Connecticut western news., 1892-03-10
ARKDEEDSALLEGED
A WELL KNOWN MINISTER'S SON
 FEARFUlIY ACCUSED.

pr. scudder. It Is Charged, Beat His
 Mother-in-l law to Death, Tried to Poison
 His Father-in-law and Forged the Mur-
 dered woman's Name to a Bogus win.
 CHICAGO, March Apr. Henry M. Scud- ter, son of the famous pastor of Plymouth church, is under arrest at his fathers home, 3,921 Grand Boulevard, charged with mur- der. He is sick and is closely guarded by officers. The warrant on which Dr. Scud- der is held was sworn out by the venerable F. H. Dunton, proprietor of The Spirit of the Times and the father-in-law of the ac- cused. Scudder married an adopted daugh- ter of Dunton's, whose feeble wife had for tune of $1O0, 900 in her own right, which up to few days before the time of her death she had purposed leaving to some blood rela- tives.
 On the morning of Feb. 21 Dr. Scudder, who was constant visitor at the Dunton mansion, was alone with Mrs. Dunton dur ing the temporary absence of the servant. MT. Dunton was in bed in an adjoining room recovering from an illness with which, it is also claimed, Dr. Scudder is painfully connected. Mrs. Dunton uttered a piercing scream which was heard all over the house. At, or about the same moment, witness whose name is withheld for the present saw her on all fours on the floor and Dr. Scudder striking her on the head with some thing like club. The witness was in fear of the Scudders and suppressed the fact until later.
 When Mrs. Dunton screamed every one in the house ran to the room, the first ar rival being Mir Dunton, whom Dr. Scudder gently pushed back, assuring him that he was too ill to see his wife To the rest of the family he said that Mrs. Dunton had fallen down three times and struck her head against the furniture. Mrs. Dunton was lying on her face, with her head bleeding profusely, and she said nothing intelligible before she died. Dr. Scudder and others started out for physicians and Dr. Bassett and Dr. Leavitt came in.
 Very Suspicious Wounds
 They made an examination of Mrs. Dun- tons scalp and found that it had on it five or more wounds, which penetrated to the skull bone. It was plain also that they were made downward and forward on the top and rear of the head. Dr. Scudder told the other physicians that he was present when Mrs. Scudder fell three times against the furniture while he was attempting to hold her up. Dr. Bassett expressed astonishment. . .Leavitt To his practiced eye the wounds werenot such as a casual fall would pro duce. He communicated his suspicious to the husband of the dead woman, who re- called circumstances connected with the will which sharpened him in memory and shaped his action later.
 It is charged that Dr. Scudder tried his hand first on MT. Dunton. On the Thurs day preceding Mrs Dunton's death he was conspicuously attentive to MT. Dunton, who was in very feeble health. He accom- panied him down town to his office and told Mir Dunton that he was evidently i'll and he wanted to watch over him. Just before the couple left MT. Dunton's office to go home for the night Dr. Scudder told him that he must take stimulating draught. He then administered to him, in the pres ence of with esses, dose of something that he called brandy and quinine. By the time MT. Dunton got home he was out of his head, and then went into a coma tose state, exhibiting all the symptoms of apoplexy, from which he did not recover for forty-eight hours. It is supposed that the failure of this attempt may have produced the determination to put Mrs Dunton out of the way.
 Tried His Hand on Her Husband.
 Previous to both of these events, how ever, Dr. Scudder had made arrangements to have Mrs. Dunton make a more satis- factory will. Mrs. Dunton had often said that she would not object to making some little alterations in her will. Accordingly, three days before her death and while MT. Dunton was in a comatose state, Dr. Scud- der brought her a new will in which the de- sired alterations were embodied and which pleased her very much. Dr. Scudder read it to her, had her sign it, and then had 1t witnessed by himself, his fourteen-year-old daughter and Mrs. Dunton's fifteen-year-old daughter. He then made pretext to take the pen and ink down stairs, and soon after ward got little Miss Dunton to follow him. He told her that she had signed the will in the wrong place, and easily induced her to sign it again, as she supposed, in the right place. But the allegation is made that she was deluded into signing different will, as witness. It is charged that after ward Dr. Scudder and his daughter also signed 1t as witnesses, and that then he forged Mrs. Dunton's name to it. This third will gives pretty much all of Mrs. Dunton's property to Mrs. Scudder.
 Wounds that fully confirm the suspicion that Mrs. F. H. Duhton was murdered were disclosed at the Autopsy held upon the woman's body at Janesville, Wis. Six ex- ternal injuries and five fractures of the skull show how death was caused. The ex- animation was made by Janesvile physi- clans.