100 years ago in Spokane: Mystery deepens around strychnine death

New developments deepened the mystery surrounding the death by strychnine of Rosa Kempf, 22.

Police found the box of “bitter” candy which she supposedly ate, and the remaining pieces showed no traces of strychnine. Her father told police that he also ate one piece of the candy, too, but it was a horehound candy while Rosa ate the chocolate candy, which she said tasted bitter.

The candy had been given to her by William Delaney, who told police he was her sweetheart. However, she was actually planning to marry another man, Karl Reiniger, a sailor in the Navy, shortly after the New Year.

Both her father and her sister declared that Delaney was not her sweetheart. Her father said Rosa told him Delaney “laughs like a fool when there is nothing to laugh about.” He called Reiniger “the finest boy in the country.”

Her sister was even more blunt. “I want you to get this straight,” she said. “Delaney was nothing to my sister. She had been engaged for two years to Karl Reiniger.”

Police could find only one motive for Delaney to poison her – jealousy. However, they had come up empty in their attempts to discover if Delaney had recently purchased strychnine. They did discover that her father kept strychnine in the house to kill rats.