The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1884-02-29
EATING POISON IN COURT.
A Lawyers FRnOus Defence of
AIurticress-A Correct version,

ihoii viz AoihOuo Siiihiiiot AuNySA Va
Chicago, ate poisoned biscuit before
a Michigan jury, and by that act Sc
cured the acquittal of woman
charged with attempting to murder
her husband. From that timo until
now the story of the poisoned biscuit
has been told throughout the North
west many hundreds of times by law
yers and others, but it has seldom been
told correctly. So far as known, the
true version has never appeared in
print. Since the incorrect story of the
matter has received such wide circula-
tion, a reliable narrative of the Incl
dent will doubtless prove readable to
many.
Somewhere between the years of
1910 and lS45 the wife of farmer of
Hillsdale county. Mich, baked some
biscuits one Sunday morning and then
went to church, leaving her husband
to take dinner alone. AS he sat down
to his meal, however, young farm Ia
borer came to the house and Joined
him at mis- repast. Each ate of the
newly-baked biscuits, but quickly
found them unpalatable and put them
aside. Neither one had eaten more
than half u biscuit Both were soon
taken violently ill and displayed strong
symptoms of arsenical poisoning The
young man recovered from his sick
ness after some days of intense suffer-
ing. but the farmer fingered in a dying
condition for more than year, and
finally expired.
Sixteen years before this time the
farmer had married his wife for her
money. She brought him $4,000. He
purchased a farm with this amount,
and in few years he became quite
forehanded. His greatest enjoyment,
apparently, was to annoy his wife in
every conceivable manner. His favor
ite amusement was to pull their little
child out of bed in the night and beat
it cruelty. They finally concluded to
obtain divorce from each other. The
farmer agreed to give his wife a lien
on his property for $1,000 for the sup
port of herself and child. The mort
gage was made out and placed in a
lawyers hands to await the divorce.
The wife, in consideration of the mort
gage, signed quitclaim deed to all
her husbands property. On the eve Of
the granting of the divorce the farmer
secured the mortgage and destroyed it.,
intending to put the deed on record
after the divorce was granted. His
wife discovered the cheat and stopped
the divorce proceedings. She then de-
liberately planned to kill her husband.
She sought reconciliation and went
back to live with him. One day she
disguised herself in male attire, went
to Hinsdale and purchased a quantity
of arsenic. This she mixed in batch
of biscuits and left them for her hus-
band to eat.
In short time she was arrested.
By law the woman could not be tried
for murder because her husband lived
more than year after he was poisoned.
She was indicted for poisoning, and
put on trial in Hillsdale. Mr.. Van
Arman, then young man with law
Office in Marshall, Mich, defended her.
A young French chemist from Detroit
testified against the accused. He was
the only chemist that Detroit afforded,
and he was a verv incompetent one.
This young man swore to the jury thai
he had analysed several of the bis
cults which the prisoner had made for
her husbands eating, and had found
they contained arsenic. From his guam
titative analysis he swore positively
that the husband had swallowed less
than grain of arsenic. The chemist
further swore that grain of arsenic
was a deadly dose, and that even less
might be fatal.
There were no railroads in Michigan
at that early day, and there was not
another chemist nearer than Chicago.
Mr.. Van Aramn, who had studied
chemistry in his youth, and had even
delivered lectures on the subject, plain
ly saw that the Frenchman's testimony
was woefully incorrect. Mr.. Van Ar
man contended before the jury, that a
grain of arsenic was only a medicinal
dose and that the defendants husband,
therefore, must have become fatally i'll
through some other agency than poi
son in the biscuits. He could produce
no expert testimony to substantiate his
theory because no experts were within
reach. knowing that grain of arse
mic would not seriously affect the hu-
man system, he caused number of
biscuits to be baked by physician of
the town, each Of them containing
grain Of tine deadly substance. For
tunately for his client, there were none
of the original biscuits to be had, and
the jury could not murmur against the
substitution of new ones.