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I am sure all Klosowskiologists will enjoy this!
I should subtitle this 'Don't believe what you read'.
I have emboldened the 'good bits'.
From The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia). Saturday 7 February 1903
THE SOUTHWARK TRAGEDY.
THREE TIMES A MURDERER.
(From our Special Correspondent.)
London, January 2, 1903.
The preliminary trial of the publican "George Chapman," who was arrested at "The Crown" Hotel on the day of the King's procession through London on a charge of poisoning his mistress (Maude Marsh) is proceeding at the Southwark Police Court. Though the case is not finished, there can be little doubt as to the issue or of "Chapman's" ultimate fate. Not only is he accused of poisoning Maude Marsh, but with having done to death in a similar fashion the two woman who previously passed as "Mrs. Chapman," and whose bodies were recently exhumed at Lymm, in Cheshire and Leytonshire, in Essex. As in respect to the hapless Maude, the post-mortem in both cases revealed the cause of death as antimonial poisoning, the theory of the prosecution being that ''Chapman" killed them by administering doses of tartar emetic in their food and drink. His first victim, the deserted wife of a porter, named Shadrich Spink, with whom '.Chapman" went through a bogus form of marriage, died in 1897, of "phthisis." But the course of her illness was exactly the same as Maude Marsh's fatal indisposition, and Chapman played the loving and attentive husband as in the case of the latter. He, however, did not communicate the fact of her death to her relatives. When Mrs. Spink's body was exhumed it had the appearance of being newly buried, probably because of its antimonial contents. Dr. Stevenson found nearly four grains on analysing the organs, and it was proved that in April, 1897, "Chapman" purchased an ounce of emetic tartar at a chemist's in Hastings, where he was then living.
After Mrs. Spink's death, "Chapman" came to London, bringing with him little Willie Spink, a son of the dead woman. He took the Prince of Wales' beerhouse in Bartholomew-square, and shortly after engaged as a barmaid, Bessie Taylor, a Cheshire girl, who was employed at a Peckham restaurant. Her friends soon heard that she had married her employer, and as "Mrs. Chapman" she played the hostess both at the Prince of Wales' and at the Monument public-house. Here quarrels between Chapman and his mistress occurred, and the woman fell ill. Her symptoms were puzzling, but when she died Dr. Stoker certified that death was due to "intestinal obstruction, vomiting, and exhaustion." He had no suspicion of foul play, but when Bessie Taylor’s body was exhumed the organs disclosed acute gastro-enteritis, and analysis by Dr. Stevenson of the intestines, &c, produced no less than 29.12 grains of antimony. In Maude Marsh's body 20.12 grains were found, and in each of the three cases the victim s illness ran a similar course, "Chapman" occupying the leading part in nursing the patient, and weeping bitterly when death released the poor creatures from their agonies. Possibly had "Chapman" called in any other medical man than Dr. Stoker to Maude Marsh he would still be a free man. But the startling similarity of Maude's symptoms and sufferings with those of Bessie Taylor aroused the doctor's suspicions, and he performed an autopsy, with the result that he sent the dead woman's intestinal organs to Dr. Stevenson who quickly discovered the cause of death.
Whilst the prisoner has been in custody the police have been ferreting out his antecedents. "Chapman's" real name is Severino Kloshoffski, and he was born at Warsaw, in Poland (the country of so many of our criminals nowadays), in 1865. For five years from October, 1873 [when he was seven years old – H] he was in the military school at Warsaw, and he studied there as an assistant doctor and hairdresser, which reminds one of the old-time profession of barber-surgeon. In December, 1886. he petitioned the head of the College of Medicine at Warsaw to be allowed to go up for a higher degree than that of assistant doctor, but apparently his request was not granted, and in 1888 he came to London, and was seen by a compatriot in Whitechapel, where he was employed as a barber's assistant. In 1890 a woman and two children came over from Warsaw, and there is no reason to doubt that they were the prisoner's wife and family. He, however, did not consort with them, and they were supported in the neighborhood for a little while, and then disappeared. "Chapman" also left Whitechapel, and was next heard of at Tottenham, where he served a year or two in a barber's shop. He then went to Leytonstone, where he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Spink, who had inherited £500. She consorted with "Chapman," who used part of her money to set himself up in business at Hastings as a hairdresser and umbrella and stick merchant.
