The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-05


Make Forest put them up"
| Mr.. Ham was there Thursday night, and
that was why Forest slept on the lounge.
| Ham was old and foolish, he had drunk too
| much.
She and her husband went to Ocean Point
last summer. They and Trask stopped at
| the same house. Henry and Trask went
| home and left her there. Trask came back.
She didn't want to stay They both stayed
| at Mr.. Damon's. At first Trask slept down
+ stairs, then he slept up in her room. She
| pinned up quilt as a partition. She said
| to Trask that if Henry wasn't afraid to
have him sleep up there when he was there
| she wasn't then. She wrote Henry that she
| wanted to come home. She did go home and
had spells of splitting blood. Henry wanted
her to go back and she did with Mrs. Mary
Peasley. They stayed at Mrs. Burnham's.
She went blue berrying with Trask, and left
him on the wharf when they came home.
In reply to Sheriff Norton. she said that
| in respose to DR.. Driscolls desire for pint
| bottle, she got
THE GIN BOTTLE
| for him and he emptied and washed it. She
| said also, that her husband was drinking
man, and once before gagged when he drank
| that medicine, and said it was the "nastiest
| stuff
| He had said that his left side felt as if it
was asleep. He was 46 years old. She had
had only one child by him, her little boy.
| She had only been to Gardiner once with
| Trask and then at her husbands sugges-
| ton. She wasn't certain whether he was
there when she visited her sister. Thought
| he was. She was married seven years ago
| last December.
The above is the substance of Mr..
| Hamblen's notes of her conversation with
| the sheriff.
| Cross-examination showed that the wit
ness's report omitted most of the questions
| of the sheriff. The witness had stated that
Mrs. Getchell hesitated and thought it was
| not because of lack of willingness to reply.
The state recalled Mrs. Ellen Gilmore.
| She saw Mrs. Getchell at Trask's house in
the. fall of '9s. She came down from up
| stairs. She said she had been up there
clearing ela al,in up Il Laforest Trask's bureau
Cross-examined. Mrs. Trask. Laforest's
mother, was present. Witness would swear
ters.'
Sheriff Norton took the stand for the gov
ernment., At the Getchell house he ex-
of pipe, extending through the house into a
wooden spout that rested on the ground.
Under the end of the spout there was
tempted to find Trask that day, but without
success. He examined the buttery with
Mrs. Getchell and saw the gin and sulphur
told him it was kept on a shelf, but the
bottle was too high to go on that shelf and
she said it must have been the lower shelf.
Cross-examined. No examination, as far
as he knew, had been made of any portion
of the sink spout or the residue in it or the
ice. He had visited
DRUG STROES IN GARDINER,
Hallowell, Augusta, Randolph, WaterviHe,
Oakland, Lowell, Mass, and Nashua, N. H.
Visited all the drug stores in the towns in
Maine that he mentioned. Asked by the
state, he made these visits to try to trace
strychnine. Found that strychnine was
sold at these places.
DR.. Tash again took the stand for the
prosecution. He said that a person who had
taken two and third grains of strychnine
at 1920 would probably not live till LIS
without treatment, nor if he had taken one
grain. Upon the occasion of his treatment
of strychnine patients he used bromide of
potassium, also whiskey. A person without
treatment after taking one grain of strych-
nine, would be beyond all medical help in
side of half an hour.
Cross-examined. He might die before half
The time would depend upon the amount
of the
POISON ABSORBED.
The taking of food would make the poison
more active probably. Tea, because it con-
tains tannnic acid, might retard absorption
The condition of the contents of Getchell's
stomach seemed to show that digestion had
been retarded.
DR.. Tash was the physician who attended
the strychnine victims in the Clinton
poisoning case several years ago, when the
Beals, father and son were poisoned by an
other son. and the father died, but the son
recovered.
Drs. Croker and Giddings were called
upon the tand this afternoon to testify re-
garding the time it takes for strychnine to
act upon robust man like Getchell. Their
testimony, was to the effect that it would act
more quickly than it appeared to do in the
case Of Getchell. None of them ever treated
a similar case, and admitted that the condi-
tions should be considered. The prosecution
by this testimony endeavored to show that
the third dose alleged to have been admin
istered by Mrs. Getchell after her husband
taken ill, was the fatal dose, the first
two drinks he took from the bottle of gin
and sulphur not containing enough poison
to be fatal
F. E. Southland made the opening
STATEMENT FOR THE DEFENSE.
ne SaIu Gno ueIenS6 would De COnnned to
a clearer knowledge of the facts of the
death. The simple question is to consider
whether the respondent is guilty. The de-
fense will show that she acted the same as
any wife under those circumstances. Her
statements have been made frankly and
fully. Getchell and Trask were fast friends
from boyhooi. 1t will be shown that there
has never been anything improper between
Trask and the respondent. Trask was not
a good provider and Getche1l was. He was
also the father of the respondents child.
Could there have been any motive for her
to give him strychnine? He urged upon the
jury the need of great carefulness in the
case of such serious crime. The conviction
carries with it awf consequences. Well
may it be written over a murderer's cell, |
'He returns not who enters here Before |
conviction there must be excluded all the |
hypothesis. Much of the Testimony, as to
infidelity would be disproved The re-
spondent can give no explanation further
than to furnish more facts that would give |
the jury an insight into the exact eircum- |
stances of the tragedy
The first witness for the defense was |
the examination. Lincoln testified that
Mrs Getchell did not lie on the lounge with |
Trask the night when Mary Whitney said |
she did.
Henry Lyon, into whose cottage it was said |
I rask anu Mrs. Getchell went at Ocean |
"