Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1895 — A FURIOUS FIRE FIEND. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A FURIOUS FIRE FIEND.

Tries to Strangle Her Own Child When Convicted of Arson. Extraordinary Scene in a New York Court —The Prisoner and Relatives in a Frenzied Condition. Xew York World, Feb. 11. . After’jmore than twenty hours’ deliberation the jury in the case of Mrs. Ida Lieberman, on trial in General Sessions before Judge Martine for arson, rendered a verdict of ffpilty yesterday. When the foreman of the jury rendered the verdict there was a scene such as has seldom been seen in any criminal court. Men and women, relatives of theconvicted woman, fell to the floor screaming, the prisoner fainted, and when revived, a few seconds later, emitted a series of ear-splitting shrieks. Before any one could prevent her she had seized her child, a bright little-lad of six years, and was attempting to strangle him. Several reporters and Mrs. Foster, the Tombs Angel, sprang to the boy’s aid, but before he was torn

-from his mother’s arms the frenzied woman had Jacerated with her finger-nails the hand of one of the reporters who was attempting to disengage them. Meanwhile several court officers were with the ‘ screaming men and women in the court-room attempting to eject them. Four officers succeeded in carrying out two brothers and the mother of the convicted woman and in depositing them in the corridor. One of the brothers made a quick dash to throw him self over the balustrade to the floor forty feet below, but he was caught by several friends and pullecL back. . It was nearly an hour before the last of the crowd had left the court-room. Even then a number hung about the court building, wailing bitterly. Mrs.. Lieberman, was carried shrieking to the tombs. She will be sen--tehee-d—next—Friday- The penalty for the crime, arson in the second degree, is fifteen years. The fire which Mrs. Lieberman was convicted of starting occurred at 4:30 p. m., Dec. 18, 1893, in her apartments on the top floor of the five-story tene meht, No. 521 East Twelfth—street. Twenty families lived in the tenement, and there were in the house ■ at the time of the fire over one hundred persons, mostly children.

MRS. LIEBERMANN ATTEMPTING TO STRANGLE HER SON. Extraordinary scene in Judge Martino's court when the prisoner was convicted of arson.)