The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-12-03
Crime IN switzerland.

Crime IN owitxerland.
The federal capital of the ancient repub
llc Of Switzerland is just now in . tremOl
OF excitement over the judicial denounce
ment OF one Of the darkest and most appal
ling tragedies of domestic life which has
ever come to light, even in this age d
startling sssensatiOns." SIS 9sssss
Herman Demme is q Young man no.
thirty years of age. His father is dis.
tinguished professor ut the University o
Eerne, and the son, early introduced by
him to the study of science, has for several
years been looked upon ~ one of the fu-
ture glories 0fthe republic. He was sent
At the expense Of the Confederation into
Italy, in 1859. to study the French sys,,
tenn Of ambulances, and the whole hospital
service ofthe French armies. Hehad pub
lished work Un military suIeery, which
had made for him name in Germany aa
well ~ in Switzerland, and which secured
ham an invitation to act AS collaboration
on one ofthe most important medical jour-
nails of Germany. Oflx;e he had devoted
his attention particularly to toxicology ;
and recent treatise of his on the effects Of
stvychnine AND cwrGre was quoted but the
other day. with commendation in the Par
- kerue Der Deux MOnsles.
Hermann Demme wears in his physiog-
| nomy all the evidences of his intellectual
rank. He has high open forehead, short
brown curling hair. His face is pale, and
its most marked characteristics are energy
and thoughtfulness.
Two years ago DR.. Demme was sum-
mOned to attend a certain Madame Trcm-
py, then woman thirty.eight years Of age,
still handsome, bat Of singularly nervous
and excitahle character. In q quarrel
| with her husband the latter had dung .
lamp at her which struck her in the face
and destroyed ons of her eyes. DR.. DEM
me saved her life, but could not save her
eye, and at the earnest entreaty both of the
husband and the wife he suppressed the
circumstances of this misfortune. Mr..
Trumpy, the husband who took such lber-
ties, was q banker of Berne. living in q
charming house called WabeTn, situated
on the AAr, at the foot of the mountain Op-
posite Berne. He was still in the prime Of
life, and was well known in the city as a
financial operator and daring speculator:;
DR.. Demme first became regular guest at
the Wabern dinner-table, and then had a
chamber set apart for him in the house.
when the Trumpys we're traveling, Dem
me joined them, and in this way they vjs-
tied together, during the first year Of their
acquaintance, Jerusalem and me East
and, during the second, Italy.
On the 18th of February last,s Gaspard
Trumpy, whose affairs were at that time in
q particularly embarrassing condition,
thanks to his connection with . certain
epeculator named Helwing, was taken very
i'll during the night. Demme had for some
days been attending him for painful dis
order under which he was suffering, in
consequence OF certain excess in his way OF
| living. He insisted that Demme should sit
up with him, and that nobody else should.
The next morning he died. Shortly after
ward DR.. Demme was betrothed to the only
daughter Of the deceased, a young lady Of
seventeen.
Down to this time the death Of Trumpy
had been regarded as natural, and the
whole matter had passed quite out Of the
mind of all but those directly concerned,
when Berne was electrified by Madame
son-in-law as the assassin Of her husband,
and as her own guilty lover! This extra
| ordinary denunciation was made In letter
Of which the following is an extract:
"As have told you have much upon
my heart. suffer. My conscience gives
me no rest. Yes! am an accursed wo-
man. ! have been guilty Of falsehood,
Ing the assassin of myh usband. It Is my
fault, and through my example, that my
husband and my child have becomed wick
ed. have sown evil around me. have
fallen myself, and in my fall have dragged
down my nearest family. / have passed
part Of my life alternately as a victim and
as q seducer. A man came into my house
as friend, he became my lover, and the
assassin Of my husband. All, l deserve
all possible chatisements. Whatever PEN
alties you may infiict upon me, deserve
them all. They are an expiation. resign
myself to everything. ] submit to my
destiny"
| Upon this denunciation Of Madame
Trnmpy, she herself and DR.. Demme were
arrested, and the remains of Mr.. Trumpy
were subjected to chemical examination.
And here we are introduced to a new and
most striking feature in this extraordinary
case. For some time no traces Of poison
could be found in the body; nor were any
ef the effects of the best known poisons OBJ
servable in it. DR.. Schwarenbach, one of
the examiners, after testing in vain for
morphine and quinine, suddenly thought,
by accident, OF strychnine, applied the test,
aud when he saw the violet tipge appear,
which revealed the deadly presence, start
ed back, as he himself says, "horror
struck" But the strychnine thus detected
! had neither produced the cramps by which
| its fatal action is attended, nor had it pass
ed beyond the small intestines. It had
evidently not been long enough in the body
How was this to be accounted for? One
Professor, DR.. Hausemanu, supposes that
Trumpy, weary of his financial troubles,
took strychnine; and that before it had
reached the liver, . shock of horror ut bis
own act sent the blood 10 his brain, caus.
ing death by apoplexy, the swift mental
emotion outrunningthu the more material
minister of death.
The hypothesis would, of course, acquit
DR.. Deinme. But in what hideous light
Madame Trumpy must then remaini
One of the examiners, DR.. Emmart, ID
known to entertain q deep and bitter jeal.
ousy Of Professor Demme, the father Of the
accused. An anonymous letter produced
in court, and in the handwriting Of Mad
anne Emmert, was used by the advocate ol
the prisoner to Introduce, or atleast to hint
the frightfu1 suggestion that the poison
found in the body had been put there BY
DR.. Emmert as a means Of vengeance upon
the two Demmes! But the younges,
Demme has since avowed that he himself
wrote this letter and counterfeited Mad
anne Emmert's handwriting in order to
throw the law upon this track. He main.
tains, however, that anonymous letters had
previously been written to himself and to
Madame Trumpy, which he believes to
have come from Madame Emmert. All