AN AMERICAN BORGIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2225, 12 October 1886, Page 3

AN AMERICAN BORGIA.

Since the terrible revelations in the case df the child murderer and torturer Jesse Pomeroy nothing more revolting has come to light than the charges made against Mrs Sarah J. Robinson, of Somerville, a city adjacent to Boston. The woman herself is reported to be a mild-looking person, somewhat prominent in society, who haa had an exemplary reputation. Until recently no suspicion has attached to her ,' on tho other hand, she way regarded as a pleasant lady, and was even the object of public sympathy, aroused by the inroads of death in her family. It is now charged against this woma^i upon strong testimony that she has successfully poisoned her husband, her ten-year-old daughter, her sister, aistet 'a husband, and two children, another daughter, and recently her last remaining child, a young man of twenty-four, was lying in a critical conditfon. It is even believed by some that she has lately poisoned a whole picnic party of 100 people by mixing : arsenic with their ice-cream, but this does) not rest upon proof, nor is it likely to have been the case, as there is an entire absence of motive urging her to destroy the pleasure-seekers. In her household murders, however, the motive is very apparent, and is clearly traceable to her oVtr-weening greed for money. Each one of the victims of her poisoning operations was insured for £400 in a mutual benefit life insurance company known as the United Order of Pilgrim Fathers; and it is alleged to be susceptible of proof that in each case by the aid of a male accomplice she succeeded in having the in* surance sp adjusted that the money came tojber. This Somerville woman deliberately killed, her Victims for money ; and nearly all were children, either her own or those of relatives who were dead, and towards whom she stood in the position of guardian< It was deliberately followed as a money- making business, and all her arrangements were carried out with coolness and craft. , She does not even seem to have been actuated by a homicidal mania, as was the' case with Jesse Pomeroy, who Was undoubtedly as irresponsible for his brutalities as a wild animal. Her crimes were planned with the utmost coolness and deliberation, and were committed afc long intervals of time, so as not to rouse suspicion, in which, sne wa« aided by the fact that so many of her victims were chikl&en, whose deaths do not attract as rouob attention as those of elderly persons; The Albany Evening Journal, io discussing the case, calls attention to-andther startling fact in this connection. Jfc flay* that " graveyard for surance has given place to child insurance among prevalent insurance crimes," and that during thd present summer several instanced have been reported in Pennsyl* vania, Ohfo, ,and in some , of the Southern States.— Chicago Tribune.

♦keir mart Vulcan Lane, Auckland, on, Friday next, by order qf the, Registrar of the SWme Oovttt a 50-aore farm tiear Hamilton, being Lot 34, parish of Kmkm-