The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 23, 1904, Page 3

MARCH 23, 1904. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDA PHYSICIANS OF DELAWARE TESTIFY IN BOTKIN TRIAL THAT ARSENIC CAUSED DEATHS OF M Drs. Downs and Bishop of Dover%v Swear Poison Ended Lives of the ‘Women. Excellent progress was made yester- r Judge Cook's court in f Mrs Cordelia Botkin, d with the murder of Mrs. John t, 1898, by send- ugy ng Dover, Delaware, 2 box f polsoned candy from this city, of h candy Mrs. Dunning and her sister, Mrs. Joshua D. Deane, partook nd from the effects of which they th died & few days later. By the testimony of Drs. Bishop and Downs of Dover, the prosecution seem- ingly satisfactorily established the fact that the death of the two women was due to arsenical polsoning. Both physicians were positive of this fact. | Dr. Bishop was far from being an im- pressive witness and Attorney Knight, who had primed himself for the oc- casion, tock the Hastern physician over the medical hurdles until he belked and tock refuge from pertinent questions in a plea of ignorance. On the other hand, Dr. Downs was ready his answers, positive his opin- jons and prepared to explain intelli- gently and convincingly. When he first on the stand he was asked e the symptoms that affiict- ed Mrs. Dunning when he first saw her and he ripped out such a string of sesquipedalian medical terms that the stenographer succumbed to doctor obligingly d names and round floor and what they all nearly torney Knight did not have nearly h fun with h as he did with Hi ween powdered and attempted to doctor on his opinfon of the He scarcely Mrs ming’s death, but jderable satisfac- fish tness stated tha that proba of the defense. I a stion, Dr. Downs stated T t CHEMIST IS CONVINCING. Bishop took the box d he an- subjected nized tests for poison in all he did not an- s ¢ and convincing in 2 no attempt was to impeach eitk the other twc sister of the ¥ £ Jok his possession turned over to the inquest, the ness. For this was important tness was acist, nees « was some- the prose- ositivene a tain to the court- e order made enter and side ree should be during the sessions. Hun- mission by the tioned oom to The num- g was not before, but there om ar ey followed osely. When the ed for the afternoon ol =de occurred the boil =0 ere plenty of tk rs w g8 were unable to stem courtroom was those who could he n all nding room in the allotted compelled were to withdraw Stetson Hats VERY TIME WE SELL A STET- SON HAT WE EITHER GAIN A NEW CUSTOMER AN OLD ONE : OUR PRICE OUR PRICE ALWAYS ALWAYS THE SAME THE SAME (. Spring blocks now in : $ ADVERTISEMENTS. | Thereafter none was admitted to the room. DEF The defendant, her | brother-in-law, N. C | Healdsburg, sat together. Mrs. Botkin | possessed herself of a printed tran- | script of the testimony given at the | former trial and followed it closely as the various witnesses testified. Occa- slonally she would whisper suggestions |to Attorney McGowan, who sat beside her. | but displayed some emotion when Miss { Dunning appeared on the stand &nd eyed her scornfully before beginning | her testimony. Joshua D. Deane, husband of one of | the murdered women, witness called in the morning session. | He told of how his wife was taken ill shorly before midnight on August 9, | 1898, the same date on which she had partaken of the candy. She was suf- |fering from severe pains in her | stomach and a burning sensation, ac- companied by vomiting. She grew | worse, despite the household remedies | administered for cholera morbus, and 9 o’clock the following morning Dr. Bishop was called in. Mrs. Deane grew steadily worse until August 11, | when she showed some improvement, during the foreno In the after- noon a collapse occurred and she died after suffering a terrible convulsion. Drs. Bishop .and Davis at her bedside. Mrs. Dunning was showing the same symptoms at this time and died the following day at 9 a. m On cross-examination Attorney Knight asked Deane if he knew E. E Clement of Dover. “I do,” replied the NDANT IS CALM. sister and her McClure of were witn “He tried to blackmail me before I left.” “In what way?"” persisted Knight | The District Attorney objected to the | tone of the question and remarked, “I expect that the defense that out on cro: amination.” let it be stricken out,” said e Clement element in the sclosure > a Deane was recalled to make a minor correction in her testi- v of the previous day, having re- ed her memory by reading.her tes- timony at the former trial. PLEADS IGNORANCE Dr. Lemuel H. Bishop was the next witness. cian on Mrs. Dunning and Mrs. Deane during their fatal illness and was pres ent at the deathbed of both. He de- scribed the symptoms of each as con- sisting of inflammation of the mucous membrane of the throat, pains and burning sensations In the stomach, nausea and vomiting, flushed skin and swollen bodies. Asked the direct ques- tion by the District Attorney, he