New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-12-14


ONLY INTIMATE THAT THE roIsoNs
MIGHT HAVE BEEN ADMINISTERED
AFTER DEATH-TESTIMoNY
oFA pATHoLOGIsr
nr Movers complexion is becoming as yellow
,sh "a his hair. He sat by yesterday while two Of
.,a most eminent chemists in this country pro-
duced a lot of little bottles with powders and
eu,ds IN them white and blue and green and yell
low. and said that there was the arsenic and
+bere the antimony which District Attorney Nicoll
savs Never sprinkled into the food of Ludwig
Rrandt with intent to kill him. 1t year
and nine months ago that Brandt died. 1t is GER
ta,nlv enough to make a man feel sick, and look
b,s feelings when after that lapse of time back
From, the grave and out OF the heart. the lungs
the brain the liver the kidneys and the muscles
of a buried body comes not merely the accusing
witness of his crime, but the very and identical
atoms by which IL was perpetrated. Brandt
could not these atoms when they passed his
lips They impaired no taste that enabled him
10 know His senses were not acute enough TO
perceve the messengers of death as they struck
him down But here come these mental machines
from the laboratories with their little glass
hotties their retorts. their circular tubes. their
acids and their flames. and they bring back the
very crystals of poison by which that helpless
life taken
This man Meyer, in degree at least. Is an
educated man. He has an intelligent face. Prob
ably among the class with wbcm he would be
ukely to associate he would be regarded as
"snart" man. But assuming for the moment
that 1t was his hand that put these poisons into
Brandt's mouth, what poor, weak, miserable
little fool he turns out to be.
OI,C on rI-ST TT
Colonel Fellows once remarked that his ex
perience in the District-Attorney's office COM
neIled him to believe that the best way to
commit a murder to take pistol and go
into the most crowded street in the city and
shoot down ones victims in the presence of as
MANY witnesses as possible. Cor the result was
sure to be as many different tales Of how II hap
pened as there were persons who saw or heard
IT, The force Of this suggestion is both witnessed
and illustrated by one Of the points made by the
Autocrat Of the Breakfast Table when he
pointed out that in every conversation between
two persons there were really SIX diHerent
Identities engaged. That is John. as he Is known
TO his Maker, the real John. Then there Is
John as John thinks himself to be. inevitably
a very different person. Then there is John as
Thomas regards him, which is still another
character, and there is Thomas also in this
threefold way. 1t Is not wonderful then that
John and Thomas after half an hours conver-
sation together. go away with different impress
sions Of what has been said. Nor. multiplying
John and Thomas innumerably. is 1t remark
able that from a crowd of witnesses of par
ticuIar event many different stories issue, not
onlv as TO how IL happened but to what 1t
really was. But when. in a cold-booded way,
cold -blooded machines begin TO operate on
substance to analyze it, TO dissolve II, to fuse II,
to compound 1t in this form. then in that, the
story of the record when 1t is finally made up
leaves a conclusion from which escape is almost
impossible
In the awful peril Of such a conclusion Dr.
Never stands to-day. The facts in his case
that are now seemingly open to no possible at
tack are these: He and his wife and Kirfel and
Baum lived together in a fat at No. 800 East
Thirteenth-st. in this city for period Of weeks
during February March and April, 1892 Mrs.
Meyer representing herself to be Baums wife.
Policies of insurance had heretofore been OBJ
taired on the life of Baum in favor of Mrs.
Baum no such person being actually in ex-
istence, for $500. Baum was sick in that fiat
for four weeks with a disease diagnosed and
treated as chronic dysentery. He died. and Mrs.
Meyer with Meyer and Kirfel. attempted to
collect the insurance policies and did collect
$4,000. The sick man was Baum-the dead man
was Baum. The body buried was the body Of
Baum. That same body exhumed later, and
in it's brain, heart. lungs liver, spleen intesines.
kidneys and muscles and in the juices of the
body antimony and arsenic were found in large
quantities. Having collected $4,000 of the in
surance and suspicion having been aroused in
the effort 70 collect the rest Meyer and his
wife and Kirfel wandered around the country.
remaining only a few weeks in any one place.
possible after leaving this city. resumng the
appearance he had borne here about two months
before he was arrested; and being arrested, he
changed his appearance again No effort
made to collect the remaining $4,000 Of insurance
after suspicion aroused.
WHAT REMAINS TO BE PROVED.
These facts. with scores of others that COM
bine to render them apparently open to no pos
sible contradiction, may be looked upon as
proved. The question that remains, and Of
which there is no direct testimony except that
Of the informer. Kirfel. is to how the anti
mony and arsenic got into Baum's body. and
with what intent. But in the consideration
Of that question. even If no further light is
thrown upon it, 1t will be for the jury to con-
slider whether the facts clearly made out do
not warrant belief beyond reasonable doubt
that Kirfers evidence perfectly supported in
all it's many and intricate details on every
other point, is not worthy to be credited
this There is nothing he has said from the
beginning to the end of his involved story, OF
which there other witnesses than Meyer.
Mrs Meyer and the dead man, which has failed
OF corroboration And when he told the story
the first time he could not have known who or
how many there were TO corroborate it, Then,
in the presence so perfectly proved yesterday, of
the antinonial and arsenical posons. and in the
light Of the fact equally proved, that there Is
trace In Baums body of the medicine pre-
sscribed for him by the physician who attended
him up to the time of his death. is 1t not just
and even necessary to believe Kirfel when he
says that Meyer administered those poisons and
did II intending to kill?
defendant is In bad way when he is forced
to admit one grave crime to obtain the mere
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