A FEMALE POISONER. Ghastly Revelations In Liverpool.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 33, 19 January 1884, Page 5

A FEMALE POISONER. Ghastly Revelations In Liverpool.

The "murder market" is rather flat at present; infact,l seem to havenothingbetter to serve up for the delectation of those of your readers who gloat upon "horrors" than a somewhat commonplace poisoning case. This little affair took place in Liverpool, and what makes it interesting is the supposition that poor folks are beginning to comprehend some of the abuses to which life insurance and provident societies may be put. The heroine of the drama bears the heroic name of Catherine Flannigan,and she is accused of making away with her brother-in-law, a certain Thomas Higgins, who died very suddenly one Saturday morning under extremely suspicious circumstances. It is stated that Flannigan, who was sister to Mrs Higgins, had insured the deceased in several friendly societies ; and the allegation is that she brought about his death in ordei to secure the amount for which she had insured him. A brother of tho deceased, having his suspicions aroused, took steps to prevent the funeral taking place, and communicated with the police and Drs. Britnrick and Whitford. When the police interfered there was a hearse at the door of the deceased's residence to take away the remains to the cemetery ; but the hearse was sent away and a post mortem examination made on the body, when it is stated traces of poison were found. The woman Flannigan, on seeing the police enter the house, hurriedly left, and her whereabouts lias not yet been discovered. Mrs Higgins, the wife of the deceased and sister to Flannigan, was taken into custody on suspicion of being concerned in Higgins's death. An inquest was opened on Friday last by the city covonerintotheeirou instances attending Higgins's death, and adjourned for a week, pending inquiries being made by the police. It is alleged that Flannigan has been in the habit of insuring the lives of tho people in the neighbourhood, and drawing 4 the amount for which she has insured them on their death. Tho police, it is stated, have seized a large number of receipts for money thus received by Flannigan, and are said to be in possession of information which will lead to revelations of a very extraordinary character. The Home Secretary has ordered the exhumation of several bodies of persons supposed to have been poisoned by Flannigan. Insurances amounting to upwards of £150 had been effected on Higgins's life.

STARTLING STATEMENT BY A FORMER LODGER. The man Jennings has made the following startling statement : "lama labourer, and have, with the exception of three or four months, lived with Mrs Flannigan for about twelve years. My daughter and my wife also resided in the same house. My wife died soon after 1 went to live with Mrs Flannigan, and my daughter, after about three days' illness in January last, Shortly after dinner on a Sunday,. Margaret, my daughter became very ill with violent vomiting and purging, and died three or four days after in great agony. Mrs Flannigan had insured her for £50 in the Liver Office,' and for various sums in other societies unknown to me. I thought it strange, and asked Mr Higgins what I should do. He advised me to take out letters of administration, and apply at the offices of the Liver, but when I went to draw the money Mrs Flannigan and her daughter followed me "like detectives." Out of the £ 50 I gave Mrs Flannigan £30 and her daughter £3, keeping £17 for myself, Mrs Flannigan also received £9' from the (Scottish Friendly Society, o^t of

which she gave me half-a-sovereign. I also heard that she insured my wife for £16. She denied it, but I afterwards ascertained she had don© so. Duiing my daughter's illness Mrs Flannigan frequently administered medicine to her, which she said she obtained from the "sixpenny doctor's " in Walton Road. When she was absent, her daughter (the wife of the deceased man, Thomas Higgins) gave the medicine. After that I was afraid to live in Mrs Flannigan's house any longer, and took fresh lodgings. But one night some time aftei wards, when I was "on the beer," she persuaded me to go and live with her. The neighbours often remarked about the suddenness of my daughter's death, and one said, "God help you, poor man. Mind yourself while you are there," I saw the deceased man Thomas Higgins on the day before he was taken ill. In fact, he was in a public-house in the neighbourhood of Athol-street on the Sunday ; he was taken ill on the Monday, and died on the Tuesday. Mrs Flannigan went to the house just before the funeral was to take place, but when Mr Patrick Higgins and the doctors came she disappeared. I saw her an hour afterwards going in the direction of her house in Latimer-street, but shortly afterwards she was not there, and I have not seen her since. SEARCH FOR THE WOMAN FLANNIGAN Two members of the Liverpool detective force on Thursday visited a house in Bootle, where it was suspected Mrs Flannigan, who is wanted on a charge of poisoning, was concealed. It was found, however, that she had left to go to some friends in Linacre, but the police visited the latter place also without success. There being good grounds for supposing that the woman would endeavour to cross over to Ireland, and thence to get to America, the steamers sailing from Liverpool for Dublin, Drogheda, and other Irish ports were narrowly watched by the police, and handbills were issued for despatch to Ireland with a complete description of the person wanted. The Liverpool chief constable has offered a reward of to to the officer apprehending Mrs Flannigan. All the books, documents, and insurance policies belonging to the absconding woman were removed from her house soon after her flight by a Mrs Stanton, whose whereabouts has not been discovered. At a meeting of the Board of Management of the Royal Liver Friendly Society, all the collectors were requested to go through their books and hand in the names of any persons who might have been insured in the Society by either Mrs Flannigan or her friends, as the Society would decline to have anything more to do with them. One woman, named Catherine Walsh, is still on the books of the Society as having been insured for £50 by Mrs Flannigan, who stated that she was her sister. Prior to taking up her abode in Ascot- street, Mrs Flannigan j resided in Limekiln Lane, and St. Martin, Skirving, and Latimer-streets, and rumours are rife that while she lived in each of these thoroughfares deaths occurred under circumstances equally as suspicious as those attending the decease of Thomas Higgins. INQUEST ON THE BODY OF HIGGINS. On Friday morning Mr Clarke Aspinall, the city coroner, resumed the inquest on the body of Thomas Higgins. — Mr Marks, prosecuting solicitor, watched the inquiry on behalf of the police ; Mr Quelch, solicitor, on behalf of friends of the deceased ; and Mr S. Harman, solicitor, on behalf of the Royal Liver Friendly Society, in which Catherine Flannigan had insured her own son and daughter. The coroner said that since the jury last met the case had been assuming daily more extended proportions. He had been in communication with Mr Davies, the analytical chemist, and he had had several conferences with the prosecuting solicitor, and in consequence of what had taken place aa adjournment was inevitable. — Dr. Whitford was called, and said he attended the deceased, Thomas Higgins. He died on the 2nd of October, and he made a post mortem examination on the 4th. Apart from the subsequent analysis, the post mortem led him to be strongly of opinion that death was due to arsenical poison. — Dr. Daviei, who analysed the contents of the deceased's stomach and bowels, said he found they contained a fluid grain of white arsenic, which, allowing of absorption of the body, would be sufficient to cause death. — The inquiry was then adjourned for three weeks.