Mrs. Pratt's Bodyguard

Heiress Turned Nearly Boiling Water On Her Sick Husband. - Lawyer's Allegation.

"Daily Express" Correspondent.

NEW YORK, Tuesday,

A former chief inspector of Scotland-yard sat staring straight in front of him in court here today while further strange stories were told of his millionairess employer, Mrs. Florence Adelaide Pratt.
Mrs. Pratt died in London, leaving two-thirds of her fortune to servants. Her sister, Mrs. Margaret Alexander, of London, is contesting the will.
The ex-Scotland-yard officer was Mr. James Stockley, prominent in the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
Mr. Harold Corbin (for Mrs. Alexander) told how Stockley was engaged by Mrs. Pratt as her bodyguard.
"She believed," said Mr. Corbin, "that she needed protection from the advances of many young men. She had referred to Stockley as "husband," "lover," and her "busy lawyer from London."
Speaking of her husband's last illness, Mr. Corbin said that Mrs. Pratt had been warned by the doctor that he should be washed with a sponge, and never put into a bath.
Instead, she insisted on putting him in the bath, and when the nurse's back was turned, filled it with nearly boiling water.
She also opened all the windows, making the room freezing cold. Three days later he died.

Source: The Daily Express, Wednesday June 6, 1934

2,000,000 POUND WILL LEGATEES OFF TO U.S.
"Jack the Ripper" Detective Who May Win a Fortune.

CHAFFEUR'S FIGHT WITH AN ARMED BANDIT GANG.
SEARCH FOR MILLIONAIRESS' SERVANT.

Principles in the legal battle for the 2,000,000 pound estate of the Singer millionairess, Mrs. Florence Adelaide Pratt - reported exclusively in the "Daily Express" on Saturday - are ex-Chief Inspector James Stockley, of Scotland-yard, and Mr. Leonard C. Kay, a chauffeur, of Gloucester-street, London.
Each, in different wills made by Mrs. Pratt, was left 1,000,000 pounds. Each is expected to be a witness when the will case opens in the New York Probate Court next month.
Mr. Stockley is no longer young. Mr. Kay is. Both may yet receive fortunes.
Kay was the fourth of Mrs. Pratt's chauffeurs during the last years of her extraordinary life, which were spent in Europe. He had a remarkable adventure while driving Mrs. Pratt.
He was attacked by bandits on the road between Monte Carlo and Mentone. Struck down by one armed with a club, he fought his adversaries and held them at bay until the police arrived.
Two of the bandits escaped. The third was captured. He was a notorious Riviera gangster, Benoit Ducet.

HUNTED THE "RIPPER."

Ex-Chief Inspector Stockley, who retired from the service in 1911, was a private inquiry agent when he accepted a position as Mrs. Pratt's personal bodyguard.
His first job as a young detective was to take part in the hue and cry for "Jack the Ripper," when the series of Whitechapel murders horrified the country.
Mr. Stockley accompanied King Edward on many Continental tours. He was decorated with the silver medal of the Victorian Order.
He always regarded the theft of Lady Prinsep's jewels as his greatest case. Clues in France and Switzerland eventually led to the recovery of most of the stolen gems, valued at thousands of pounds, in Zurich.
Although the representatives of the Surrogate Court, of New York, have finished the taking of evidence on commission in London, search is still being made for a former servant of Mrs. Pratt, who is regarded as an important witness.
Other witnesses expected to leave London for New York shortly are Miss Mabel Payne, maid to Mrs. Pratt, and formerly lady's maid to the Hon. Elsie Mackay, who was lost during her attempted Atlantic flight, and Miss Pansy Miller, a Paris dressmaker's assistant.

MADE SIX WILLS.

Mrs. Florence Adelaide Pratt died at the Ritz Hotel, London, in October, 1932. She was the daughter of Mr. Isaac Singer, founder of the sewing machine millions.
She made six wills in the last seven years of her life, bequeathing vast sums to servants.
Every form of plea known in United States law has been made on behalf of her relatives to contest the validity of her last will, made in London in 1931.
It is contended that she was then mentally incompetent.

Source: The Daily Express, Monday March 19, 1934, Page 13

Eccentric Heiress.
END OF A STRANGE LIFE.

