The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-15 00:00:00

MARCH 15, 1856. THE LEEDS POISONING CASE. ANOTHER suspicious case of death from poison has b e en the subject of an inquiry this week at L-leds. Mr. Dove, of Cardigan-place, Burley, Leeds, a person o f respectable connections and independent property, has been arrested upon suspicion of having poisoned his wife with strychnine. It appears from the evidence of the different wit nesses that Mr. and Mrs. Dove lived unhappily to gether. Mr. Dove was a drunkard, and, like all drunkards, ill-treated his wife. He not only neglected, ill-used, and heat her, but frequently, according to the evidence of his servant, threatened to take her life. He " wished she was dead," he would " do for her one day," he would " give her a pill," were ex pressions frequently on his lips. So alarmed had Mrs. Dove become at these threats, that she expressed her solemn desire for an examination of her body in case she should die, and in the event of death, strictly enjoined this servant to inform her friends of this wish. For some weeks past Mrs. Dove had been suffering from slight indisposition, and was slowly recovering, when on the 23rd ult. she experienced a peculiar spasmodic attack. Mr. Morley, her medical attendant, calling in the afternoon, found her recovered from the attack, but still suffering from spasmodic twtchings of the face and body. Attributing them to hysteria and nervous excitement, he simply altered his treatment, and ordered antispasmodic and anodyne medicines. The next day he observed that the same symptoms still existed. On Wednesday, Mrs. Dove still continuing to suffer from occasional severe spasmodic attacks, he became perplexed ; the thought of strychnine occurred to him, but he dismissed it, and suggested to Mr. Dove a consultation, partly because the case seemed anomalous, and partly because Mr. Dove had expressed his fear that Mrs. Dove would not recover. These attacks continued with increased severity on Wednesday and Friday nights, and on Saturday night, March Ist, under a terrible and rapid suc cession of them, Mrs. Dove expired. Such were the leading features of the case. There was no accounting for death ; there was no explana tion of these frightful spasmodic attacks under which the deceased had sunk; and when Mr. Morley applied to Mr. Dove fur permission to examine the body, the request was declined by Mr. Dove on the plea "that his wife had a very strong objection to being dissected, and that it must not be done." _ _ It, however, sown became known that Mr. Dove a few weeks since had purchased a small quantity of strychnine. This purchase, and the peculiar spamo dic symptoms evinced by his wife at her death, were coupled together, the thing got bruited about, the attention of the coroner was happily drawn at once to the circumstance, an inquiry was opened on the following Monday, and Mr. Morley with Mr. Nun neley were authorised to make a post-mortem exa mination of the body. The examination was in stantly made, and in the course of this week a report, drawn up at great length, minutely describing the condition of the body, and concluding with a state ment of a special examination of the stomach, and au analysis of its contents, was presented to the coroner. This analysis indicated strychnine so strongly that no doubt rested upon the minds of the medical men the deceased had died from the effect of that poison. On Friday week, the 7th inst., the inquiry was resumed. Mrs. Whitham, a widow, and friend and neighbour of Mrs. Dove, was first examined. She described minutely the symptoms and sufferings of the deceased during the last week of February. Upon the 23rd of February, she remembered that some jelly was brought home for Mrs. Dove by either Mr. or Miss Dove : Mm. Dove said it was nasty stuff, and that it was quite bit ter. She afterwards took an orange to remove the disagree able flavour, and said that that was bitter also. On the Urd ult., eh., said to her husband, after she had had the jelly, " did you put anything in that jelly ?" Mr. Dove answered " Yea, I have put some of the medicine in it." She then said it was very unkind of hint to do so. I believe I tasted Mrs. Dove's medicine on that day, at the suggestion of Mr. Dove. Mr. Dove said, as she was suck ing the orange, " You don't think that I have put anything in the orange ?" To which she replied "I do not think :;ou have." There was then something more said about the jelly, and he said " I did not put more than a table spoonful in it." When I tasted the medicine it was very bitter. I saw medicine taken out of the bottle the same day or the same night, and saw Mr. Dove put something i n it to make it effervesce. The medicine did not effer vesce when I tasted it and opened it. On Saturday afternoon, March Ist., Mrs. Dove aPPeared better. In the evening, between seven and eight o'clock, Mr. Dove came into Mrs. Whitham's house, and asked her to come and stay with his wife, as he was going into Leeds. Mrs. Whitham immedi ately accompanied M r . D ove to M rs. D ove ' s b e d room. At eight o'clock, Mr. Dove administered some medi cine to his wife ! Re administered the medicine in a wineglass. It was Of a dark colour; and Mrs. Dove drank it off, and then me for a mint lozenge, saying the potion was very hot. After she had taken the medicine, Mr. Dove washed THE PRESS. out the class, saying, " I always wash it out, as it is very nasty stuff." About a quarter of an hour afterwards, Mrs. Dove asked Mr. Duve for some mint water, which he gave to her. He then went out of the house. In a few minutes afterwards Mrs. Dove experienced a terrible convulsion : her back, says this witness, was arched outwards, her hands clasped so convulsively as to break the skin, her eyes