The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-07-12
Charged with Poisoning.
THE CASE OF TILE COMMONWEALTH
AGAINST MAG GREAyER.


Court, Judge Smith presiding, COM
menced the trial of the case of the Com
monwealth vs. Mag Greaycr, charged with
attempting to poison Florence Meredith.
The prosecution was conducted by Ed
ward Echols, city attorney, and the pris-
oncr was represented by JAS. Bumgardner.
jr., w. E. Craig and Judge j. II. McCue.
After some difficulty in securing jury,
the following were empannelled A. ).
Butts, @. S. Baker. Geo. w. Eyler, e. +.
Flick J. S. Gillian. r. o. Holiday. John
lesser, r. Kinsley, I4eonidas Poyntz, }. l..
Undertake, Andrew G. Woods and c. l..
Weller.
The evidence was exceedingly long
drawn out, over half hundred witnesses
having been summoned. The facts as de-
veloped by the prosecution were very
much as have heretofore been published in
this paper They We're substantially as
follows About O'Clock p. M, on the 9Th
of April last, VIM. Meredith, step-father
of Florence Meredith, received from the
general delivery box at the post office a
box wrapped in a newspaper, directed TO
Miss Florence Meredith, Staunton, Va. F"
He took the box home and delivered 1t TO
his daughter. Upon opening it was found
to contain small valentine and about one
pound Of French candy, mixed. Florence
was suffering with toothache at the time
and had been during the day. She took
the box and contents into the next room.
where the family were, and handed it
around VIM. Meredith put several pieces
in his pocket, Maria Hulvey, an inmate OF
the house also took several pieces, Mrs.
Meredith one, and IL child two OF three
That taken by Mrs. Meredith and the
child was eaten by the respective parties
and produced no i'll effects. Meredith,
after supper, started down the street and
ate the candy us he walked along. He no.
tced it's intensely bitter taste but Thought
nothing of the matter at the time. Short
lyafter reaching the place of his employ
ment (Thornburg's Livery Stable) he be-
| came very sick ut the stomach and his
limbs grew painful Whilst in this condi
|
that Maria Hulvey was sick from what
was supposed to be poison. He procured
horse and rode home. Upon reaching
| the gate he was in such condition as to be
hardly able to get into the house. In the
meantime Maria Hulvey had been very
severely affected. and was then suffering
greatly. DR.. Fred Henkle was summoned
and pronounced the two patients poisoned
by strychnine. He gave antidotes and
emetics and the parties were relieved. DR..
Henkle took the box and its contents to
his office and the next day subjected some
of the white powder taken from the candy
, to chemical test. The result clearly
showed the presence of strychnine. He
injected solution of the powder into a
cat and it died in twenty minutes. DIR.
Fauntleroy also analysed the powder and
declared it strychnine.
From the fact that Mag Greaver had
frequently told Meredith that his daughter
was being ruined by Il physician OF the
town. in whose office she had often been
seen, and to whom Mag seemed to lay
special claim, suspicion was directed to-
wards the prisoner. She had been known
to declare that she intended to get rid OF
Florence Meredith, alleging that she would
allow no interference with her claims to
the party against whom she warned Mere
dith. A warrant was sworn out and the
accused arrested. Upon search OF her
trunk an envelope was found addressed to
FLORENCE Meredith, in, so far as the Or
binary eye can judge. identically the same
hand writing as that Of the address on the
box of poisoned candy. This envelope.
Mag Greaver admitted to the officer, was
in her own handwriting. Upon the exami-
nation it was disclosed that she had pur-
chased candy corresponding with that
| found in the box at both Taylor's and
Ayres !; that she had purchased a yalen-
tine at Hughes drug store, and that the
valentine accompanying the candy had
upon it Hughes cost mark. One witness
also stated that she had seen the accused
enter the post office with bundle about the
size of the box and come out without it.
The defence claim that there is no evil
dence connecting the accused with the
sending of the box. They donot deny the
purchase of the candy by Mag Greaver
from Messrs. Taylor and Ayres, but claim
that she was in the habit of keeping candy
about her nearly all the time, and pro-
duced number of witnesses to substan-
| tate the claim. Witnesses are also pro-
duced to testify that they saw Mag Greav-
er enter the post office on the afternoon OF
the 9th with bundle in her hand, and
come out with the same bundle, which is
shown to be hat. They deny that she
ever admitted to the officer that the direc-
lions OH the envelope found in the trunk
! were in her handwriting, and produced a
witness, the sister Of the accused, who
swears that she herself, whilst Scribling,
! remembers to have directed the envelope
addressed to Florence Meredith Her
statement of the transaction, which fur
nishes one of the most important links in
the testimony is substantially as follows
Her name is Mrs. Miller and she is resi-
dent of Maryland. Last winter, whilst
visiting her mother, in StatntOn, she, IN
company with Mag met Florence Mere
dith on the street. Attracted by the fact
that Florence had her arms full OF books,
she asked who she was, and was told her
name. Upon returning to her mother
house she wrote letter to a young lady in
Maryland named Miss Florence Manly,
whose post Office is Lochraven. The let
ter being written she started to address an
envelope to enclose it and being dissatis-
fed with the 'sMiss Florence" part stopped
it there, and called to her sister to know
the name of the young lady they had met
on the street. Being told that it was Miss
Florence Meredith, she wrote the name
on the spoiled envelope and threw it back
in the trunk. When called upon to write
the same name on apiece of paper in court
she did So and making allowance for her
nervousness under the circumstances. the
two addresses are not dissimilar. !. She
described with the minutest particularly
all of her actions and thoughts connected
with the first writing, but denied that she
had written the address taken from the
poisoned box and which correspondent with
that of the spoiled envelope. Numerous