The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-07-30
The Eddins Murder Case.

Eddins, who was indicted for poisoning her
husband, came to an end on Saturday by the
jury rendering a verdict, finding the defend
ant guilty of manslaughter. 1t would not be
of interest to our readers to give a synopsis of
the evidence at this late day, as the interest
in the case centres in the result, which is
given above, but it may be some information
to our readers to state briefly the theory up
on which the verdict of manslaughter must
have been rendered. The statute under which
Mrs. Eddins was indicted, provided that "Who-
ever purposely, and either of deliberate and
premeditated malice, or By means of poison,
kills another, is guilty of murder in the first
degree" 1t is difficult to the ordinary mind
to see how a verdict for manslaughter could
be arrived at in a case of this kind, but under
the charge given by Judge Hume, and which
is probably the law, the jury may be warrant
ed in their verdict. In order to constitute
murder in the first degree there must be a
purpose to kill. In this case the evidence
showed that Mrs. Eddins had stated on one
occasion that she had given her husband some
arsenic, but that she did not intend to kill
him. 1t is true that she claimed on the wit
ness stand that she had made this stat ement
under dures-that is, she had been told by
Stubs that unless she would make such a
statement she would be hung by a mob, and
she claimed that it was not true; yet it gave
the jury the opportunity to avoid a disagreed
BILE verdict, of which they availed themselves.
The evidence showed conclusively that Mrs.
Eddins purchased the poison, and there was
some evidence tending to show that she had
used arsenic for the purpose of poisoning rats,
but how a jury could find that she had only
given her husband arsenic to make him a lit
tie sick is difficult to understand.
The defendant throughout the trial main
tanned a spirit of disinterestedness that was
astonishing, and when the verdict was rem
dered she heard it with apparent Indifference.
NOTES.
Judge Hume ruled Mrs. Eddins' confession
out, which saved her neck.
Mrs. Eddins will probably be 20 years older
when she serves out her time.
The jury stood on the first ballot nine for
for murder in the first degree to three against.
There is certainly a mistake about Mrs.
Eddins "mashing" the young Israel Town
ship juryman.
The crowd around the court house all last
week from early morn till late at night, was
immense, notwithstanding the intense heat.
Husbands should be careful about taking a
"little bit of arsenic'' from their wives just
"for fun"
William Rowe returned home on Monday
with his parents a happy boy. He made a
very narrow escape.
Court has adjourned until next Monday,
the convicted criminals.
There never has been a trial in Preble coun-
ty that has so completely tested the capacity
of our court room as the Eddins case.
Sheriff Peters was put to his trumps to ac-
c%ommodate his lady callers last week, but he
did the best he could, and did it handsomely.
The verdict seems to give almost universal
dissatisfaction 1t is probably because the
inhabitants around here thirst to witness a
hanging matinee.
Judge Hume had great difficulty in secur-
ing himself a chair during the trial, but he
would have stood up rather than see a lady in
his vicinity standing.
Witnesses from a distance in the Eddins
case, complained very much because they
were obliged to give up their seats in the
court house to ladies. 1t wasn't fair.
When Court convened on Monday morning
Judge Hume sustained a motion filed by Pros
ecuting Attorney Crisler, and entered a molte
prosequi in the indictment against William
Rowe, jointly indicted with Laura Eddins.
Mrs. Eddins gave way to tears on last Mon
day, when informed her sentence would prob
ably be for twenty years, and sobbed out, "IT
be an old woman by that time" She seems
at last to begin to realize her unfortunate con-
dition.
We read every day of murder trials, where
the defendant is almost smothered with bo-
quets of flowers, but in the Eddins case, We
doubt if there was a woman in the whole audi
ence who had the moral courage to presen'
Laura Eddins with a simple rose with which
to adorn the bosom of her plain stiff Dress
=. Why is this thus?