contracted, her features distorted, her teeth clenched, her head thrown back, her feet arched, and her whole body rigid with in tense suffering. " She made a dreadful noise," says another witness. "She moaned dreadfully, and shrieked once or twice." A succession of attacks continued almost without interruption, and at twenty minutes to eleven the Door creature died. Mrs. Fisher corroborated Mrs. Whitham's statement with reference to the nature of the attacks suffered by Mrs. Dove. She also remembered the discussion on the 23rd about the jelly. Mr. Dove told witness that he had put the medicine into the jelly " for a joke." Mary Wood, present on the Saturday night, gave similar evidence regarding the features of the last attacks experienced by Mrs. Dove. She remembered Mr. Dove giving the medicine to his wife about eight o'clock. Mr. Morley, the surgeon, whose evidence was highly important, stated the nature of Mrs. Dove's original complaint to have been a simple functional disorder of the stomach and nervous system, trom which up to the middle of February she was rapidly recovering. On the 25th of February he noticed some slight but unusual spasmodic twitchings about her face and body. Referring them to her nervous excitement, he ordered anodyne medicines. He saw her daily during the week : the spasmodic twitchings continued, and severe attacks supervened. For the moment a suspicion of strychnine suggested itself. A consultation with Dr. Hobson took place on Saturday night during the last attack. He had been called out at ten o'clock, and while waiting for Dr. Hobson Mr. Dove came in and had a conversa tion with him:— He said, " Mr. Morley, if my wife should die she has a particular objection to being dissected. She has a very strong objection ( he repeated it in different forms) to being dissected, and it must not be done." I expressed my hope that the necessity would not arise, as when I saw her in the morning she was better. Dr. Hobson then arrived, and they all three started for Mr. Dove's house. When they arrived Mrs. Dove was dead : I applied (continued Mr. Morley) to be allowed to examine the body, but it was declined. I could not ac count for her death that night, except that I connected it with the previous spasmodic effects, and thought she had died under a more aggravated attack, but the cause of those attacks I could not tell. Mr. Morley then read the report of the analysis of the stomach, which stated that after a minute and careful examination, and repeated analyses, the presence of strychnine was incontestably detected in the stomach. For the sake of comparison, a parallel series of experiments was made upon the body of a cat killed by strychnine, by which similar results were obtained. In reply to the coroner as to what was his opinion of the cause of Mrs. Dove's death, Mr. Morley replied : I cannot refer that to any other causes than the poisonous effects of strychnine, producing the most peculiar convul sions, so closely resembling tetanus. The CORONER : You heard the three witnesses, Mrs. Whitham, Mrs. Fisher, and Mrs. Wood give their evidence and describe the effect produced upon the deceased during the various attacks. Were those symptoms referable to any other cause than strychnine—were they referable to any natural cause ? Mr. Morley : I cannot refer them to any natural cause ; to nothing but the effects of strychnine. There is no other substance, I believe, which will produce these attacks. The disease which most nearly resembles it is tetanus, but there are, of course, distinctions. The CORONER : The difference between the two— Mr. Morley : Is perceptible and clear. The CORONER : You have no doubt that she died— • Mr. Morley: From the effects of strychnine. Mr. Nunneley corroborated Mr. Morley's evidence, and stated as his opinion that death decidedly oc curred from strychnine:— I have no doubt about it. In my opinion, death re sulted from strychnis. A Juryman : Was the cause of death the last dose or the other ? Mr. Nunneley : The 'last. I have no doubt other doses were given, but it was the last which caused death. Strych nine is not a cumulative poison like many poisons, and the other doses would have passed off. Mr. Morley further stated that had strychnine been put into the medicine at eight o'clock it would not have altered the appearance in any way. It would :lave altered the taste, as one forty thousandth part in water would produce a hitter taste. On the Thursday after Mrs. Dove's death, and during the progress of the post-mortem examination, Mr. Morley called at Mr. Dove's mother's house to see a patient. Mr. Dove was there, and be imme diately spoke on the subject of his wife's death : 255 He said, " I wish to know, Mr. Morley, what you have found?" Neither he nor I mentioned strychnine, he having been and procured some at my surgery. He said, •' Do you, Mr. Morley, suspect me of poisoning? Do you think I could be so cruel?" I said, " My suspicions rather lean to some accidental poisoning, knowing that poison was in the house. I fear some may have been spilled by accident among the food, and that was my reason for pressing upon you a post•mortem examination." Again he said, " Can you suspect me ?" I said, " How could I ? I do suspect an accident might happen." He then said, " Should I have done it openly if I meant to poison? Should I have come to your surgery for poison? Should have talked about it to others ?" naming, I think, his mother. Then the conversation closed with a repeated request that I would let him know the result. He said, "As soon as you find anything will you let me know ?" My reply was " That I did not know when we should con clude with the analysis." The evidence that Mr. Dove had purchased strych nine at Mr. 31orley's surgery a short time