The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-27
POISONING CASES.
Some Celebrated ones in the English
Courts.
Nom he Ner York sun.


trial Sir James Fitz ia mes Stephe Of the
queens bench division of the high court of
justice, Is one Of the most distinguished
la yers in England. Twenty years ago,
as a member Of the viceroy's councilin India,
he began the preparation Of code Of
criminal procedure" for that country,
which was su sequently adopted. This
work gained him consider able distinction,
which has nesn increased by his other
writings on legal an social topics, and by
| his career as a judge in recent wears.
| Among hi, more notable works, in add
i, ton TO his "Indi IN Code Of Cr,mi ial Proce-
dure," are "A Digest of the Criminal Law
of England" "a Digest Of the Law Of Evil
dence,' and a History of the Criminal
La of England" IN 5hree volumes Ia the
| last named work, which is by far the best
treatise ever written on the subjec
Justice Stephen devotes a good deal
/ spa e to the consldera,i of case of muir
der by poi oning; and near y 100 pages of
the third volume of the history are occupied
! by the reports of four celebrated cases of
! this nature. IL is evident, therefore, that
the judge before whom Mrs. MayDrick has
! just bee cow cite has 10 & taken a special
| interest in C .ses Of homici lie c1mmtted by
means of pli on, and so far as famliari y
with the subject q es here was probably
| as b TO preside over such trial.
II is considered very funny when one of
| the characters in Gil be t s. Sulliva IS opera
Of the "Mikadon proposes that some ody
else shall b. punished b. i'm ner ion in
bJili < oil; but the law Of E gland once
| p escrIb as sava 20 a punishms as this
Tor murder by poisoning. By an act
passed In the Gig of Henry VIII. it was
| provided that poisoning should be deemed
treaso !, and that any srsol convicted of
the crime should be boiled to death. This
enactm snt grew out of an oocurre ce in the
household of the Bishop of Rochester A
porridge was in course OF preparati IN, and
a cook named Rose threw poison into the
| co npOuId. Two perso is wno ate of it were
killed aud large number of others were
nearly killed. Accord < to Pike's' History of
Crime in Engla i'd" Rose was pu cly
boiled TO death at Smithfield. Sir James
Stephen says that three or four persons in
all were b lied under this law, viii n, how
ever, was repealed in the time of E ward [.
The statute, he says, sis remarkable as
supplying the single instance in which death
by torture has been authorized in England
as a puuis lmenJ for any otfense except
treason and heresy.
The first of tn poisoning cases of which
an account is give by Justice Stephen in his
his ory is That of John Donellan. who was
trie at he Warwick asslzes in 1881 for the
murl of his brOther-ln-law, Sir Theodo-
sius Boughtol, young man of 90 who
would have come into an estate OF about
$4,000 a yea on attaining his majority
Mrs. Donellan, the wife of the p lsoner,
would inherit tn greater part of this for
| tune upon t 10 death of sir TheodOsiuS
Boughton, unmarried The deceased had
been suffering from a slight ailment, for
which be was in tle habit of taking medi-
cine, but he had been out fishing an 'ur or
! two ON the fterno N of the day preceding
his death. Early the next morning ne asked
his mother TO give him his medicine, and
she handed hi II a bottle from a shelf il an
| outer room, to which other members Of the
Aou 'enold, including the prisoner, had
free access. He took the draugnt, imme-
diAtelH complained of nausea, suffered ON
| convulsi ms for abo 1t ten minutes, then be-
came quieter and dispose TO sleep, and died
shortly afterward. The mother In4ue.
diately onjectursd that sac I'd madeso ne
mistake il regard to the medicine, aud SAID
50 to Donellan. He then asked for tue
| physic bottle and riIsed it out with water
! The theory of the prosecution was that
| laurel water was the poison administered,
and Lady Boughton testIde tina tho smell
of laurel water reSembled that of the ME Ii
! cine hich she had handed her son. TIE
medical evide ice against the prisoner was
! given by four physicians, ons of them a
! profess n Mt Oxford, and t!ey all agreed
that the death of Sir TheodOs us Bought)n
was caused by p 1isOn. To co ltra1ict their
| eviI Ance he p .isoner called the celebrated
surgeon and psychologist, Inn Hunter, W %
ties flied in subs ance that the symptoms
| were co lSistent with those of eJilep,v or
| ap0pexy. The charge of the judgs, Justice
Butler, was extremely unfavo able to the
| defe mt, who was convicted al most i'm
rnediately, and was subsequently, hanged
Sir Jam - Stephen avs that the colduct of
the judge and the We d ct of the Jury were
warmly censured at the time, and he ex-
presses a doub5 whether the prison would
nave been convic ed the pceseat day, be.
cause the medical evidence was not nearly
SO strong as IL IN gh have BEEN He see rs
Inclined to think, however, that the verdict
was right.
The next case is that of William Palmer.
who was physical practicng at r lgeley,
and who was trie for murderl a Sporting
man named John Parsons Cook, with whom
| he was on init "a g terms, and with whom
b had been involved in m )ney transact lus
which created stro e motive on his part
for desiring the death Of Cook. The poison
used was supposed 20 have been antimony
a ID strychnine. administered by Pal ner TO
| Cook at various TINES while they were in
company. The first occasion was during
the Shrewsbury races at the sitti lg-room Of
the Raven hotel, where Cook C mplained
been drinking burned his throat dreadfullv.
! and told another friend that he thou yht
Palmer had dosed him The principal med
ical question in case was wne her death
was usei by strvchnine or tram tic
tetanus. Lord Campo I'll presided at the
trial, which lasted twelve days, and Sir
James stephen himself was p es MT during
the gre ter part Of tue proceedi gs "Tha5
trial" he says, made an impress on on M
mind whica the experience of tive { six
subsequent years, during which | have
witnessed, studied AMI takeu part in
IA " i'm ortan5 cases, has rather
strengthene than weakened. 1t is i'm
posi- lie to give an adequate idea
of the ma ner in which 1t exhibited
in its very best and highest light the go)1
side of En- hsh cri linal procedure. N,
more horriOle villain tina Palmer ever
stood in a dock. prejudice against
him was so strong tn it was co sidered
necessary to pass an act Of parliamen +,
authorize his trial in Loadon" If he had
been convicted ID ha ged for the
murder of Cook he woul have been mt
upon trial for the murder of his wife and
br Their, and it was believed at the time
QS56) that he had killed many other per.
sons by dis II.
The third case in the collec ion of Sir James
Stephen is that f William Dove, who was
tried at Gurl in 1856, before Baron Bran
well, for posoniA mis- wi Q Gy strychuin,
The Doves had lived unhappily together
and there was nrOOf that TN ,,risO,ar ri