Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1871-10-21
THE RUTH SENSATION IN KANSAS.
Trial of DR.. MedIicOtt for Murder-A

Trial Of DIR. MedlicOtt for Murder-A
Complicated and n ysteFi0as Affair.
The pleasant and thriving little city of Gar
nett, the county seat of Anderson county, Kan,
situated some sixty miles south of Lawrence,
on the Leayenworth, Lawrence and Galveston
railroad, is the scene this week of an unwonted
excitement A murder trial is in progress which
and Fair cases, that Of DIR. Medlicott, who Is
before The court charged with the murder Of
Mr.. 1. M. Ruth, by the administration Of q
heavy dose of morphine and atropine. The
history OF the case, as stated by a correspondent
Of the New York World, is as follows:
On the morning of Thursday, April %, Mr.:
Ruth, an old and highly respected citizen of
Lawrence, business manager of the Lawrence
Tribune, was found dead In bed. A coroner's
Jury was promptly summoned, and a search was
made among the clothes or the deceased for any
letters or papers that might throw light upon
the mystery of his death. This inquiry soon met
with startling reward. In pocket diary,
his vest, the following letter, addressed to Mrs.
Ruth, was discovered:
DARLING: The Doctor-I mean DIR. Medli-
cott-gaye me 9uinine powder Wednesday
night, April 26. The effects are these: / have a
terrible sensation of rush of blood to the head,
and my skin burns and itches. / am becoming
numb and blind. lean scarcely hold my pencil,
and cannot keep my mind steady. Perspiration
stands out all over my body, and feel terribly.
The clock has Just struck H. and L took the
medicine about 1870 p. m. 1 write this so that
IL should never see you again you may have
my body examined, and see what the trouble is.
Goodbye, and ever remember my last thoughts
were of you. / cannot see to write more. God
i bless you, and may we meet in heaven, Your
loving husband, /. NJ. RUTH.
The accused was at once arrested, and became
the subject of universal gossip, the substance of
which will be best understood ii given in the
shape of personal history OF the parties con-
cerned in the tragedy.
Mr. Ruth was one of the early settlers of Law
renee, but removed to st. Louis where he found
employment in the post Office at the commence
ment OF the war. During his residence there he
became acquainted with a handsome lady,
whose large black eyes looked favoringly upon
him. She boosted on her mothers side rela-
tionship to the noble French family of De
Spraugh, OF Strasbourg, and was the prospective
heiress to title and fortune. While very
young she married MIR. Seymour Voullaire, q
lawyer. The Voullaire establishment was by
no means harmonious, and the lady seems to
have found in Mr.. Ruth an acquaintance more
pleasing to her than the man she had sworn to
love, honor, and obey. A hostile encounter in
the streets of st. Louis took place between Mr..
Ruth and the aggrieved husband, in which shots
were exchanged without the infliction of any
permanent injury on either party. In 1867 Mrs.
Voullaire obtained divorce, whereupon Mr..
Ruth married her and removed with her and her
i've children, who assumed the name of De
Spraugh, to Lawrence, where he found subse-
quently employment in the Tribune office. At
Lawrence, Mr.. and Mrs. Ruth formed an init
mate acquaintance with DR.. and Mrs. Medli-
colt. The members of the two families visited
frequently, and Mr.. Ruth seems up to the hour
of his death to have regarded the doctor as a
cOuraged the intimacy that existed between him
and Mrs Ruth.
DR.. Medlicott is a native of Ireland, but re-
moved with his parents, when six years old, to
Marietta, Ohio. His reputation while resident
there was very high, and his personal friends
in Kansas are unchanged in their regard for
him. Early in the war he enlisted in the West
Virginia cavalry, taking part in the raids made
on the Virginia and East Tennessee Railroad,
and gaining the rank of lieutenant. I'm 1854
while lying i'll at Hagerstown, he met the future
a Wi of NOD nA,-l
Her connection with old Maryland families
and her possession of some sc 900 are said
to have blinded the young soldier to the fact
that she was old enough to be his mother. The
marriage had the approval of the lady's rela-
unhappy one. Mrs. Medlicott shared her hns-
bands visits to the Ruths, and appears to have
been as free from jealousy as Ruth himself She
d ed suddenly in December, 1870. With Ruth's
eath the friendly quadrilateral was wholly
destroyed. Two OF the four friends Law limo.
Gently in their graves; the third stood about to
be charged with the murder because Of an
alleged guilty love for the fourth.
No sooner was il ascertained as the result of
analysis that Ruth's death was the result of
poison-morphine and atropine-than attention
was called TO the suspicious character of Mrs.
Medllcotts death; and her body was exhumed
for examination The result of the investigation
has not been made public, but there is no doubt
OF the fact that the scientific experts EMPLOYED
believe they discovered in the body of the de-
ceased lady poisonous compound identical
with that found in the body OF Mr.. Ruth.
All through the five months that have inter-
yened between DR.. Medlicotts arrest and his
triai pubic discussion has been busy with the
case throughout the State. So strong did the
feeling against the accused become that a
change OF venue from Lawrence TO Garnett was
applied for and obtained. The current of feeling
Is strongly against the doctor, who, however, Is
not quite friendless. Diligent inquiry into MANY
rumors prejudicial to the accused has proved
that they are without foundation. DIR. Medli-
colts friends call attention to the strangeness of
MI; Ruth's letter; Why, they ask, did Ruth not
seek assistance A child of his, Il years
OF age, was sleeping in the next room.
What easier or more natural than to wake him?
Does 1t not seem as though Ruth was weary OF
life, and was determined, as a last act OF re-
yenge, to build up wall between Medlicott and
the woman he had taken from Voullaire? They
plead the doctors previous character, throw
discredit upon the post norton examination,
and generally profess an unwillingness to attach
any Importance to the gossip current through
out the State. On the other side, persons con-
nected with the prosecution declare that half
the case has not yet been limited. Sensational
disclosures relating, it is believed, to an inter
cepted correspondence from the doctor to Mrs
Ruth, are vaguely promised. Meanwhile the ac-
cused manifests most philosophical indifference
square stone Jail of Anderson county. On intro
duction found myself confronted by a gentle
hm manly person about feet inches in
pleasing though resolute appearance, gifted
with chronological development in which no
phrenologist would attempt to find murder writ
" oeioiS tiAc EVENT. uNe months
fnement nor the gravity of his position had
changed his appearance from what it was at
the end of April, when L last saw him. He
wore the same calm, confident, digniied aspect
he has possessed from the first. He spoke of
the anxiety and distress of his aged parents as be-
ing by far the bitterest element of Lis condition
In answer to the question whether lie wished to
say anything in relation to his case he stated
that he was determined to maintain his policy of
silence until the end of the trial. He protested
complete confidence that the jury will acquit
Ppd hat t-io.,c Jo+o~
ton to prosecute certain gentlemen connected
with the Lawrence medical profession and press
as soon as set at liberty was changed He is
certainly a man Of no common character and
seems destined to furnish the student of human
nature either with a repetition of the problem
Kulof presented, or with an example Of a man
strong against the prosecutions OF an untoward
fate.