Margaret Mitchause throat-wound inquiry (1894)

Conflicting accounts

Newspapers rendered her surname several ways—including Mitchause, Mitchon and Minschen—and put her age at about 60. Cooper Hospital physician Dr. Mecray considered the ear-to-ear laceration consistent with a razor or another sharp instrument and potentially fatal. Margaret first reportedly blamed a horse bite, later said unknown people attacked her, and in another account could not explain the injury.

Hospital staff considered assault or self-infliction more plausible than a horse bite. Burlington County authorities jailed a man reported as Charles Minschen, described as her husband, on suspicion of cutting her throat. He maintained that a horse caused it. The source collection clippings do not preserve the final medical outcome or disposition of the case.