The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-08-09
THE TESTIMONY begun
Mrs Sham Appears Cool
and Confident--Dr.
Bergen's Pre-
scriptions.

TRENTON, Aug. Q. 1s93-At the con
clusiou of Prosecutor Stockton's address
to the jury yesterday, recess was taken
TIL Two O'Clock. During recess the couu-
sci for the defense made application to
have several parts Of young Shann's body
analysed. and It 10 possible the remains
will be again exhumed
AT the afternoon session which bey I'm
at two o'clock Prof. Charles Mcmillan
was the first witness called. He present.
ed q map of the Sham residence. show :
ing the relative positions of the various
rooms. doors, closets and stairs. The
second witness was Reuben Van Selous.
a boarder at Mrs. Shann's. He told of
Frank Borden. a life insurance agent.
night her son died, which apparently
rave her the Impression bis Insurance
company was going to make an investi-
Ratlen of his death.
About three O'Clock the next morning
Mrs. Sham aroused the witness aud in-
formed hin hat three men had been in
the house aud hsd gone away. They
had been upstairs In Johns room. she
declared. and she was afraid they had
lone something" He went M stairs
With Mrs. Sham into the room whore
ths corpse lay. and say that. a covering
| W4lCn uAQ 0Cou dEE8ukc0 OVGE ZIG UoQI
was stained with blood.
There were no other blood stains visi-
BILE. The witness expressed the belief
chat "somethiug had been done" aud
went back to bed. Mrs. Sham had five
boarders beside him. and he thought they
were all at home that NIGHT.
THE DAUGHTERS STORY.
Mabel Sham was now called to the
stand. She said she slept with her mother
tue night that her brothers. remains
were violated. She had not heard her
mother rise. The movements of her
She called out. WHAT is the matterf"
and her mother replied, Nothing, do be
quiet" She called out again. "Marnma,
what IL the matter?" and her mother,
| entering her room, and seating herself
upon the bed, told her this story:-That
aud ruaR the bell. She had ad-
mitted them. The wore long overcoats
with the collars turned up. They had no
storm hats, and inquired IL she had a
corpse in the house. She told the men
her son was dead, and they demanded to
be shown to the corpse. She objected,
saying the hour was late. Two of the
men pushed her aside and assembled tn
stairs. She tried TO follow the men up
stairs, but the third man prevented her.
When they went away, her mother salt.
she kuew they had done something to
Johu,
Mabel testified further that she n her
mother had nursed John. both gave him
food, and both administered me licine to
4 him. He was sick about six weeks.
When the witness testified at the
Coroner's inquest that her mother alone
had nursed him she was mistaken. Mabel
said abe had often cooked her brothers.
food and given it to him personally. She
had neither seen nor heard anything OF
the three mysterious men who had come
In the dead Of night and disembowelled
her brother. She only knew what her
mother HAD told her about the affair. The
witness was not cross-exAmfned.
The last witness of the day was j. Wat
son Sham. an undertaken of Kingston,
N. ]. He is Mrs. Shann's cousin. She
had ASKED him to take charge of the
body. Although it was dscompo sing
fast, Mrs. Shann would not have the re-
msius enbalmed. 1t was when he had
gone to the house to perform his fnaI
duties that Mrs. Sham Told him the
story of the three men and their doings.
He SAW the blood ON the covering over
the body.
AT this point an adjournment was
taken.
THE TRIAL THIS MORNING.
The trial of the shaun murder case was
resumed at ten o'clock this morn
Ing Mrs. Sham rose early so as
to have time to read the papers
before appearing in court. She
read nothing except the accounts Of
the trial. She made no comments. but
asked the matron of the jail TO save all
the papers for her. j. Watson Shan o
was recalled to the stand for cross-exam-
~ination. The deceased. he testified,
weighed after death only seventy-five or
eighty pounds, although his height wa
six feet WI inches.
DR., Ellison H. Bergen of Princeton
/ fA~kt6&t thur hn Npo h 4, ~ 4 - Hr.,-f
of the Shann family. John r. Sham
consulted him last February. Il he
found that he was afflicted with kidne Y
disease. He had stomach trouble
also, which grew worse, and he
was unable to retain food. He vomIted
constantly during his entire sickness. He
grew SO weak that his pulse became al
most imperceptinle aud he died from ia.
anition. The witness described the
treatment which he gave deceased from
time to time.
DR.. %BERGEN's PRESCRIPTIONS.
DR.. Bergen testified that he prescribed
only three and one tenths grains OF
calomel for John during his sickness and
bichlofide of mercury tablets twice.
The latter We're for disinfecting PURPOSES.
He called Mrs. Shann's attention to the
fact that the tablets were poison, and
made it plain that they were for ex-
ternal use alono. Mrs. Sham sent him
word about The disembowelling of her
son. the day after it occurred.
He made an examination and
found that a big wound mad been
made In the abdomen from which the
contents had been removed. There were
bloody finger marks on The canopy over
the body aud OH the linen around the
corpser Mrs. Sham seemed Mortified by
the discovery and could not account for
the deed.
Under. cross examination DR.. Bergen
testified that he could not say whether
mercury and colonel were poisons or
not. He could not describe the ingredi-
ents of these medicines and he could not
say whether any OF the medicines which
he had prescribed contained poisous or
not, He was not a chemist. He pre-
scribed the calomel to slightly stimulate
the liver. The diagnosis showed thai
Shann's main trouble was gastritis.
Witness treated Sham for gastritis and
kidney affection only.
EES5
"A nYET