stated that he was pogitive that their deaths were caused by arsenical poisoning. Attorney Knight took the physiclan hand and drew from him the fact it was not until after the death of Mrs. Deane and when Mrs. Dunning s beyond medical aid that he had de- termined that the cause of their illness was arsenical poisoning. At first he ad treated them for cholera morbus, and to relieve them he had ar gone it blind in hopes that the medicines he administered bring relief. He had given ychnia to stimulate the heart action, rphine w parently some might vomiting, digitalis, creosote, T other things. Finally he istered egg albumen, which he said was an excellent antidote | f arsenical poisoning, but he naively d that he builded because at that time he at better than had his patients were victims LIMITS EXPLANATION. He was not very clear on the differ- in symptoms between arsenical and ptomaine poisoning and cholera morbus. Attorney Knight took him far afield in search of the tetanus germ and the effect of antitoxin in diphthe- ence ria cases, where the doctor floundered hopele and finally admitted that he knew very little about bacteriology. He admitted that at no time did he admin- ister peroxide of iron to either patient although he said he knew it was the | g8enerally accepted antidote in cases of arsenical poisoning. “What causes the decomposition meat?” asked Knight. “Oh, the atmosphere and moisture, I suppose,” answered the doctor. “Do you know that fish are the great- of est d for the production of pto- maines?”’ asked Knight. Dr. Bishop admitted that this infor- mation was new to him. Judge Cook finally came to the rescue by declaring that the cross-examination was being unnecessarily drawn out. The witness | admitted that he received $500 in addi- OR PLEASE ROOS BROS. KEARNY AT POST She was not noticeably nervous, | was the first | would | He was the attending physi- | .| three pieces and extracted from them | {1 | { | { ! DR THEoDORE R .\ | oL L SHOWING BESC LT or TES 7S Foe PRSENIC o« SITPOR T L rrvac gt TES 7 irFon > RS. DUNNING AN | | Ptomaine D MRS. DEANE Remark by Knight Leads to Belief That Defense Will Adopt Theory. of the deaths of Mrs. Dunning and Mrs. Deane was State detective for Delaware, was the next witness. Into his hands had been given the box of poisoned candy, the wrapper, the hand- kerchief and the note contained in the box after the Coroner's jury had ren- dered its verdict and he brought the articles from Dover to San Francisco previous to the first trial of the*case. He identified the exhibits as the same as those he had turned over to the authorities here. A letter was also shown him which he identified as be- ing one given him by the Delaware Coroner and given into the custody of the then Chief of Police Lees in this city. The letter is one of thq anony- mous notes received by Mrs. Dunning calculated to make permanent the es- trangement between herself and hus- band. The letter was not introduced. Frank S. Grey, a traveling salesmam for the drug firm of Redington & Co., was the first local witness called and the first to connect Mrs. Botkin in any way with the crime. On June 1, 1888 he testified that she came to the Owl — 3 I NOTED ASTERN CHEMIST WHO FOUND LARGE QUANTITIES OF ARS C IN CANDY SENT TO MRS. JOHN P. D - 1. ! | N , PHARMACIST WHO SOLD M BOTKIN ARSENIC TWC MO S HEFORE THE MURDER, AND NEW W it | N WHO PPLIES MISSI L K DUE TO JOHN B. PEN! NGTON'S DEATH. | | - - - - - | tion to his expe: for coming to the ) tests were attached to a large card, |drug store, where he was employed as | coast to testify in the case. He identi- | together with the vial containing the |a pharmacist, and purchased two | fied the box of candy in evidence as the | Arsenic recovered. This was introduced | cunces of arsenic, stating that she | wuine as thet ho badl weer: In the Benc | 1 exidentat: B¢ . wished to use it for the purpose of | rington home, and testified to taking | Attorney Knight made no attempt |hleaching straw hats. He fixed the | o By, A . ... | to cross-examine Dr. Wolfe on his |occurrence in his mind largely by the | five pieces of the candy to Dr. Wolfe| gpnajvees hut he went deeply into the | poison record of the store, wherein for an He gave as a reason Why | question as to the difference between |there was an entry of sale of two he did not perform autopsies on the bodies of the dead that the | family objected to such a course. He admitted that he had made a mistake, | and said that he uld have overruled the objection. His testimony =~<zed the morning session HAD NO DOUBTS. Dr. Pressley S. Downs the Unive of Per women aduate of nia and a medical practitioner for twenty vears, proved an entirely different kind of witnes and Attorney Knight| handled him gingerly a cautiously. Iu facture it w macie was an as deposited. to p and powdered arsenic. The chem- t explained that arsenfc in its manu- incrustation walls of a cooling chamber, on which This was broken off and