National Republican., 1880-12-06
oouNTERFEirERs AND POISON.
A StrychnIne sensation mt the JniI-Ar.
rcsfs mud DcNeInnmcmAa.

rests nud Developments.
\ number of arrests were made by the police
Saturday night on account Of the attempted poi
soning ofa female prisoner confined in the jail
The facts concerning the poisoning transpircd
Saturday, and showed that some one had adopted
n very radical and vllainous measure to get rid %
n dangerous witness Two young women named
Emma Baker or Emma Baldwin and Alice
Wcstcott, alias GhcCn were arrested on the
| 18th of November for utcrlng spurious
coin in the Centre Market They were subse-
qucntly committed TO jail. Although detective
officers were at work on the case for the purpose Of
| discovering who the Coun,cTicitcrs were behind
| the women, nothing occurred of any importonCe
two bottles Of coffee. ono for Alice Wcstcott and
! the other for Emma lNkCr, were sent to the inil
Aner the women @ had rcggled tbgmsclYes, upon inc
%sSyp%ycrcsd y% s"I thai she had i been "I' IP'olsoncd
soon relieved An investigation showed that the
| colcc which she had drnnk contained strychninc
Saturday night Lieutenant Keily, with a SOUND of
officers. Hiidcd house No 1852 u street. where Alice
Rupp lived before She assent TO- Jail, and captured
| together with Sarah Johnson, the cOlored cook, and
| Henry Shepherd colorcd porter. Later aScvcnth
street ph3tog,raphcr, named Thomas Dickslor ,,.b
arrested These parties arc all hold on suspicion
Of being concerned in the attempted poisoning, and
sion OF the police tend to show that the woman
| Hoover, with the connlvnncc of Gheen ana Bcks
Ter, had the food prepared by the co3red COOK. 1t
graph gallery, where the coffee intended for Emma
| Baker yns Il is alleged. .iinclurcd with strychninc
ana the bottle properly marked to prevent mis-
takes.
Shepherd then carried the basket and bottles 10
the jail Ghoen is II man well known i'm town, and
| was formerly very intimate with Alice WcStCou,
| by whom he was shot and wounded about year
ago. Bicksler who is about fifty years old, Is very
respectfully connected and married. lie cOnicSses
] IN having n rrpnt attachment for the MpStpOtt
woman. Notes lin cipher sent by Alice Wcstcolt
TO Bicksler have been received by the District At
torncy. The parties under arrest deny nll Rnowl'
edge of the attempted poisoning. Lteucnants
Kelly and Brccn and several secret service officers
wcro diligently hunting for evidence yesterday,
and succeeded in finding some which may lead TO
the conviction of Blcksler and Others of counter
iciling, and incidentally duplicates them IN the
poisoning affair. \ statement wns made by Miss
Baker to the effect that BCkslcr carried the coun'
terlcit coins In two piece, of "joist'
Yesterday tho officers found mt Alice Wcstcottj
house on u street piece of mahogany plank with
a vanished surface, which had been ingcniOusly
made into q box with false lid, so that no one
would be likely to discover that 1t was anything
else than q solid piece of wood. At Bickslcr's II
box somewhat similar to the one described was
found, and also large piece of wood from which
There was no money In the box found ut Alice
Wcstcotts, but in the one found at Bickslcrs were
two tcnecnt pieces and one iivc-ccnt piece, all
iiRgfiiSf iRS ioof Another spurious col" was 'ou"' on
The negro. Henry shepherd, stated to the OIL.
ccrs yesterday that he was sent last Thursday by
Kate Hoover to get ten cents worth of the best cot
fee Kato made the coffee, which she poured into
pitcher to cool shepherd took cupf,il ont of
the pitcher, after which tho liquid waspoured into
the ilnsks by Kate, She then put the iiaSkS n!othe
basket. together with chicken and little jar of
preserves and sent him with IL TO the jail, telling
him to go by Dckslcrs as Bickscr wanted to send
n note to Alice Westcott lie went to Blckslcrs
and then TO the Jail
Did Bicksler touched the baskot?" asked Lieut.
tenant Kelly.
NO" replied shepherd.
"Could he have examined the things in the bas-
kCt without your knowlcdgc?"
"YCs he might have done so while was gone.
lie sent me after pic, and left the basket with
him while was gone
| Tho police appear to be well convinced that the
strychninc was put into the coffee ut Dickslcrs
| Dlnpp,