I should subtitle this 'Don't believe what you read'.
I have emboldened the 'good bits'.
From The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia). Saturday 7 February 1903
THE SOUTHWARK TRAGEDY.
THREE TIMES A MURDERER.
(From our Special Correspondent.)
London, January 2, 1903.
The preliminary trial of the publican "George Chapman," who was arrested at "The Crown" Hotel on the day of the King's procession through London on a charge of poisoning his mistress (Maude Marsh) is proceeding at the Southwark Police Court. Though the case is not finished, there can be little doubt as to the issue or of "Chapman's" ultimate fate. Not only is he accused of poisoning Maude Marsh, but with having done to death in a similar fashion the two woman who previously passed as "Mrs. Chapman," and whose bodies were recently exhumed at Lymm, in Cheshire and Leytonshire, in Essex. As in respect to the hapless Maude, the post-mortem in both cases revealed the cause of death as antimonial poisoning, the theory of the prosecution being that ''Chapman" killed them by administering doses of tartar emetic in their food and drink. His first victim, the deserted wife of a porter, named Shadrich Spink, with whom '.Chapman" went through a bogus form of marriage, died in 1897, of "phthisis." But the course of her illness was exactly the same as Maude Marsh's fatal indisposition, and Chapman played the loving and attentive husband as in the case of the latter. He, however, did not communicate the fact of her death to her relatives. When Mrs. Spink's body was exhumed it had the appearance of being newly buried, probably because of its antimonial contents. Dr. Stevenson found nearly four grains on analysing the organs, and it was proved that in April, 1897, "Chapman" purchased an ounce of emetic tartar at a chemist's in Hastings, where he was then living.
After Mrs. Spink's death, "Chapman" came to London, bringing with him little Willie Spink, a son of the dead woman. He took the Prince of Wales' beerhouse in Bartholomew-square, and shortly after engaged as a barmaid, Bessie Taylor, a Cheshire girl, who was employed at a Peckham restaurant. Her friends soon heard that she had married her employer, and as "Mrs. Chapman" she played the hostess both at the Prince of Wales' and at the Monument public-house. Here quarrels between Chapman and his mistress occurred, and the woman fell ill. Her symptoms were puzzling, but when she died Dr. Stoker certified that death was due to "intestinal obstruction, vomiting, and exhaustion." He had no suspicion of foul play, but when Bessie Taylor’s body was exhumed the organs disclosed acute gastro-enteritis, and analysis by Dr. Stevenson of the intestines, &c, produced no less than 29.12 grains of antimony. In Maude Marsh's body 20.12 grains were found, and in each of the three cases the victim s illness ran a similar course, "Chapman" occupying the leading part in nursing the patient, and weeping bitterly when death released the poor creatures from their agonies. Possibly had "Chapman" called in any other medical man than Dr. Stoker to Maude Marsh he would still be a free man. But the startling similarity of Maude's symptoms and sufferings with those of Bessie Taylor aroused the doctor's suspicions, and he performed an autopsy, with the result that he sent the dead woman's intestinal organs to Dr. Stevenson who quickly discovered the cause of death.
Whilst the prisoner has been in custody the police have been ferreting out his antecedents. "Chapman's" real name is Severino Kloshoffski, and he was born at Warsaw, in Poland (the country of so many of our criminals nowadays), in 1865. For five years from October, 1873 [when he was seven years old – H] he was in the military school at Warsaw, and he studied there as an assistant doctor and hairdresser, which reminds one of the old-time profession of barber-surgeon. In December, 1886. he petitioned the head of the College of Medicine at Warsaw to be allowed to go up for a higher degree than that of assistant doctor, but apparently his request was not granted, and in 1888 he came to London, and was seen by a compatriot in Whitechapel, where he was employed as a barber's assistant. In 1890 a woman and two children came over from Warsaw, and there is no reason to doubt that they were the prisoner's wife and family. He, however, did not consort with them, and they were supported in the neighborhood for a little while, and then disappeared. "Chapman" also left Whitechapel, and was next heard of at Tottenham, where he served a year or two in a barber's shop. He then went to Leytonstone, where he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Spink, who had inherited £500. She consorted with "Chapman," who used part of her money to set himself up in business at Hastings as a hairdresser and umbrella and stick merchant.