subsequently reduced to whatever | fineness was desired. | question as | arsenic was readily procurable at phar- the chemist stated that not know, although it was widely dis- tributed as an article-of commerce. Bernard J. McVey, who at the time In answer to the | whether or on the not lump he did ouncés of arsenic to “Mrs. Bothin who gave her residence as the Victoria | Hotel, corner of Hyde and California streets. He had previously met Mrs. Botkin at the Baldwin Hotel pharmacy, where | he had been introduced to her by one of the clerks. Grey was rather weak in his identification of Mrs. Botkin yesterday, although he stated that as far as he could judge she was the same woman who purchased from him two ounces of arsenic nearly slx"§'pzrs ago. He said the circumstances were impressed on his mind because he was | reluctant to sell her the poison for the | purpose named and recommended several other chemicald that would be | better bleachers, | IDENTIFICATION FAULTY. “Are you absolutely certaip that this defendant is the woman to whom you sold two ounces of arsenic on June 1 | 18987" asked Attorney MeGowan. “I am as positive as one can be who has not seen the person in question for | four or five years. “But are you absolutely sure?” | queried the attorney. | The witness admitted that he was not absolutely sure and even reading | kis testimony at the former trial, when | the identification was positive, failed | to bring certainty to his mind. He ex- | plained the spelling of the name | “Bothin” as being what he understood her to say her name was when !he} purchased the poison. Miss Mary A. Dunning was the clos- | ing witness of the day. She is a resx-i dent of Philadelphia and lives with | her brother, John P. Dunning. When she read in the papers of the death of Mrs. Dunning, she went at once to | Dover, arriving there on August 13. On August 16 she was shown the box of poisoned candy and the wrapper it came in, and in the evening of the | same day she was again shown them. At that time they were in the posses- sion of John B. Pennington, father of | has the two murdered women. who since died. On August he saw him Eand the box and wrapper to the Coroner and one of the jurors, who called at the Pennington home to se- | cure them. She identified the box and wrapper introduced as exhibits as being the same shown her by John B. Pennington in Dover. At the conclusion of her testimony court adjourned until 10 o'clock this | morning, after the usual admonition Lad been given the jurors not to dis- cuss the tase nor read anything in the papers concerning it. A dispatch was received from Dover last night to the effect that the death | certificate of Mrs. John P. Dunning is | missing from the office of the Recorder | of Deeds. Distsict Attorney Byington | states that the certificate is not neces- | sary as evidence in the hearing of the case, for he is in possession of the Coroner’s certificate and has all the evidence pertaining to the death Mrs. Dunning. —_——— Refuses to Pay Rent. Mrs. Jane Armstrong, who has a lodging-house at 341 Third street, ob- tained a warrant from Police Judge Mogan yesterday for the arrest of Wil- | liam Dockrill, one of her roomers, on a | charge of mayhem. She said that Dockrill's rent was overdue and she visited his room yesterday morning and made a demand for it. Dockrill, she alleged, got her right hand in his mouth and chewed her fingers till her creams made him desist. ————— Erwin Tells of Japanese. James W. Erwin of the California | Camera Club gave an interesting lec- ture on Japan and the Japanese peo- ple with references to the Japanese- Russian war in the auditorium of the Young Men's Christian Association last evening. The entertainment was given for the benefit of the Oriental and Japanese Woman's Home, and as there was a large audience in attend- | ance, the society will doubtless realize a handsome profit by Erwin's efforts. | {and ! man’s stomach will stand that sort of {and sound health to the of |+ | was filed by ADVERTISEMENTS. AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY. So Thinks at Least One Traveling Man. I would as soon think of starting out without my mileage books and grip as to start out on a trip without a box of Stuart’s Dyspepsia Tablets in my valise, said a traveling man who repre- sents a St. Louis hardware house. Why? Because I have to put up at all kinds of hotels and boarding- | houses. I have to eat good, bad and indifferent food at all hours of the day night and T- don't believe any thing without protest, any way I know mine won't. It has to have some- thing to break the fall and Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablets is the crutch I fall back on. My friends often “josh” me about mark for patent medicine fakers, that advertised medi- cines are humbugs, etc., but I notice that they are nearly always complain- ing of their aches and pains and poor { digestion, while I can stand most any old kind of fare and feel