FULL TEXT: Some weeks ago, says the Paducah Kentuckian, a woman calling herself Bridget Malhony, applied to Dr. Jackson, of Columbus, Ky., for the place of cook. Employment was given her and for a short while she gave satisfaction. A few days ago the doctor noticed irregularities in her life, and notified her that she must look out for another home.
This appeared to infuriate her beyond
control – the pent up devil in her nature burst forth in a fury of passion that
sent the doctor scampering for the police and the family for an asylum of
safety. When he returned, Bridget had departed leaving his mirrors and
furniture a wreck. It appears that, from a mistaken kindness, she was not
prosecuted, but allowed to depart unmolested. From his residence she went to a
boarding house kept by an estimable German Catholic named Switzher, near the
M. and O. Railroad.
She easily imposed herself upon the
good nature of this lady, and was permitted to stop with her, paying her board
in work. She behaved badly again, and Mrs S--- discharged her. Instead of
going off, however, she went up into Mrs S---‘s room (it was immediately after
breakfast) and sent for this lady from the dining-room. When she got into her
presence she commenced to abuse her in a most shameful manner. Mrs Switzher
tried to quiet her, and expressed sympathy for her. Bridget told be that she
had better sympathise with herself, and made at her. Mrs S.--- rushed down
stairs leaving her three children, consisting of a little boy four years old,
and two daughters aged respectively six and ten, in the room.
The eldest says that the two
children were in the bed with the mosquito bar fastened down around it, and,
that Bridget deliberately took the lamp and saturated the bed and children with
coal oil and fired it. Before assistance could reach them the passage was a
solid sheet of flame, and the two children were burned with the house and most
of.the furniture. The fiend is in prison, and the poor mother nearly distracted with
grief at her terrible loss.
[“A Female Fiend.” The Gippsland Rimes (Australia), Jan. 26, 1875, p. 4]
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