Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-11-25
HILL HAVING HIS HEARING
Fsihe tPrelihinary Trial For MAYHEM
in Progress.
The Case Being Heard Il. fore Nae;..
trate WiyiH In the C.reuir
Court chs mber-Wun,s
SEES Examined.

The Hill vitriol throwing care came up
before Magistrate Wivnl this morning a,
. o'clock and as it was thought that the
latter's court loom would be too small to
accommodate the visitors it was decided
to adjourn to the circuit court room
where the case was taken up at 10
o'clock. large number of witnesses and
visitors being present
The charge now preferred against Hill.
as stated yesterday, is mayhem, commit
ted by throwing vitriol in his wife's face
so that it will disfigure her for life. The
state is represented by States Attorney
Sturgeon and the defendant by Nal.
Besrdsley. The case was opened by
Maj. Beardsley making an open state,
ment on behalf of the prisoner, in which
he reviewed the life of the defendant to
show his previous reputation, after which
DR.. G. B. Kinyon, the first witness, was
called, who testified 10 having been
called on the night of Nov. to attend
Mrs W. B. Hill. Witness found her
suffering from the effects of some SUBJ
stance which had been thrown in her
face, which he had afterwards found was
vitriol. To witness Mrs Hill stated that
it bad been thrown into her face while
asleep, which accounted for none of the
substance having gotten into her eyes.
NJ. Hill stated TO witness that the house
had been burglarized and that he (HnD
had found bottle which had contained
chloroform upon which there was yell
low label. Witness could not detect
the odor of chloroform in the house at
that time, and was of the opinion that if
there had been any of that drug thrown
in the room about the time stated he
would have been able to detect the odor
of it,
Witness then Identified the bed clothes
which were on the bed at that time, and
testified that the substance thrown on
them was nitric acid. 10 regard to Mrs.
His disagreement, witness stated that
her nose, lips and the left side of her face
will be disfgured. and the hearing of her
left ear will be impaired. Her neck AND
back are also badly burned, and in his
opinion it would be impossible for any
one to throw n liquid over as great sur
face out of as small bottle IS the one
that Hi claimed he had found in the
room.
The next witness examined vas J. II.
Harrison, of Harris on's pharmacy. on
Brady street, Davenport. His testimony
was to the effect that on the night of
Nov. last. a man entered his store and
asked the price of nitric acid He was
told it was worth 10 cents per ounce.
whereupon be asked for three ounces,
which witness put into bottle, and la
beled it poison, as required by law. He
then inquired the name of the buyer, and
was told tbatit was William Johnson, and
gave his residence as Davenport, but
later said that it was not for himself but
for another man named Miles, who re-
sided in the country, and that t was for
horse. Witness thought no more about
the transaction until a day or
two after when be read in
the papers about q burglar throwing
vitriol in the sleeping womsn's face in this
citY,s as vitriol was something not sod
every day by druggists. he at once called
to mind the fact OF having solo some that
same night to q stranger and be at once
communicated this fact to the Rock Isl
and police and also gave them descrin-
ton by telephone of the man to whom he
had sold it. Later that day Chief Miller
brought Hill to Davenport for identified
ton, and witness after looking at him was
satisfied that be was the man whom he
had sold the poison TO.
Horst Won Koeckriiz. of the Fourth
avenue drug store. was next examined
and testified as to Hill purchasing muri-
attic acid at his store few days before the
crime was committed. but said the bottle
which Hill told the police he had bought
there, and which he had not used. was
not the bottle in which he had sold the
acid.
At the time of going to press Chief of
Police Miller was on the stand.
Hill was held in 81 900 bonds to await
the action of the grand jury.
proDressfve Enrhrt