Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost Years — John Shaqi
Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost YearsMaybrick, Florence Elizabeth
History
Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost Years
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth, 1862-1941; Trials (Murder) -- England; Women prisoners -- England
The fourth day came and went. On the fifth day, May 16, the stillness
of the house was broken by the sound of hushed voices and hurrying
footsteps. “Nurse,” I exclaimed, when I could no longer bear the
feeling of oppression that possessed me, “is anything the matter?” She
turned, and in a cold, harsh voice replied, “The funeral starts in an
hour.” “Whose funeral?” I asked. “Your husband’s,” the nurse exclaimed;
“but for you he would have been buried on Tuesday.” I stared at her for
a moment, and then, trembling from head to foot, got out of bed and
commenced with weak hands to dress myself. The nurse looked alarmed,
and came forward. “Stand back!” I cried. “I will see my husband before
he is taken away.” She placed herself in front of me; I pushed her
aside and confronted the policeman at the door. “I demand to see my
husband,” I exclaimed. “The law does not permit a person to be treated
as guilty until she is proven so.”
He hesitated, and then said, “Follow me.” With tottering steps,
supported by the nurse, I was led into the adjoining room. Upon the
bed stood the coffin, covered with white flowers. It was already
closed. I turned to the policeman and the nurse. “Leave me alone with
the dead.” They refused. I then knelt down at the bedside, and God in
His mercy spared my reason by granting me, there and then, the first
tears which many days of suffering had failed to bring. Death had wiped
out the memory of many things. I was thankful to remember that I had
stopped divorce proceedings, and that we had become reconciled for
the children’s sake. Calmed, I arose and returned to my room. I sat
down near a window, still weeping. Suddenly the harsh voice of a nurse
broke on my ears: “If you wish to see the last of the husband you have
poisoned you had better stand up. The funeral has started.” I stumbled
to my feet and clutched at the window-sill, where I stood rigid and
tearless until the hearse had passed, and was out of sight, and then I
fainted.
When I recovered consciousness I asked why my mother had not been sent
for. No answer was made, but a tardy summons was sent to her at Paris.
When she arrived she came to me at once. What a meeting! She kissed
me, and was speaking a few loving words in French, when the nurse
interposed and said, “You must speak in English,” and the policeman
joined in with “I warn you, madam, that I will write down all you
say,” and he produced paper and pencil. I then begged my mother to go
into Liverpool to see the Messrs. Cleaver, who represented me, as they
would give her all the information she required; and then I cried out
in the bitterness of my heart, “Mother, they all believe me guilty,
but I swear to you I am innocent.” That night I had a violent attack
of hysteria. Two nurses and the policeman held me down, and when my
mother, outraged by his presence, wished to take his place and send
him from the room, Nurse Wilson became insolent and turned her out.
AT WALTON JAIL
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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