good and ready for my work when it needs me, and I believe I owe my good digestion ly, regular use of Stuart’s Dyspepsia Tablets, year in and year out, and all the “joshing™ in the world will never convince me to the contrary. I used to have heartburn about three times a day and a headache about three or four times a week and after standing for this for four or five years I.began to look around for a crutch and found it when my dector told me the best investment I could make would be cent box of a 50 Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablets, and I have invested about them ever thi 50 cents a month for since and when I stop to k that that is what I spend every for cigars, I feel like shaking hands with myself, for I can keep my stomach and digestion in first-class or- der for 50 cemts a month. 1 don’t care for any better life insurance. My druggist tells me they are the most popular of all stomach medi- cines and that they have maintained their popularity and success because they do as advertised. They bring re- sul and results are what count in | patent medicine as much as in selling barb wire. The one means of raising the grade of trade is good goods—Schilling’s Best ton ooffes baking-powder splces flavoring extracts soda f Your grocer’s; moneyback. RS e e D Hatt Denies Bell's Charges. A. Hatt Jr., who is the defendant in a suit for an accounting and for the appointment of a receiver to take charge of the affairs of the Napa River Steamship Company, of which he is one of the owners, which suit H. G. Bell and G. H. Munk, yesterday filed an answer to the suit. He makes a general denial of the charges of mismanagement made by the plaintiffs and asks that their prayer be denied. He avers, also, that Munk, who is his co-defendant, is in league with the plaintiffs and simply poses as a defendant in order that the suit may be heard in the local courts instead of the courts of Napa County. —_———————— H. Morton Goodman Arrested. Oscar Hug, a remittance man from Germany, who 12 Colling- wood street, reported to Policeman D. Matheson about 3 o'clock yesterday morning that H. Morton Goodman of 318 Turk street had picked his pock- ets. Goodman was, placed under ar- rest and while In the wagon on the way to the Central police station dropped a purse. The purse contained $50 and was identified by Hug as his property. lives at Dr. Downs was called to the bedside of | Mrs. Dunning the morning after the| death of Mrs. Deane. After an exam- ination he at once positively diagnosed the case as one of arsenical poisoning, and so informed Dr. F op. He said he had not the slightest doubt of it and did not need an autopsy to convince | him, but thought one should have been | made as a matter of corroboration. He | | described the symptoms at length and made intelligent differentiations be- tween ptomaine and arsenical poison- ing and cholera morbus. Knight started to air some of his recently acquired medical knowledge, | but he found Dr. Downs so thoroughly intrenched at all points in medical mat-+| ters that the attorney quickly aban- doned this line of attack. He finally succeeded in bringing out that the doc- | tor did not regard lump arsenic and powdered arsénic as essentially differ- ent, both being chemically the same | and differing only mechanically. Much | stress was laid on this point by the defense, as it is purposed to show that the arsenic in the candy was lump ar- senic, which is not readily obtainable at pharmacies. Dr. Downs also ad- mitted that he had been promised $500 in addition to his expenses for his trip westward and the consequent loss of business. Harry C. Pennington was recalled to testify that as far as he knew the | only box of candy in the Pennington { home on August 9, 1898, was that which was received by Mrs. Dunning and which Is an exhibit in the case. Dr. Theodore R. Wolfe, State chem- ist for Delaware and professor of chem- istry at the Delaware State Univer- sity, was the next witness. He it was who made the analysis of three pieces of candy taken from the box by Dr. Bishop and submitted to Dr. Wolfe. The chemist testified that he broke the several lumps of white, crystallized sub- stance. Then he treated the candy to five recognized tests for the discovery of arsenic and succeeded in recovering 42 of a grain from it. Subsequently he tested the lumps removed from the candy and found them to be arsenic,’ weighing 11.56 grains, He stated that a fatal dose of arsenic was from two | to four graine, varying as regards the condition of the system. In making the analysis he used the Marsh test; the Reinch test, a pecu- liarly delicate one; the manganese test, the charcoal reduction test and the sulphuretted hydrogen test, and with all of these arsenic was found in the candy after the removal of the lumps, and the lumps also were ascertained ! to be arsenic. The results of all of his 310 00 and %13 ADVERTISEMENTS. 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