MURDER VERDICT AGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 735, 7 August 1929, Page 1

MURDER VERDICT AGAIN

Greatest Poison Mystery INQUEST ON EDMUND DUFF Coroner Has Sat for 200 Hours fl'nited P..1.— 8y Telegraph, — Copyright > (Australian and A T .Z. Press Association) (United Service) Received 10.30 a.m. LONDON, Tuesday. AT the final inquest on the third of the Croydon poisoning victims, Edmund Creighton Duff, formerly British Commissioner in Nigeria, the coroner, Dr. H. Beecher Jackson, again returned a verdict of wilful murder by some or persons unknown. He summed up at length, again pointing out that there was not a scrap of evidence to single out any member of the family as the poisoner.

Thus closes another chapter o£ the greatest poison mystery of the century. Those concerned in the drama are: — Miss Vera Sidney, aged 10, of Birdhurst Rise, Croydon. Died on February 19. Arsenic found. Verdict of murder against some person unknown. Mrs. Violet Emelia Sidney, aged 69, mother of Miss Sidney. Died on March 5. Arsenic found. Open verdict. Mr. Edmund Creighton Duff, Mrs. Siduey's son-in-law, husband of Mrs. Craca Duff. A former High Commissioner for Nigeria, died on April 27, 1925. Verdict of “Death from natural causes" was returned at the first inques', but body exhumed again oil May IS, and a new inquest began on the application of the Attorney-General. Verdict of murder against some person unknown. Mr. Thomas Sidney, son of Mrs. Sidney. Mrs. Duff, his sister, widow of Mr. Edmund Creighton Duff. Dr. H. Beecher Jackson, the coroner who has been conducting the inquest on Mrs. and Miss Sidney, and Mr. Duff. He sat for over 200 hours, writing down every word of the evidence. DRAMATIC EXHUMATION The whole mystery is a sequel to the exhumation, in the dead of night five months ago, of five bodies, those of Mr. Duff and his two infant daughters, Miss Sidney and Mrs. Violet Sidney. At the inquest on Miss Vera Sidney the Home Office poisons expert, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, said that her death was due to syncope, following acute arsenical poisoning. The last and fatal dose had been taken in food at least 24 hours before her death. In his summing-up on that occasion the Croydor, coroner pointed out that there was not a tittle of evidence to show who had administered the poison which killed Vera Sidney. There was to evidence to single out any one member of her family. The coroner then expressed the opinion that the theory of suicide or accidental poisoning by medium of soup could be ruled out. There was the gravest suggestion that someone had poisoned her, but there was nothing to show that her sister-in-law, Mrs. Duff, had harboured ill-feeling. AN ANGRY WITNESS At the inquest on Mrs. Violet Sidnejb Thomas Sidney, brother of Mrs. Duff, angrily intervened when the coroner impressed upon the jury not to draw any inference of murder from its possible assumption that Thomas Sidney was not the most truthful of witnesses. The coroner added that there was not a tittle of evidence to show that this witness had administered the poison. The verdict oh that occasion was ♦hat Mrs Sidney died of acute arsenical poisoning, but that there was insufficient evidence to show whether she killed herself or was murdered. The coroner, in his summing up, laid stress on the affection that had existed between members of the family. It was true, he said, that Mrs. Duff, bad increased her capital by £4,500 owing to her mother’s death. But previously she had had an allowance of £3OO a year, so that her mother’s death made no real difference to her financial condition. Mrs. Duff appeared to be an emotional, but truthful witness. Her brother. Thomas Sidney, said tbe coroner, seemed at times not to appreciate the gravity of the inquiries. Tbe jury might have formed the judgment that he was not the most truthful of witnesses before them, but lie must impress upon members of the lory not to draw any inference of murder from that. The coroner proceeded to say that

Thomas Sidney was not in financial difficulties. He had £5,000 in addition to his earnings. Mr. E. C. Duff died on April 27, 1928; his sister-in-law, Miss Vera Sidney, in February of this year, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Violet Sidney, in the following month. Mrs. Sidney left an estate of about £9,000, to be divided among all her children. Miss Vera Sidney left between £3,000 and £4,000 to her mother, and after her mother’s death to be divided between her brother, Thomas Sidney, and her sister, Mrs. Grace Duff, the ex-official’s widow.

"NOT A PRISONER”

WIFE LEAVES HOSPITAL TO INVESTIGATE SYDNEY POiSON MYSTERY (United P.A. —By 'Telegraph — Copyright) Reed. 9 a.m. SYDNEY, Today. There was a dramatic development in the case in which Walter Rufus Pearson is charged with the murder of his second wife, Marion, in 1923, and with, the attempted murder of his present wife. The present wife, a native of New Zealand, who was being treated in the Sydney Hospital for a mysterious illness, left the institution against the advice of the hospital authorities. Both of her arms are still partially paralysed. “I am going to find out what is going on. I am not a prisoner,” Mrs. Pearson declared. The charge against Pearson that relates to her is that he administered chloride of zinc to her, with intent to murder her. The body of the second wife was exhumed, and when Pearson was charged in the Sydney Police Court with murdering her, counsel for the prosecution said traces of poison had been found in the body. Accused was remanded in custody, bail being refused.