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WOULD LOOK SO NICE DEAD1 Buffalo Child's Excusa for Poisoniig Her Playmates.LHtle Ella llolilrldire Confessed to (it?-ins Them Rat I'olsou. “Her Funeral Vn Awful Nice.”Buffalo, N. Y., July 19.—Our at Father Baker's institution at Limestone Hill there is a girl of fourteen years, Ella Holdridge, whose morbid passion for seeing death and funerals has led her to kill one of her playmates and cause the serious illness of three others by poison.Tonawanda is ten miles from Buffalo, hut it might just as well be at the bottom of Lake Erie so Jar as the publicity of news is concerned, and thus it is that Ella’s crime did not become known for more than a week.Her plan was to administer rat poison, which she made as agreeable to tuke as possible by mixing it with cocoa. When the children refused to take it willingly she threw them on their backs and forced it down their throats, leaving them to die if they would, hut watching them suffering from a distance and gloating over it.As far as can he learned this child Borgia’s work began in earnest July 7. On that day Ella had been playing with Louisa, the •even-year-old daughter of Herman Stermer. Shortly after she left Louisa was taken violently ill. The weather was hot, just the kiml in which children’s complaints flourish, and the physician called prescribed for summer complaint. None of his remedies eased her •offerings, and after two days of intense agony the little girl died.She was buried on the 11th, and one of the conspicuous figures at Who Stermer home during the days intervening between death and the funeral and at the open graveside ■as little Ella Hildridge, solemn at-.d quiet, hut her eyeB Hashed with excitement, her cheeks burning and her face full of mystery.The doctor had given a certificate of death from summer complaint and no thought of murder or poison entered the mind of any one (util last Wednesday, when Mrs. Kgglcston came to Buffalo on a •bopping expedition, lenving her (■o young daughters at home. She bod boen gone only a few minutes ■heu the Holdridge girl went to the house. The children were play ing around the doorstep.Elia took them inside and told them she would make them something nice. She locked the door and made a pot of cocoa, into ■bich she threw a gencous handful of rat poison.One of the children didn’t like the taste. She was pushed onto a •of*. The liquid was poured down her throat. Then Ella told them both they would be all right •non. directed them not to tell any one.That night both children were taken violently ill and Dr. Edmunds was called. lie at once suspected poison. Questioning tho little patients closely he learned enough to put him on the track of the child poisoner.While he was working over the Kggleston children it was discovered that tho live-year-old son of Mr Darlock had been jioisonvd.A panic seized the neighborhood. Every ehilil was catechised to loam if it iiad eaten or drank anything given them by Ella Holdridge.By hard work the physician who attended the tiarlock hoy saved bio lit*-, although he is yet very ill. iu ik.i meantime Dr. iiuriir, »uuattended the girl who died, and Dr. Edmonds had compared notCB and Justice of the Peace Rogers and Coroner Hardlehcn were notified and began an investigation.Tho Holdridge child was sent for and questioned. At first she denied giving any of the children anything to eat or drink, but when told she had been seen making the cocoa and that it was known that she had poisoned them, she very naively and with wide-open eyes said:“Dear me, is that so?”Then she made a full confession. She told how she had made the cocoa with the poiBon in it and how she had forced it down the throats of the little Eggleston children because she wanted to go to a funeral, and thought they would look so nice dead.When the death of little Louisa Stermer was brought up she frankly said:“Yes, she’s dead. Poor Louisa! But she looked awful pretty and her funeral was awful nice.Ella had given her the poison in drink of water, she said. She told her tale in the most matter-of-fact way, without seeming to realize the •normity of her act.It has been learned that after • after she had given the poison to the little Stermer girl, Ella went 1 home, and her mother, noticing that she seemed to be laboring ' under suppressed excitement, asked j her what the trouble was.“I don't know,” she replied, “but 1 I guess little Louisa is goin' to die, 1 'cause she's pretty sick. The doc- * tor is there.”From then until the child died 1 Ella made frequent trips to the 1 Stermer house, tiptoed her way to ! the window nnd peeked in. Every * time she ran hack to her mother ■ and cried almost joyously: 1“I guess she's most dead now!” 1 Finally little Louisa died. The ! first intimation Mrs. Holdridge 1 had of it was when Ella ran into 1 the house clapping her hands and dancing up and down, saving gleefully:“I guess she’s dead now, ’cause they're all in there crying and there's a man there with a box. She's dead—she's dead; I know it.” | And she danced off out into the street. iMrs. Holdridge is almost pros- i trated with grief. |“I questioned Ella,” said she, c “but all 1 could get from her is j that she that they would look nice t dead and she wanted to go to their i funerals. t“She seemed always to have a t perfect mania for deaihB and funcr- i als. Every time any one died she t learned of it in some way and I would dance up and down with joy. i clapping her hands and saying: j 'He's desd! he's dead.’ i“Then if she could, she would t slip away and go to the cemetery i to the funeral. Several times when f she hat returned home after an f absence, and I questioned her she t would tell me enough to lead me 1 g to believe she had been following a d funeral. j tSo deeply was she interested in | c the death of little Louisa that she o slipped away once or twice the j b evening before she died and went I e to the house. This she told me ■ d just before they took her to Father d Baker's.” I tlThe girl was seen in tho institu-j tl lion today and questioned, but a could give no explanation of her, ti poisoning, other than they looked ,\ nice dead.” When asked how she : ft knew the poison would kill the! p children, she said: j tlIf it killed rats and mice it U would kill children.” I liHer mind seems perfectly free ; g from evil and site said, very quietly ] p a:.J .aiiicotly; , i.
Newspaper Details
Caldwell News Tribune
Caldwell, Idaho, US
Sat, Jul 30, 1892
Page 2
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 22 Aug 2023
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