Mabel Earnez Barker
Mabel Darker was the widow of a prominent Clarendon, Arkansas businessman, and she had come to the town from Wisconsin with her husband, who prospered there. She died in August 1898 while held in the Monroe County jail at Clarendon, after taking poison, and a coroner's jury ruled that she took it herself. Before losing consciousness, she left her property in trust for her four-year-old daughter, Neva, and according to one newspaper she dictated her last words to a reporter. The accounts give slightly different dates for her death, and no source reports anyone other than Mabel herself being responsible for the poison.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide. A coroner's jury found she died of poison she took herself while held in the Monroe County jail at Clarendon, Arkansas.
Reported by: coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner); St. Louis Post Despatch (reporters).