A 1,000,000 pound will - under which an ex-Scotland Yard detective receives 5,000 pounds a year - has been held valid by the New York Supreme Court. It is the will of Mrs. Florence A. Pratt, eccentric heiress of the Singer sewing machine fortune (stated the Sunday Graphic, London.) Thus "finis" is written to the story of an amazing woman whose life reads like fiction.
The man who receives 5,000 pounds a year is Mr. James Stockley, who acted as Mrs. Pratt's bodyguard. Mrs. Pratt died in London in 1932. Since then her sister, Mrs. Margaret Alexander, has disputed the will on the ground that Mrs. Pratt was of unsound mind.
It was said of Mrs. Pratt that she treated her husband like a Nero, hastening his death. That she mashed potatoes with her fingers, insulted the Duke of Connaught and persecuted her sister. She led a strange life on the Riviera and other parts of Europe. She was said by some to treat her servants as equals. But, in fact, they were her slaves.
From her male employees she demanded ceaseless attention and devotion. James Stockley, who became famous in the Jack the Ripper case, and accompanied King Edward on many Continental tours, was for many years her "bodyguard" and her constant companion.
Major Stanley Williams was her secretary, Leonard Kay was her chauffeur. She was jealous if any of them as much as looked at another woman. Not long after Major Williams left her he was attacked at Juan les Pins. As soon as he recovered in hospital, he accused Mrs. Pratt and Kay, and they were arrested.
Alibis were produced and the affair was dropped. That Mrs. Pratt was a woman of courage there was no doubt. She and Kay were attacked by bandits in 1927 between Monte Carlo and Mentone. A man armed with a bludgeon leapt from the roadway and struck and injured Kay. Two other men then attacked him, but Mrs. Pratt went to his assistance, and they held the bandits at bay until police arrived.
In the end Kay left her, glad, it was said, to "get away from her domination." He is one of the beneficiaries under the will.

Source: Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 5 February 1936, Page 7

Eccentric Mrs. Pratt's Peculiar Legacies.
By Jack Stone.

Papers filed recently in New York County's Surrogate's Court have revived the story of eccentric Mrs. Florence Adelaide Pratt, heiress to part of the Singer sewing machine fortune, who kept two continents agog during her life and furnished a weird will-fight with her death.
Attorneys for the widow of Paul Jean Marie Escoffier, Mrs. Pratt's special corset-maker who died in Monte Carlo in 1942, are seeking to get jurisdiction of $260,000 worth of stock and $12,106 in cash, now in New York's banks, which is the residue of Escoffier's bequest from the madcap old lady. Regulations during wartime previously prevented the transference of Escoffier's American estate to Monte Carlo.
Escoffier was only one of many outsiders to benefit from Mrs. Pratt's strange will, which distributed her $6,227,652 fortune among servants, tradespeople and casual acquaintances, leaving close relatives out in the cold. In fact, Escoffier's widow came in for $700,000 herself when Mrs. Pratt died in 1932 at the age of 76.
In 1934 her sister, Mrs. Margaret A. Alexander of London, waged a bitter New York court fight to invalidate the will, claiming the aged heiress was not of sound mind, but Judge James A. Foley ruled that, despite Mrs. Pratt's capricious conduct, she was mentally capable of bequeathing her money to whom she chose.
He pointed out that she had built $500,000, her share of the original estate, to more than twelve times its original size through astute handling.
As a result the will, settling $700,000 on a Parisian saleswoman, $350,000 on a former London policeman, and $525,000 each on two girlhood friends, among other sizable bequests, was allowed to stand. This was all in addition to fantastic sums dispensed by the short, portly Mrs. Pratt for the most trivial of services during her life.
From court testimony it was evident that staying in Mrs. Pratt's good graces was a herculean task.
She would hide her jewels and then accuse servants of stealing them. She would ring for a maid, then shout: "Get out! What do you mean by this intrusion?" She would cut a bar of soap into six cubes, then command a servant to account for the economic use of each cube.
To servants who pleased her she was munificent beyond belief. She would summon an employee, congratulate him or her for approved conduct, and hand over a check, often as high as $5,000. Sometimes she'd stop payment on it.
A succession of maids testified to Mrs. Pratt's weird habits. Marie Guilbert said a blind masseur usually arrived at 8 a.m. and remained for an hour. Then the mistress dressed in a special costume of black silk pantaloons, black stockings, white blouse and white shoes.
Mrs. Florence Stephan said Mrs. Pratt slashed her, (Mrs. Stephan's) neck with a butter knife and once tried to give her a $100,000 necklace, "threatening to throw it in the lake if I refused it."
Mrs. Millicent Rutherford said Mrs. Pratt "used to bite her fingernails and showed me how she could bite her toenails."
Jane Mary Osler, Scottish nurse, testified that once Mrs. Pratt referred to the Duke of Connaught, uncle of King George V of England, as "shabby English royalty" when he entered a Monte Carlo dining room, declaring in a loud voice that he was "fed by other people" but she paid her own way.
It was also declared that she stuck out her tongue at strangers, tripped hotel guests with her cane and heaved ash trays at waiters.
Leonard C. Kay, her chauffeur, was left $1,000,000 in one of her wills, but even the prospect could not hold him. He suffered numerous childish punishments and humiliations at her hands, but finally walked out when she fed him bonbons in front of street crowds.
She fancied herself irresistible to young men even in her old age, and paid James Stockley, a London bobby whom she later remembered in her will, $100,000 to guard her against designing males.
Other vagaries listed were: eating soup with a ladle and mashed potatoes with her fingers; changing her will to remember a tram acquaintance, only to change it next day in favor of a tradesman; spending $50,000 on Paris dressmakers in the last five years of her life; acting kittenish in the presence of men and carrying an early portrait to show what a shapely figure she had as a girl.

