Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-12-04
THE MEYER CASE.
The Defendants Record In Other Cities n
Strong Feature of the ProsecutIon-Hs
Was Charged In Chicago With Attempt
ing to Take His wife's Life.

Was Charged In Chicago With Attempt
ing to Take his wife's Life.
NEW YORK, Dec. 4.-The Meyer trial for
murder by poisoning was begun today in
the oyer and termiuer before Justice Bar
rett, who has not figured in sensational liti-
CATION for some years. The interest in the
case is entirely in its technic. DR.. Henry
c. w. Meyer has, if what is charged against
him can be proved, disdained all sentiment
tai and romantic accession in the creation
of a cause celebre. The interest in him rests
entirely upon his skill as destroyer of hu-
man life, if he is guilty.
That which the prosecution, which is
backed by all the mighty resources of the
Mutual Life Insurance company, will try
to prove is that in the first place DIR. H. c.
w. Meyer, his wife Maria and one Ludwig
Brandt, in the latter part of 1891 and in the
city of Chicago, entered into a conspiracy
to defraud certain insurance companies
Policies were taken on Brandt's life in
favor of his legal representatives at the
time of his death, and then Mrs. Meyer
went through ceremony of marriage with
Brandt, under the name of Gustave H. NJ.
Joseph Baum, in order to become a bene-
ficiary under the policies. There was at
that time, so far as known, no intent to do
murder, and Brandt was an accomplice to
the fraud. Their plan, if it can be proved
that they had plan, at the time was for
Brandt s disappearance, the substitution of
body for his and his resurrection for a
division of the spoilS. 1t has been said,
though it may not be proved ON the trial,
that this was the means of livelihood of
Meyer and Brandt.
The Latest Conspiracy.
In March, 1892 the trio and another man
named WINNERS, who is said to have
turned states evidence since, came to New
| York and took the east side ground floor
| fiat of 800 East Thirteenth street. Shortly
| afterward the alleged accomplice, Brandt,
called, under the name of Baum, on Dr. 5.
B. Minded then of First avenue and Eighth
| street, for treatment for what he called
and the doctor diagnosed as chronic dys-
EMERY.
| For several weeks he fingered, quite un.
suspicious of his alleged confederate in the
fraud. For all these weeks DR., Minded con
tinued to treat him for dysentery. Then
| he died and was buried in the Lutheran
| cemetery, and the survivors of the house
hold on the ground floor fiat suddenly
fitted.
The conspiracy of fraud and murder, il
| such it was, seemed to have succeeded, fol
DR.. Minded had innocently made out the
papers necessary for the widow to get hel
money. But the Mutual Life had had its
suspicious aroused by the incautious APP
pearance of DR.. Meyer with Mrs. Baum
| when she came to get her money, and its
| chief inspector, Daniel &. Gillette wa:
sent hunting evidence with fine tooth
comb"
Famous Poisoner.
Detective Gillette soon found out thai
Mrs. Baum's" officious friend was tn,
most famous suspect pOisoner in the coun
| try.
He had been arrested and tried unsuc
cessfully in Chicago for poisoning his frs
wife and the husband of a woman namet
Gelderman, who became his second wife
He had been charged with attempting t.
poison her before he deserted her. He hat
been accused of administering nitroglycer
in to aman whose life was insured in hi
favor and taking him out rowing on a no
summer day with the purpose of bringing
him back dead of "sunstroke" Tn
Equitable company had refused to pay
a woman whose proof of death came iron
Toledo
The eNhumatiun of Brandt's body nat
urally followed these discoveries. Distric
Attorney \icoll'> Psychologists and chen
lists examined it and said that they foun
proof of the administration of at least
grains of antimUny. The symptoms {
poisoning by this drug are similar to thCs
found in dysentery.
The arrests of DIR. and Mrs Meyer wei
a made in Detroit, where they were living i
v July last.
: DIR. Meyer will be put on trial alone
f is expected that the man WINNERS and
4 woman named Mary Neias, who, it is sal,
: was selected the victim of the Toled
S case, will prove the chief witnesses againi