Mrs. Mary Brockwell, Mom Who Murdered Three Daughters – Kentucky, 1905

FULL TEXT: Paducah, Ky., March 28. – Further sensations are expected to develop to-morrow, when Mrs. Mary Brockwell, the self-confessed murderer of her three little daughters, and her accused accomplice, George Albritton, are taken before the Police Court for preliminary trial. Both were given a severe “sweating” by the detectives this afternoon. There is a report that others are implicated, and further arrests will be made.

Many believe that Mrs. Brockwell is sheilding the real accomplice, and is placing the blame on Albritton, who they think is innocent. Albritton persists in his declarations of innocence, while Mrs. Brockwell remained firm in her accusations that Albritton urged her on to commit the murder, by promising to marry her when the little ones were out of the way.

Nothing in the history of Paducah has aroused so much feeling as exists against the woman who committed the crime of poisoning her three little girls with morphine and coal oil.

Hazel, the eleven-year-old child, who was not given the poison, has been placed in the Home of the Friendless.

[“Further Arrests  - To Be Made In Connection With Paducah Poisoning Case. – More Parties Suspected. – Mrs. Brockwell and Her Alleged Accomplice To Be Given Preliminary Trial To-day.” The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), Mar. 29, 1905, p. 3 (portrait photo) & p. 5]

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FULL TEXT: Attorney Hal S. Corbett this morning stated that the defense in the case of Mrs. Mary Brockwell who is in jail for killing her three babes has not taken any definite steps towards securing experts to test her sanity but would be ready with a defense by the time the case was called in circuit court. Mrs. Brockwell was given a life sentence on pleading guilty but her attorneys were confident that she was insane and allowed her to plead guilty only upon condition that she be tried for insanity. The first steps will be to show that her mind is affected and that she is entitled to a new trial and when the new trial is given if this be the case the plea of insanity will be made.

[“The Brockwell Case.” The Paducah Journal (Ky.), Aug. 28, 1905, p. 5]

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