MRS MAYBRICK'S STATEMENT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 404, 21 September 1889, Page 4

MRS MAYBRICK'S STATEMENT.

Afc the request of Mr Russell, counsel for the prisoner, the Judge allowed her the unusual privilege of making a statement, which, with many emotional interruptions on her part, she proceeded to do in the following terms : — "I bought fly papers for use as cosmetics for many years, and used cosmetics containing arsenic, which Dr. Griggs, of Brooklyn, N.Y., prescribed. Host the prescription, and wishing to make a substitute for the formula, soaked fly-paper and elder flowers in lavender water, and covered it with a plate and towel to exclude the air. On the night of May sth, after the nurse had given the deceased meat juice I sat by the bed. JVJr May brick complained of being very sick and much depressed, and implored me to give him a powder which I earlier in the day had declined to administer. I was overwrought, terribly anxious, and very unhappy. His distress unnerved me, and as he said the powder was harmless and that 1 could put it in his food, I consented, and mixed itin the meat-juice. Mr Maybrick then fell asleep and appeared better when he awoke. I was not anxious to administer any more, and placed the meat-juice on the washstand, where it remained till Michael Maybrick took possession. The day before my husband's death I fully confessed and received his forgiveness for the fearful wrong I had done him." The concluding part of Mrs Maybrick's statement caused a profound sensation. Her statement ended the evidence for the defence.

that evidence had been -withheld which, would have caused a different verdict. She declared herself . not guilty. After the verdict was announced thousands of people assembled at the entrance of the courtroom, and when Judge Stephen came ,out he was greeted with howls and ' incessant cries of "Shame." The interference of the police only prevented an attack on the Judge's carriage. Witnesses in the case were also mobbed, and had to fight their way to a cab. A majority of the v - newspapers concur in the verdict ; still the " Time,s" holds there is enough on the woman's 'side to make the case one for the consideration of the Home Office. A large number of the lawyers prepared petitions to the Home Office to reprieve Mrs Maybrick. United States Minister Lincoln and many members of the American colony in London signed the prayer.