Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-12-14
A Strange story.

DR.. John ]. Medlicott of Lawrence,
Kansas, has just been found guilty of the
murder of Isaac M. Ruth, a resident of
the same place. Several of the incidents
connected with the crime are SO unusual
and atrocious as to demand more than or
dinsry mention. The three principal
parties concerned in the deed-Mr. Ruth
the murdered many, Mrs. Ruth ibis Wife
and DIR. Medlicott (the criminaD seem
to be entsngled in perfect web of guilt.
In the first place the woman, who after
ward became Mrs. Ruth, had been di-
vorced from former husband named
Voullaire. In the second place, Voullaire 8
death was caused by pistol shot fred by
Ruth. In the third place, Medlicott, the
family physician of the Ruths, is strong
ly suspected, and with good reason, of
having murdered by poison Mrs. Medli-
cott, his wife, woman possessed of five
or six thous and dollars, and twenty years
older than himself. In the fourth place,
the antecendant TO the murder of Mr.
Ruth was a criminal intimacy between
Mrs. Ruth and Medlicott. And lastly
comes in the murder of Ruth himself by
the man who pretended to be his friend.
These incidents. taken altogether, cons'i
tute skein of crime as is not often given
to the public to unrsvel.
The circumstances under which the
poison was administered are also drsmat-
10 and thrilling. and illustrates the de-
monisc hesrtlesspess of the murderer
Upon the night when the deed was COM
mitted, Mrs. Ruth was absent from home,
on a visit to Leavenworth. DIR. Medlicott
was keeping company with Ruth, and
not only spent the evening there, but slept
there all night. The two played several
games of chess together. and parted be-
tween niue and ten o'clock, Ruth pre-
viously swallowing some medicine that
had been prepared for him by DR.. MedIi-
colt. After taking the medicine, Ruth,
Just before going to bed, sat down and
wrote his wife letter, in which be stated
that Medlieott had Just administered to
him a quinine powder, and asks her, in
case his death, TO have his body examined.
This curious request is one of the incom-
prehensible features of the case. 1t would
seem to imply suspicion of Medlicott-s
suspicion which is discouutananced by
the friendship between the two men, and
by the equsnimity with which Ruth be-
held Medlicott paying more than profess
siousl attention to Mrs. Ruth. The next
morning Ruth was found dead in his bed.
with blood and froth issuing from biz
mouth.
The means by which Medlicott'a guilt
was partially established are equally sin
gulsr and dramatic. Medlicott was i'm
prisoned in the same cell with a young
man named Harry johnson, who is
burglar by profession, and who seizsd oc-
casion to warm himself into Medlicott's
confidence. He hoped by that means to
give valuable evidence against the ply
sician, and so secure his own discharge or
at least moderation in sentence. Medli-
cott, like Lady Macbeth and many other
criminals of note, was distressed with
mental visions which visited hia in sleep
and revealed the hiding place of remorse
and guilt. frequently he started up
from bis prison pallet screaming, "Great
God, Sarah, is that you? Sarah being
the name of his murdered wife, or
Take this, Ruth, it will do you good"
These facts are enough to strengthen the
suspician against Medlicott, and the fual
result is that the Jury have declared him
guilty of murder n the first degree.
We have bat few comments to make on
this Notwithstanding labyrinth of brutal
crime and passion. It Is difficult to find
much to say in favor of either of the psr-
ties. Medlicott appears to be the greater
criminal of the three, but the history OF
the entire sffair, from beginning to end,
is history of voluptuous desire, uure-
strained passion, guilty qualification, and
remorseless use of the means which
promised concealment.-N Y. Standard.