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Judge Foley agreed that Mrs. Pratt's actions were at the very least eccentric, but her money-making propensities, he said, convinced him she was completely sane where finances were concerned - a decision for which the Escoffier heirs, among others, today are grateful.

Source: The American Weekly, November 17, 1946, Page 2

FOR DETECTIVE.
Legacy of 5000 Pounds a Year.

BODYGUARD TO HEIRESS.

A former Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, who once acted as bodyguard to an eccentric American 1,000,000 pound heiress, is to receive a legacy of 5000 pounds a year, left to him by her, following a decision by the New York Supreme Court.
He is ex-Chief Inspector James Stockley, who was employed by Mrs. Florence A. Pratt, the millionairess, to guard her from the intrusion of persons from whom she believed herself to be in constant danger.
Mrs. Pratt died in London in 1934, leaving an estate of over 1,000,000 pounds. Besides Mr. Stockley, one of the beneficiaries was her chauffeur, Mr. Leonard Kay.
The will was contested by Mrs. Margaret Alexander, Mrs. Pratt's sister, who contended that the heiress was a victim of senile dementia, and was not of sound testamentary capacity.
The appellate division of the New York Supreme Court has now unanimously upheld Mrs. Pratt's will.
During the hearing, counsel contesting the will alleged that Mrs. Pratt had a habit of making wills. She kept her relatives in a state of continual anxiety, he told the Court, by putting them in and taking them out of her various wills, replacing them with the names of saleswomen, detectives, and corset-fitters who caught her fancy.

NECKLACES AS TIPS.

Sometimes, counsel declared, she would insult guests in the dining-rooms of hotels and hand out 5000 pound necklaces as tips. On other occasions she would empty all the contents of her trunks and cupboards on the floor, and strut up and down the hotel lobbies with her clothing disarranged.
The fortune she inherited was made from a sewing-machine concern, and she spent much of it lavishly. She appeared to believe herself in constant danger, and engaged ex-Chief Inspector Stockley to protect her.
Mr. Stockley retired from Scotland Yard in 1911, and was doing private inquiry work when he was engaged as Mrs. Pratt's personal bodyguard.
He had made a name for himself as a young detective in the force when he took part in the "Jack the Ripper" murder hunt in Whitechapel.
Mrs. Pratt's chauffeur won his employer's regard when single-handed he defied bandits who attacked him on the road between Monte Carlo and Mentone.
He held the bandits at bay until the arrival of the police, who captured them. One was a notorious character on the Riviera, Benoit Doucet, for whom the authorities had been searching.

