FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 5): New Orleans, Feb. 27 – Is Mrs. Rennette Cure Bussey – wedded at 16, mother at 22, a widow bereft of husband and entire brood at 23 years of age – guilty of unbelievable Borgian cruelties, or is she the victim of a chain of unfortunate circumstances that have resulted in the charge of poisoning her five-year-old daughter Verdia?
She claims the allegations, and friends
declare, she is a victim of circumstance.
Mrs. Bussey is under arrest, charged with
murder. Little Verdia died after a lingering, wasting illness. Physicians said
it was mercurial poisoning. Police accuse the mother of administering the
poison. But as little Verdia lay dying, and at the funeral, Mrs. Bussey, taken
from her jail cell under guard, sobbed and wept convulsively over the passing
of the last of her brood.
Though there is but the one charge against
her, police accuse her of causing the deaths of her husband and two other
children.
Lawrence Bussey, the father and husband, a
city fireman, died April 3, 1925.
Clarence, 3, died on Dec. 5, 1925, at 3 years
of age.
Esther, a baby [of] 16 months, died Jan. 1,
1926.
Verdia, 5 years old, died Feb. 21, 1926.
Physicians attributed the deaths at the time
to various maladies – peritonitis, acute indigestion, liver and kidney
maladies.
The three bodies were exhumed by order of
court after Mrs. Bussey’s arrest on the charge of giving poison to Verdia. Chemists declare
traces of mercurial poison were found in badly decomposed organs of all three.
Verdia told court attaches just before her
death: “Mamma gave me something to eat on a piece of bread and told me to eat
it. In a little while I was spitting up blood. She said she’d whip me if I told
anybody.”
Dr. George Roeling, coroner; Henry Mooney,
district attorney; and Edward Smith, chief of detectives, declare that
sufficient evidence to warrant a charge of poisoning all four members of her
family being placed against the wife and mother, was in hand.
Frail and delicate, only 4 feet 6 inches
tall, and weighing less than 99 pounds, Mrs. Bussey is probably the most
remarkable crime suspect New Orleans detectives ever have to deal with. She is
calm when questioned about the deaths of the four members of her family, and is
firm in her denials of guilt.
Mrs. Bussey’s attorneys refuse to allow her
to be photographed in close-up.
Newspapermen, seeking other photos,
discovered that in the ten days preceding Verdia’s death, and before she was
arrested, Mrs. Bussey went to all relatives of herself and husband, gathered up
photos of both of them, and saying she was borrowing them somewhere.
New Orleans’ detectives and prosecutors admit
it is the most astounding – and probably baffling – criminal case the courts
here have known in a score of years.
[“Mother
of Three at 22 Accused of Slaying Husband and Babes,” The Mansfield News (Oh.),
Feb. 27, 1926, p. 1]
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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 5): New Orleans, Mar. 3. –
Possibility that Mrs. Renette C. Bussey, 23, may be charged with another
poisoning loomed today as Ocsar Petrie requested the body of his mother be
exhumed and an autopsy performed. Mrs. Petrie died last March shortly after
Petrie told police Mrs. Bussey had given him a bowl of soup to give his mother.
Mrs. Bussey is now being held in jail without bond in
connection with the death of four members of her family within eleven months.
She has denied poisoning them.
Petrie, who is 24 and a plumber said in a signed statement,
told police he had been a suitor of Mrs. Bussey’s since the death of her
husband. His mother had read a letter from Mrs. Bussey asking if he would marry
her in the event of Bussey’s death, and had threatened to tell Bussey, Petrie
declared. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Bussey gave him the soup for his mother, the
statement said.
[“Woman Faces New Charges – Mrs. Bussey, Held for Death of
Four, Now Suspected Of Poisoning Friend,” Iowa City-Press Citizen (Io.), Mar.
3, 1926, p. 3]
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Mrs. Bussey originally was charged with administering poison to her year-old daughter. Verdia Bussey.
However, during the course of the trial, which began Monday, she was held responsible for the deaths by poisoning of two other children, Esther Bussey, 16 months old, and Clarence Bussey, 3 years old.
The jury deliberated six hours before determining upon the verdict, which was termed as “cowardly” by Hugh Wilkinson, of counsel for the defense. He claimed Mrs. Bussey should have been found either guilty of first-degree murder or acquitted.
Underworld characters and socially prominent persons were among the throngs which frequented the courtroom during the hearing's progress.
Women were in a majority among regular attendants.
[“Mrs. Bussey's Plea for New Trial Holds Up Court's Sentence,” syndicated (AP), The Biloxi Gulf Coast Daily Herald (Mississippi), May 1, 1926, p. 1]
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FULL
TEXT: (Article 4 of 5): New Orleans, La., May 3. – Attracted by the crime with
which she is charged, criminologists and psychologists in New Orleans are
centering their attention upon Mrs. Renette Cure Bussey, 23-year-old mother of
three infants who, within eleven months, have died. They see in the calm,
tolerant exterior of this alleged unnatural mother, something that might open
to them a new avenue of thought and study. Mrs. Bussey has been brought to
trial for the murder of her five-year-old daughter Verdia, through
administration of mercury poison.
Two
other children, aged 16 months and three years, also succumbed to poison. With
the exception of her husband, who also died under suspicious circumstances,
poison was found in the organs of the deceased. Now she calmly – almost,
indifferently – faces trial for her life. And the district attorney is
demanding the death penalty.
[“Mother Tried For Daughter’s Death Loss Of Other Children
Probed,” syndicated (Central Press), New Castle Press (Pa.), May 4, 1926, p. 7]
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 5 of 5): New Orleans, Dec. 7. – Mrs. Renette C. Bussey, after
being held in the parish prison for nearly nine months in connection with the
death of her infant daughter in February, will be allowed to sign her own bond
and will be released from custody today.
The
release came as the result of the result decision of the state supreme court,
which refused to reconsider its earlier decision that testimony introduced at
the trial of Mr. Bussey could not be admitted. Mrs. Bussey had been tried and
convicted on a charge of manslaughter and had appealed the decision to the
higher courts.
[“Woman Held For Killing Her Baby Will Be
Bonded,” syndicated (INS), The Bee (Danville, Va.), Dec. 7, 1926, p 5]
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