, 1877-06-01

NAAA ANNEALH ~ NAN NNNN " wv
BEuxrB urHnEHrR ~ rrSSsrLvANIA.
4 lsttfr frum Easion. Pa. says: The
evidence beforu the supreme cuurt IN
the case q Allen G. Lars. q this VI
cinIiy. disrlo-es sume rpmarkahle con
duct on the part of The pri-nn ofioials.
Laru. uas convicted Il poisoning his
father ani mothsr. AMI another Iuer-
ron. The fscts a the crime arr ~ FOL
lows.
On the thirty-fr-i q May. 1876. the
family oi Martin l.aro~. q farmer living
near Easton, at douu 10 supper. Mar
tin Lars. hrs wife Mary. and his chill
dren. Allen. Irwin. Aloni, Clara and
Alice; . grAndchild. Flora. and Moses
Schug. an elderly man Who lived with
them, partook of the meal. soon after
sitting down they were, one after an
other, in quick succession. seized with
severe illness, and retired from the
table 10 the yard. Physicians were sum
moned and emetios applied, but Martin
IAros and his wife, and Moses Schug
died the next day. The others recover
ed. II was shown that Allen G. Laros
had purchasTd arsenic from q druggist
in Easton some days before, and that
fact, together with the discovery Of ar
senic in the contents Of the coffee pot.
caused his arrest as the murderer. He
had been one Of the party at supper, and
was seized with the same symptoms as
the others but in o milder degree. At
his arrest he told the officers where to
find his fathers pocketbook. containing
about $500, which had been abstracted
from his secretary, and they dug it up
out of the ground at the spot designated.
The post n1ortem examination did not dis
close more than "the fifty-thousandth
part of grain" of arsenic in the intes-
tines Of Martin Laros.
The accused was put upon trial on
Aug. 16, 1876, and on the thirtieth
verdict of guilty of murder in the first
degree was rendered. On October Both
Allen G. Laros was sentenced to be
hanged. The ground of his defense at
the trial was epileptic insanity. 1t was
proved by the testimony of relatives and
acquaintances of the prisoner that he
was subject to convulsions, and at such
times would conduct himself irration-
ally. After his arrest he was seized
with the same spasms in his cell. In
order to discover whether the sick
ness was real or simulated, the prison
physician tried number of expert
ments upon the prisoner. They are
detailed in the evidence of Daniel Reed,
the deputy warden of the county prison,
as follows:
1.-THE doctor tried experiments to see
if he was conscious during the spasms;
he did not vince; doctor held the flame
of light to his bare foot, but he did
not move; his face was turned toward
the doctor; he did not appear to know
any one; then the doctor heated some
wax and dropped it on his face, his
forehead, and his ankles; the first time
the doctor came he took a knife and
jsbbed him on the back of the hand till
the blood came, but he did not finch;
he tried hot key on the prisoners
hand and his ankle--it was SO hot that
Whitesell could not hold it but Laros
did not move. On that evening Aug.
q the doctor dropped hot wax on his foot
and ankle, he did not move at all; he
seemed unconscious; doctor was going
to try something else; 1 said: 1T was
cruel etc." Another experiment
tried we get from the testimony of DIR.
Amos Seip, who was physician of the
jail. After describing the methods mar
rated above to discover whether Laros
was or was not shamming, he says
that he was not entirely satisfied, and
tried to act upon the prisoners fears.
Having q previous understanding with
the jailor, hewent into the cell and said
loudly that it would be necessary to pour
hot water on his limbs, telling Mr.. Reed
to get the boiling water. Stripping the
prisoner, he was drawn out Of bed, and
water as cold as possible thrown on him,
that he might be thrown off his guard
by the shock. "You might as well have
thrown it on the ground" says the doc
tor; che did not manifest the least
sensibility. This is regarded as a sure
test; it is used by the London police
men. Inext thrust my thumb nail un-
der his with no effect. took a straw
and filed it with snuff and pulled it up
his nostrils; he lay three minutes
trembling. When he came out of the fit
he sneezed once or twice; this sneezing
was after he came out of the fit, not be-
fore. Aitken gives a case of feigned
epilepsy which was detected by sneez-
ing for half an hour by the prisoner, after
applying snuff" etc.
Exception was also taken to the ad-
mission of medical evidence of the re-
suits of the analysis of the contents of
the coffee pot, received from the coron-
er, on the ground that the contents
were not sufficiently identified or ac-
counted for, and were not proved to
have been the same as were administer
ed to the deceased, and also because the
Commonwealth failed to account for the
custody of the coffee pot tillit came to
the chemical expert: The prisoners