no other thought than reserving him for death at her own hands. Sardonic Glee On the night that was to be the last of Evans's stay in the hospital the nurse, who had been commended for her devotion to him, sat by his bedside talking in ordinary tones of every-day subjects, and no one imagined that tragedy was so near. Suddenly she whipped out from beneath her uniform a revolver and fired into the breast of the path killing him instantaneously, and shooting herself before anyone could intervene. On the table near her lay a letter that revealed the secret of the link between the nurse and her patient. It said: “I loved you in spite of evervthing, but above all was the feeling that I must have revenge for my own sake and the sake of my sex. From the moment you came under my care I was seized with the desire to save you from death at all costs, but only with the object of sending you to |

| death by my own hands when you v recovered from your wounds U “God alone knows what T j. : lived through these days. All the has come buck to me. I harp*™ 51 called your protestations of undvH- ! love. I have recalled my hnw* I heart w hen I received your note Sn I ing me that you had transferred vo»' affections to another. I have j to make myself believe that T dM** 1 care, but it has been impossible BOt “X do care, even now, and. caViii. I cannot allow you to pass from of. with the thought that, you may give, another the love that is due to m Therefore have 1 decided that in are to die. and die vou will bv 'nl hand. ! ■ “Within a few seconds of von, dying 1 shall die, too. but I shall’ a; gladly, for I shall feel that I had my revenge, the one Thin* which I have lived, the thing for which I have devoted myself night and dato the tedious task of winning van back to health. It is grim to think of, and I cannot help sardonic *]« in the thought that not one of those who commended me for mv devotion to my patient realised the true reason why I was devoted to you. “I have thought out everything and mv heart is steeled against ’nitv because I realise that you never had pity for me in the davs when von played with my affections for youown ends. My unhappy marriage i lay at your door, and I fee] that it w as a decree of Fate that sent yon to this hospital to come under mv care No Regrets “t loved you to the end. and I j tended you us only a woman who I loves can tend a man in illness, but ! all the while there was the other side jof me, bent on vengeance, and while one part of me was doing everything possible to win you back from the grave, the other part was laying plans to send you to the grave as soon as you had been won from it. “I am going out with you, but I have no regrets. I have the hope that in auother land we shall begin a new life in which you will realise your infidelity to me and purge it by eternal devotion. I may be mistaken in this, as in other things, but at legs! I have the satisfaction of knowing that I am making it impossible for you to play me as false as you have done in the past.” By the side of the dead bodies the attendants found all the lore letters that the man had written to tha

nurse. The crime was committed in a ward full of patients. None of the staff dreamed of the association between the beautiful sad-faced nurse and her patient. Her devotion to him was put down to professional zeal, and nothing in their relations gave rise to the suggestion that they were anything - but on the ordinary footing of nurse and patient. Among the nurse’s possessions was found a diary that throws lurid light on the tragedy. “My heart has turned to ice,” 6he writes on the night when she learned of her lover's • faithlessness. “He is unhappy, and I am so glad,” she says in recording her meeting with him years after, when she learned that be was on the verge of a break with his wife. “He is helpless, and they say he will die before morning,” she records on the night of his arrival in her ward, adding: “But at all costs he must live, live to die by my hand. I will devote myself to nursing him back to life, and when he is well enough I will take my revenge for the past by killing him.” Daily entries record with satisfaction ths progress made by the patient and the approach of retribution.