Mabel Clark

‘The Newtown Lovers Who Took Poison But Were Saved From Themselves’

On 5th February 1906 Allen Hinchliffe/Hinchcliffe (it was alleged) induced his sweetheart Mabel Clark(e) to take Aconite, and then took a dose himself. Allen was subsequently charged ‘that he did attempt to murder Mabel Clark’.

Allen, aged 30, was out of work and lived with the Clarke family in an outhouse fitted up as a bedroom at the rear of their house in Wright Street. Henry Clarke had done so out of benevolent motives.

On the day of the poisoning, Mabel, aged 21, had been feeling unwell and her mother Sarah said she would take her to a doctor. Allen overheard this conversation. Sarah who was wanting her daughter to get ready to go out, found Mabel and Allen talking in the yard. At this point Mabel confessed her condition to her mother. Allen then produced a vial from his pocket and Mabel ran to him. He placed the vial to her mouth and said ‘we will die together’. He then took some himself.

Allen ran off to a neighbouring nurse who subsequently had him admitted to hospital. Mabel’s mother made her drink salt and water to induce vomiting before the doctors arrived and pumped her stomach. They thought that her recent meal saved her life.

Allen was subsequently charged with attempted suicide and attempted murder. He was found guilty at the Supreme Court in May 1906 and sentenced to two years in prison. On release, he returned to his native Tasmania, and married twice. He died in 1949. Mabel gave birth to a little boy named Leonard on 28th April 1906.

Mabel married Ernest Johnston in 1916 and they lived at Porirua. She died in 1966 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery.

Free Lance, 17 March 1906, page 11