Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1865-11-30
appeared firm and collected

iiiiiiSS a. opi'Cdi Gu III ldlu CUllcCtcu
> Nothing in his manner or appea,
: ance indicated guilt; and, whel
the question was put to. him b.
the clerk, 'Are you. guilty, o
|. not guilty.? he answered with al
, unfaltering tongue, and with
5 countenance perfectly unchanged
"Not guilty p; siribsm1lI 10 81
The counsel for the prosecution
:. now opened the case. But it wa,
apparent he had little expecta
ton of being able Ito prove the
prisoner guilty. He stated to the
jury that the case was involved ir
I. great mystery. The prisoner was
( a man of respectability and of
property. The deceased Was
supposed to have had about him
gold and jewels to. a large amount,
but the prisoner was not so much
in want of funds as to be under a
strong temptation to commit mur.
i der. And besides, if the prisoner
had obtained the property, he had
effeetually concealed it. Not a
trace of it could be found.
Why, then, was the prisoner
suspected? He would state the
grounds of suspicion The deceas-
ed, Henry Thompson, was a jew
eler, residing in London, and a
man of wealth. He had left Lon
don for the purpose of meeting a
trader at Hull, of whom he ex-
peeted to make a large purchase.
That trader he did meet; and af
ter the departure of the latter,
Mr.. Thompson was known to
have in possession jewels and gold
to large amount. ut.
With these in his possession, he
left Hull on his return to London.
1t was not known that he stopped
until he reached Smiths, and the
next morning was discovered dead
in his bed. He died, then, in
Smiths house, and if it could be
be shown that he came to his
death in an unnatural way, it
would increase the suspicion that
the prisoner was in some way con-
nected with the murder.
"Now, then" continued the
counsel, sit will be proved beyond
the possibility or doubt, that the
deceased died by poison?5 It was
a recent discovery Of some Ger
man chemists, said to be produced
from distilling the seed of the
wild cherry tree. 1t was poison
more powerful than any other
known, and destroyed life soquick-
ly as to leave no marks Of suffer
ing, and no contortions of the f-a-
lures. si .lea.,l s4ef u taag. f,f7s Il
But. then, theaquestipnt When,
and by whom was it administered?
One circumstance, a small one, IL
deed, and yet upon it might hang
a horrid tale, was, thatithe stop
perof small bottle, of a very
singular description had been found
in the prisoners house. The stop
per had been examined, and said,
by medical men, to have belonged
to a German vial, containing the
kind of poison which he described.
But, then, was that poison admin
istered by Smith, or at his ilsti-
cation? Who were the prisoners
family? Itconsisted only of him
self, a housekeeper, and-on man
servant. The man-servant slept
in an out house adjoining the sta
Bile, and did SO on the night of
Tholnpson's death. Tile prisoner
slept in one end of the house, the
housekeeper at the other, and the
deceased had been put in a room
adjoining the housekeeper's. aus
1t would be proved, that about
thee hours after midnight, on the
night of Thompson's death, a
light had been seen moving about
the house, and that a figure holding
the light was seen to go from the
room in which the prisoner slept
to the housekeeper's room; the
light now disappeared for a min
ute, when two persons were seen,
but whether they wentin into Thomp-
sons room the witness could not
swear; but shortly after they were
observed to pass quite through the
entry to Smiths room, into which
they entered, and in about five
minutes the lishtwas extinguished.
The witness would further state,
that after the person had returned
with the light into Smiths room.