The Nurse Girl and the Rat Poison
A thirteen-year-old girl stands trial for the poisoning of an infant in a case shrouded in domestic mystery.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The trial of Hildegard Rundberg, a thirteen-year-old domestic, for the murder of Richard Parker, the infant child of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Parker, by poisoning him with 'Rough on Rats,' began in Judge Humes' court. The state alleged that Rundberg, who worked as a nurse girl, administered the poison after asking her employer if it would kill a person. The defense, led by James Hamilton Lewis, argued that the child’s death was an accident, caused by the mother’s careless administration of medicine that had been contaminated with the arsenic-based rat poison. The trial continues as witnesses are cross-examined regarding the sequence of events in the Parker household.
“The circumstances surrounding this case are so shrouded in mystery that it becomes of the utmost importance that the jury should at the outset understand the position taken by both the state and defense.”
Child labor and domestic service for teenagers were commonplace in 1893 Seattle, often leading to tragic circumstances where young, untrained workers were held legally responsible for household accidents. The case underscores the vulnerability of domestic laborers at a time when the legal system was often harsh toward minors in the workforce.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.