A strange attempt to kill Sir William Horwood, the Commissioner
of Police, by means of poisoned sweets, was made on Thursday, November 9th. Sir William Horwood was preparing to go to the Lord Mayor's Banquet when a box of chocolates arrived, and he at once ate one of the sweets. Shortly afterwards he became extremely ill. It was at first supposed that he was suffering from some kind of seizure or heart attack, and it was not until he had been removed in an ambulance that traces of arsenical poisoning were noticed. It has been a subject of general comment that Sir William Horwood should have been so incautious as to eat any- thing out of a box which came anonymously, particularly as other attempts to poison members of the Commis- sioner's staff had recently been made. It has been explained, however, that Sir William Horwood was the victim of an astonishing coincidence. His birthday had fallen a day or two before and one of his relations had promised to send him a box of chocolates.
Previous page
