Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-04-04
TRYING DIR. BUCHANAN,
District Attorney Nicoll's Enerts to Prove
Him . Pois0ner.


Him . Poisoner.
Yesterday marked the beginning Of the third
week Of the trial at New York Of DR.. Robert
W. Buchanan, the young scotch-American in
dicted for the murder Of his wife last spring
by subtly poisoning her.
Although two weeks have gone BY since the
case was first opened il may be said that this
extraordinary trial has no more than begun.
1t was not till last Monday that the last Juror
was selected What was left Of the day was
mostly given up to the careful and painstaking
opening address Of Assistant District Attorney
James W. Osborne. Tuesday and Wednesday
were devoted almost entirely to the examina-
ton and cross-examination Of Q single witness,
Richard W. Macomber. the prisoners old chum,
who was the first Of the doctors croniss to tell
In court the details Of his disordered life in New
York while living with the woman whom he
brought here from the bagnio she had
kept in Newark, after he had given her his
name.
Thursday, when court adjourned till yester-
day, District Attorney Nicoll had called lot
more witnesses to fortify the story told by
Macomber and to give evidence Of one kind
and another, dovetailing into the case which
the workers in Mr.. Nicolls Office have been
perfectlng ever since last summer. But he had
not even then exhausted half his supplies.
Mr.. Nicoll does not calculate on getting to
the expert testimony that is to be introduced
during the trial before the latter part Of the
week. The expert testimony will probably take
as long and be as fussy as all the lay testimony
which will have preceded it. And when all that
Is done and the searching, keen cross-examina-
ton to which the chemists will be subjected by
the lawyers for the defense is over, only one
half the whole case will be done with
1t is only then that the defense will begin.
And after that all the witnesses for Buchanan
and his battery OF experts have to be heard. 1t
will take one day at least for the summing up
for each side.
Ever since the case was adjourned Thursday
evening the four lawyers of the prisoner have
been working hard and going carefully over the
evidence OF the past week, to be armed and
equipped for the surprises that may overtake
them this week. But the same thing is true of
everybody in the district attorneys office con-
nected with the trial. The LAWYERS for the
people and those for the prisoner have been
working like troopers during the past two days.
But the laborers in the district attorneys Vine
yard didn't begin work on Monday morning two
weeks ago. when the first talesman was put to
proof. Their labor has been going on ever
since last summer, when MIR. Nicol first gave
the order for the upturning Of Mrs. Buchanan's
grave in Greenwood.
One detail of the laborious effort that has
been made since then on the part Of the district
attorney will readily suggest to any thoughtful
person the magnitude of the work that is in
volved in the undertaking Of big trial like
that of Carlyle Harris. the medical student, or
Robert n Buchanan, the graduated doctor.
That is the fact that thu dead woman's brain
has been divided into $50 portions. each Of the
size OF one-quarter Of an inch, and each bit has
been subjected to a thorough microscopical ex-
animation to see If there were any possible
proofs of the claim made by the prisoner that
his wife died Of cerebral hemorrhage.
In speaking the other day about the methods
used in the district attorneys Office for work.
nm Of he hxHo -
Nicolis staff said:
1--WE start on case this way. An individual
is suspected of crime To use a geometric
simile. suppose for a moment that he repre-
sents a circle. The first thing we set about
doing is to find some other individual who
stands very near to him. Let him be repre-
sentc by another circle
I'VE ask that individual to call at the district
attorneys Office. 1t may happen that there are
several persons who stand near to the sus-
of them. some of them. or all of them together,
the people who stood in the closest relations to
the individual we are after.
1--WE gather from them all we can about the
suspect Gradually the line of inquiry spreads
out till it touches other people. II begins with
one. two or three persons. When it ends We
have come in contact with forty. fifty some-
times more than hundred different beings
directly or indirectly in touch with the suspect
under consideration.
The man We are after represents one circle
His three or four closest associates stand for
other circles. They all touch tine first circle
and may touch each other. But to carry the
simie further. they cannot all touch each other
at every point being circles
80 from one man we learn one thing be it
ever so small, to begin with, from another,
another thing. insignificant to him, perhaps.
One suggestion, one word, one statement leads
to another.
I'm the investigation great many Of the
people we have called upon may be utterly
useless, but when We are through we have got
all the material. or nearly ALL we want to build
our case out of. II not the case is dropped"
And that Is the slow but logical way in which
the case against Buchanan has been fashioned
In the district attorneys Office