THE GREAT POISONING CASE. A RETIRED ARMY DOCTOR MURDERS HIS WIFE. CONVICTED BY A DIARY.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 241, 11 February 1888, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE GREAT POISONING CASE. A RETIRED ARMY DOCTOR MURDERS HIS WIFE. CONVICTED BY A DIARY.

London, December 26. A carefully - kept diary may become a weapon to the full, either as dangerous or as useful as a revolver. Thirteen months ago a woman's diary saved her reputation, and within the last ten days a woman* diary has twisted the halter round a dastard murderer's neck. Little has been heard of the great Cork poisoning case, because it occurred in Ireland. A similar trial for murder in London would have caused an immense sensation. One has only to recall the Bravo esclandre and another of comparatively recent dato to realise this. Moreover, the story of poor Mrs Cross's murder (so full is ib of exciting incident and retributive justice) reads more like a novel by Miss Braddon or Mrs Henry Wood than a commonplace criminal record. Surgeon-Major Cross, who was sentenced to death on Saturday last for ihe murder of his wife and the mothor of his five children, till recently held a respected position amongst the gentry of County Cork. Sixtythree years of age, he had been married for eighteen years to a woman twenty years his junior, and who had brought him a good deal of money. When Mrs Cross ' died, nothing wrong was at first suspected. The county knew, to be sure, ,thab the deceased lady had been jealous (not without cause, it was thought) of a governess named Miss Skinner, who had resided at Shandy Hall for three months. But Miss Skinner had gone away at the end of that time, and no one had any idea that Major Cross was in reality still keepingher in Dublin. When, therefore, the bereaved husband married Miss Skinner with indecent haste and brought her back tq Shandy Hall with him, great surprise and disgust were expressed, and people began "to talk.'* If a person has anything of importance to conceal, it is always dangerous when people begin to talk, prominent amongst the talkors was a simple, inoffensive maiden lady, a Miss Jeflerson, an old' school friend of Mrs Cross's, who happened to be staying at Shandy Hall during the deceased lady's fatal illness. Miss JeflersOn never tired of dilating on, the peculiar symptoms of her poor friend's sickness. Surgeon-Major Cross said his wife died of' typhus fever. Miss Jefferson knew enoughs to be sure it was not typh'u^. ' Her suspicions, 'in fact, were aroused, and she noted minutely' in ft diary 'everything she saw 'and -heard. This diary hung the amorous Cross. '' When the Coroner read it he ordered Mrs Cross's'body to be exhume I cl,and it -#o^ mortem revealing" the truth, bhe'Surpjejm-M'djo'r was arrested. The whole story as it was circumstantially told at the'brial, puts the case" on 'the leVel of 'the" most- atrocious' crimes of ( its kind. The murdered* wjqma'n seemed' have loved and trusted, her murderer to' the 'last; SH6 certainly did bdth.fronV'the 1 first. It was'a* love match' 1 on li.er ' t sid^' 1 , hei? ',affection H or* the military sur'gfeoriysevGnfce'eri' years' 'her senior, overcame the strenuous opposition

of her friends to the marriage. She was of good family, and she had expectations, which, when they, were in due time realised, went to augment his fortune. They seemed to have lived happily until the beginning of the present year, when prisoner's love '•'(tooled to indifference." Miss Skinner had come into the neighbourhood in 1886 as governess in the family of a lady who lived two miles from Shandy Hall, and with whom Dr. Cross and his wife were on visiting terms. She soon left that situation to 1 enter the family of Dr. Cross. She remained j under his roof three months, and in that time his demeanour towards his wife com- I pletely changed. When sho left, her employer appai'enfcly knew where to find hor. In March and April of the present year she ] mot Dr. Cross in Dublin, in flying* visits, and passed as his wife. In the early part of May his real wife exhibited the first symptoms of the fatal illness under which she was to succumb in three weeks. She was taken ill on May 10 with symptoms that were afterwards recognised as those of arsenical poisoning. Her illness continued for eight days, but in ' that time she had partially recovered from the effects of the first dose ; and, if another had not been administered to her, her life might have been spared. On May 19th she was well enough to go to church ; on May 20fch sho was prostrate again, with the same symptoms as before, and it may be added, with the same horrible sufferings. By June Ist she was dead. Meanwhile Miss Jefferson, the school friend of the doomed woman, had become an inmate of Shandy Hall, and Miss Jefferson, accoiding to custom, brought her diary with her. Sho arrived on April 29; in about eight days from that time, as we have seen, Mrs Cross had her first attack. Miss Jefferson's want of medical knowledge, unfortunately, did nob enable her to form definite suspicions. She could only note the acute sufferingsof herfriend, and the mysterious manner in which they re-commenced as though under the effect of a fresh irritant, almost as soon as they had slowly ceased. Yet the poor creature clung tenaciously to life, for on May 22nd, two days after she had swallowed the last dose, the diary records that sho was a little better, and that she crept into the garden to breathe the fresh air, and hear the birds sing — for the last time. Her anguish was terrible ; her heart beat so violently that it seemed to leap within her ; and she used to press her hana convulsively to her side as though to hold it down. Her husband, meanwhile, looked on. The treatment was exclusively in his hands; and he alone watched in his wife's room. Three servants slept together in another room, and at about an hour after midnight on June 1, one of them was awakened by horrible screams. When all was quiet again, Mrs Cross was dead, but the family knew nothing of it till six o'clock the next morning, when her husband brought down the news. He had remained alone with the dead body for five hours. He did not quit it even then, for he accually helped to perform the last offices, although, on thiß occasion, he had one of the womon servants to assist him. He had called in a doctor during her tinat seizure, bub the doctor was allowed to see and to know so little of the ca6e that he prescribed for a bilious attack. When all was over, Dr. Cross wrote becoming letters to friends and relatives to announce [ the sad event. A clergyman who had been refused admission to the sick-bed was allowed to attend the funeral. It took place at seven in the morning, in the presence of only four or five persons. As soon as it was over Dr. Cross must have been thinking of the happiness in store for him. In a week or two we find him joking with a neighbour about the second Mrs Cross, and soon ho brought Miss Skinner to Shandy Hall as his wife. The disgust of the neighbours first excited the suspicions of Justice. The bride and bridegroom were " boy- ! cotted " during the honeymoon, and in due 1 time the body of the murdered woman was exhumed. The analyst reported a healthy heart, arsenic in nearly every organ, a little strychnine, no trace of typhoid fever, and no sign of any natural cause of death. At the trial a chemist proved the purchase of lib of arsenic, which Dr. Cross said he wanted for sheep - dipping purposes. A quantity of strychnine was seized at Shandy Hall at the time of his arrest. But Dr. Crosß, after all, was a medical man, and as such, of course, he might plead a sort of privilege for the storage of commodities of this description. The fatal evidence against him was of another sort. When he was taken before the magistrate, ho was observed to be in close conversation with his sister, who has throughout shown a very natural desire to save his neck. A policeman, probably not in uniform, drew near to catch what he could, and he was rewarded for his pains by overhearing a curious colloquy : '• Did you see the two little bottles, about the length of my finger, with the white powder in them?" asked Dr. Cross. " Yes,"' replied the lady; "I destroyed them with fie other things." There was no attempt to deny the conversation, only the prisoner's counsel was able to assure the Court that the bottles contained nothing but toilette powders used by the late Mrs Cross. For all that, as we see, Dr. Cross has been found guilty and sentenced to the death by hanging he has so richly deserved.