Source: Morning Bulletin, Wednesday 5 February 1936, Page 10

ECCENTRIC BEHAVIOUR OF A WOMAN.
AMAZING STORY IN WILL SUIT FOR 900,000 POUNDS.

An amazing story of eccentric behaviour of Mrs. Florence Adelaide Pratt, the daughter of Isaac Singer and heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine millions, was unfolded in an American court recently.
Her sister, Mrs. Margaret Alexander, of London, brought an action asking that Mrs. Pratt's 900,000 pound will be set aside.
No provision was made for Mrs. Alexander in the will but large sums were left to three other relatives and to a great number of tradesmen.
Mr. Harold Corbin, for the plaintiff, supported his contention that Mrs. Pratt, who died in the Ritz Hotel, London, in 1932, aged 76, was not in normal mind when she made her will by reading the depositions concerning her conduct gathered in various parts of Europe.
In 1924, according to Mr. Corbin, a doctor warned Mrs. Pratt that her husband, who was then extremely ill in a hotel at Monte Carlo, must be bathed only with a sponge, and never in a bath.
Mrs. Pratt, however, insisted on putting her husband into the bath, and when the nurse had left the room, turned on boiling water. The screaming husband was rescued by the nurse.
Following this counsel alleged that Mrs. Pratt opened all the windows in her husband's room, making it very cold. Three days later he died.
Mrs. Alexander, who was known in the family as Daisy, had rooms below those of the Pratts, and it was her sister's custom to pound the floor with chairs and keep water running in the bath.

A BEDSIDE PRAYER.

One day she prayed by her bedside in Mrs. Alexander's presence - "O God, if you are God, let this bed fall and smash Daisy's face, and let me see it."
Other allegations made against Mrs. Pratt were as follows: -
She fell in love with the manager of an hotel at an Austrian watering place and offered to adopt him.
She hired a former inspector, James Stockley, of Scotland Yard, to act as a bodyguard, because she believed she needed protection from the advances of young men.
She hired "thugs" to waylay and beat her secretary, Major Stanley Williams, and laughed when she received a telegram that the attack was a success and Williams was in hospital.
Samuel Seabury, counsel for respondents, declared that Mrs. Alexander's attorney would not be able to sustain these allegations. Mrs. Pratt, he said, had exceptional mental ability.

Source: Barrier Miner, Saturday 12 December 1936, page 18

Woman's Bequests to Detective and Chauffeur.

NEW YORK, Saturday.

The will of Mrs. Florence A. Pratt, the eccentric heiress, who died in London in 1932, leaving 5,400,000 dollars - over 1,000,000 pounds - from which two Londoners are to benefit has been admitted to probate before the Surrogate Court here.
The Court thus over-ruled the contention of the deceased woman's sister, Mrs. Margaret Alexander, of London, that Mrs. Pratt did not possess testamentary capacity when making her will.
In the course of evidence it was stated that she made a series of wills, keeping her relatives in a continued state of anxiety, as their names were alternately put in and taken out, being replaced by the names of traders and friends of the deceased.
The London beneficiaries concerned are Mr. James Stockley, an ex-detective of Scotland Yard, who acted as Mrs. Pratt's bodyguard, and Leonard Kay, her chauffeur.
Judge James A. Foley stated that the testimony indicated that Mrs. Pratt was a woman of strong personality, dominant and businesslike.
The will provided for the division of the estate into 28 parts. The beneficiaries include Mr. Hugh G. Stafford and Mr. Widdrington Stafford, of London, nephews of the deceased - one part; Mrs. Ethel Snagge, of London, niece - three parts; Mrs. J. Sargent, of London, a friend - three parts; Mrs. M. Marriott, of London, secretary of Mrs. Stockley - two parts; Rita Johnson, of San Diego, California, a cousin - four parts, in trust, the principal to go to Mrs. Pratt's niece and nephews in London on her cousin's death; Mr. James Stockley, of London - two parts, in trust, the principal to go to Mrs. Pratt's adopted sons, Mr. F. Leonard Brockway and Mr. M. Gordon Brockway, on Mr. Stockley's death.

Source: Belfast News-Letter, Monday 25 June, 1934