Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-03-04
A Celebrated CASE.

The second trial of Dr.. J. A. P Baker now
progressing at Abingdon for the alleged muir.
der of his wife by poison some eighteen
months ago, promises to be a celebrated case
in the criminal history of the State. His con
federate, the woman for whom it is contended
he resolved to make way with his wife, has
been on the stand several days of this and last
week testifying against him. The woman is
Mrs. Margaret Gilmer. the wife of a farmer
She had also been indicted for attempting tt
kill her husband, Wyndham Gilmer, will
poison furnished her by DR.. Baker, but fol
some reason nolle prosequi was entered il
her case. The history of the case has already
been given in the VIND1cAToR at the first
trial of DR.. Baker. Itmay be now briefly stated
that five years ago the two became criminally
intimate. For long time the high standing
of Dr.. Baker as a church member-he haC
erected chapel called Bakers Chapel on
his farm so active churchman was he-and
| her position as the wife of a respected farmer
protected them from scandal. But it sOoI
broke on them and both were turned out Of
the church. Both it appears from the evidence
deceived each other-she writing him daily
that she was giving her husband the poison
he had furnished, which she on the witness
stand admitted she did not, and which her hus
bands not dying showed she did not And he
promising her to make way with his wife
which, as far as anything but crcumstantial
evidence, there is nothing to prove that he
kept his word in. After his wife died, which
as far as the prosecution has yet shown to the
contrary, may have occurred from natural
causes, he sold his farm and proposed to
move away. She, thinking he was about to
| desert her, commenced writing to him daily
sometimes as often as ten letters a week, i'm.
ploring him to take her with him. The letters
are all of the most love sick description and
| strange mixture OF sin, religious quotations
| and moral blindness. Their mutual promises
to each other to get rid respectively of the
| husband and the wife came to light by his
keeping her letters and hiding them in the
| barn and under the residence which he sold
and left when he moved to Abingdon. They
were found by the new tenant and their con
tents disclosed to the woman's husband. She
was confronted with Che officers of the law in.
Guiding the commemorative Attorney, Col
Summers, and confessed the whole thing
Baker who stolidly denied any knowledge OF
any CRIME, was arrested, convicted and sen.
fenced to be hung, but got new trial which
| is now going on. The most remarkable occur.
renee of the whole trial took place last Satur.
day morning when Mrs. Glmer being on the
stand was suddenly asked if she had not writ
en- to Dr. Baker since he was sentenced tc
death and received reply. She admitted she
had and the following remarkable correspon.
dence was then read in court. The first was
from Mrs. Gilmer to Dr. Baker and read as
follows:
| You know have revealed the truth and
nothing but the truth. You know, further
more, that it was against every feeling, every
| impulse of my nature. l would rather have
died the most awful death imaginable than to
tended such thing, but, like other lunatics,
| did the very thing | least thought OF doing
When | swOre on that witness stand that
never Intended to reveal this thing, that |
would have gone down to my grave with this
terrible burden hanging to my soul, the mys-
| terry unrevealed chad it not been for the dis
covery of my letters, I meant what 1 swore.
be something can never understand, and no
doubt if will be as strange TO yoN that OPEN
ly confessed everything to a man ] have as
little use for as any human living. Possibly
you could, to some extent, make allowances
for me if you could appreciate ny, situation at
ed by officers. confronted With those awful
| letters of mine; and told if did not tell the
| truth they were going to take me right on to
Jail. If / had thought as much about iail
eight months before this occurred as l have
during the last eight OF nine months, it would
not have seemed SO dreadful to me. My Cod
My God Where could my mind have been