previous to Mrs. Dove's death was clear. Both Mr. Elletson, a pupil of Mr. Morley, and Peacock, the surgery boy, remembered Mr. Dove coming to the surgery about five weeks since : He looked at the bottles ( says the boy Peacock), and said " Tartarate of antimony," and observed, " I suppose this is what Palmer killed his wife with." On the same shelf was strychnine, and he said, "I suppose they can't test strychnine ?" I said, " Yes, they can." He replied, " They can test all minerals and vegetables but strychnine." I said, " Yes, they can; Mr. Morley tested it and found it in the stomach of a young woman who died at New•road end." A conversation - then'ensued with Mr. Elletwon : He began by talking about Palmer's case. He said he believed strychnine could not be detected. That was during the conversation about Palmer's case. He said he thought it could not be detected after death. 1 said I thought it could, and I mentioned some of the tests. Mr. Dove then inquired the effect of strychnine upon man. Mr. Elletson explained that it produced spasms and contraction of the muscles. After a little further conversation, Mr. Dove remarked that his house was infested with cats, and asked for some strychnine to kill them. Mr. Elletson gave him about ten grains, and after a casual remark upon the bottle of antimony, that "that was the poison Palmer used," Mr. Dove went away. In about a week he returned and asked and obtained five grains more. Previous to this air. Dove had endeavoured to get some strychnine from Mr. Harrison, a dentist:— I remember (said Mr. Harrison, in evidence) a convey sation with Mr. Dove two months since, at the New Cross inn, South-market, in Meadow-lane. Mr. Dove sent over for me by the daughter of the landlord, and when I got there he asked me to read over the account of Palmer's case in the papers. I did so in Mr. Dove's presence. He then said to me, " Can you get or make me any strychnia ?" The landlady of the house, Mrs. Walker, heard him say this. I said in reply, " Not for the world." He then said, " Well, I can get some if you will not." Then he went to the door, and I asked the landlady (not in his hearing), " Did you hear that ?" He went to the door and came back. Nothing more was said about it. On Thursday week, during the time that the post mortem examination upon the body of Mrs. Dove was being prosecuted, Mr. Dove wrote to Mr. Har rison to come to him. Mr. Harrison went : I had not much time to stay with him. The first words he used wen, " Can they detect a grain and a half of stry:th nia, or a grain ?" I said, " Have you given your wife any ?" He said, " No ; but 1 got some from Mr. Morley's man to poison a cat with, and some might have spilt, and she might have got some, and the cat is in the midden." That was all he said. Mrs. Walker, the landlady, corroborated this state ment. Of the general unhappiness of their domestic life Elizabeth Fisher, the servant, bears witness. Mr. Dove appears to have uniformly ill-treated his wife, and on several occasions to have even threatened her life. On one occasion, hearing Mrs. Dove scream, the maid ran in and saw Mr. Dove holding Mrs. Dove down, and brandishing a carving-knife over her. On another occasion, he threatened "to give her a pill," and frequently, when either sober or drunk, he struck and ill-used her to that degree that she was always in fear of him. At the threat of giving her a pill Mrs. Dove became seriously alarmed: — After he left the house, she said to me, " Elizabeth, now if I should die at any time, and you are away from me, it is my wish for you to tell my friends to have my body examined, as I am sure he will give me something." I have heard her repeat the same thing in his presence when he had not been swearing or anything. He has repeatedly ill-used her and struck her. When any person was in, she did not appear alarmed, but she was always in fear. He was worse when he was drunk. At the conclusion of the examination of witnesses on Wednesday, the coroner said that, in consequence of something which bad transpired, he should adjourn the inquiry till ➢ionday next. The case was then adjourned. A further analysis will, we believe, be made by the medical men. Mr. Dove, who is at present in custody, has been formally remanded by the magistrates, pending the coroner's inquiry. MARCH THE ANoTHER soil been the sub. Mr. Dove, of I of respectable has been arrel his wife with It appears nesses that p u le r. Mr. drunkards, ill.used, and the evidence I life. He " w her one day, pressions Ire Mrs. Dove be' her solemn in case she strictly enjoii of this wish had been suf was slowly she experien Mr. Morley, afternoon, fou still suffering and body. A excitement, I ordered antis] next day he o existed. On to suffer from he became pi occurred to h to Mr. Dove a seemed anom expressed his These attacks Wednesday t night, March cession of thi Such were was no scum' tion of thee which the dec applied to M body, the re( plea " that hi being dissect( It, however few weeks si strychnine. dic symptom coupled Loge attention of I to the circum following Ma neley were al mination of scantly made, drawn up at condition of ment of a and au analy the coroner. strongly that the medical effect of that On Friday resumed. M neighbour of described mi the deceased Upon the 2; some jelly v either Mr. or Mrs. Dove se ter. She afterw able flavour, a 2rd ult., sh..l s jelly, " Willian Dove answered it." She then believe I tasted suggestion of A tog the orange, in the orange :;eu hare." TI th e jelly, and Spuouful in it." bitter. I saw 1 day or the tau la it to make it vesee when I On Saturdaj appeared bett eight o'clock, house, and as as he was goi ately lie COM pi At eight o'clo sine to his wi He administ of a dark cob) asked me for I h et. After she