Evening journal., 1897-05-10
Young Man Wanted as a Witness
Dies Suddenly.
TO APPEAR AGAINST HIS FATHER.
He Had Taken His Mothers Part In Di-
vorce Proceedings and Was to Have
Testified In Perjury Case
Arising Therefrom.


tory grounds. was further complicated
by the sudden death of his son, who
died at midnight Saturday, 1t is be-
lieved, from poisoning. The case Is Just
now the sensation Of Norwich and Pres
ton and in fact of all eastern Con-
necticut.
Ransom S. Sholes is a character, a
typical hard. crusty, coarse, rough and
ready money making farmer peculiar
to the sterile hill towns Of southern New
England. lie is between 80 and GO years
old.
it was about a year or a year and
half ago that a strange woman, calling |
herself Emily Turpie who was neither
very young nor middle aged, who had |
a handsome face, a prepossessing man
her came TO the Ransom Sholes dwell |
ing and applied for the position OF |
housekeeper there. Ransom seemed to /
be smitten with her appearance at |
once and engaged her for the place |
without consulting with his wife about |
the matter at all.
About six weeks ago Sholes intro
duced a petition into the superior court |
of the county praying for a divorce |
from his wife on statutory grounds, by
naming as correspondent one Herbert
MacAllister. a 19-year-old lad
Sholes regularly appeared In court
and in accord with the loose and lax
divorce statutes of the state of Connect
icut had no difficulty in obtaining a
legal separation from his Worn and
faithful wife. In fact, the action was
carried through with a rush.
sholes got his divorce papers regu
larly and promptly enough, and his
wife went forth from the homestead
which had been her home for forty
years without a word
stood by His Mother.
Her youngest son, Ebenezer, % years
old stood by his mother faithfully, re-
sisting his fathers divorce proceedings
so far as he was able and striving TO
right her wrongs. Moreover, Il was
through his energetic efforts. about two
weeks after the divorce had been
granted to his father. that he procured,
through a superior court judge, an or
der directing State Attorney solomon
Lucas Of this county 20 Investigate
| the circumstances under which the di-
vorce had been granted. Mr.. Lucas be-
! gan an investigation at once. and the
result of his inquiry was that he was
enabled to provide Judge Elmer of the
superior court with evidence which led
him to declare the divorce iagrantly
unjust and void.
In the course Of his investigation the
state attorney met with many suspi-
cious circumstances in the case. and the
upshot of it all was that he promptly
put detectives on the track of Emily
Turpie, who had suddenly quilted the
Sholes home and gone to her town place
in New London. and these men, after
shadowing her for some time procured
evidence that led Mr.. Lucas TO have her
arrested on the charge of perjury In the
Sholes divorce suit. Presently she was
released, however. on a bond of $1,000
furnished by George II. Pratt. Next
came Herbert MacAllister's turn, who
was also accused of perjury through
his admission of his relations with Mrs.
Sholes. He was arrested, too, and be-
ing unable to obtain bail he was lodged
IN the Norwich jail where he now Is.
But the sensation Of the early part Of
the week was the arrest of Ransom s.
Sholes himself. who was charged by
State Attorney Lucas with subornation
of perjury, the allegation being that he
had engaged and paid both Mrs. Turpie
and MacAllster to testify falsely in en-
ablng him TO obtain his divorce. No
one had believed that Ransom Sholes
could be brought thus easily TO book,
and his arrest was tremendous SUR
| prise to the domineerlng and arrogant
| Preston farmer However. he promptly
obtained bail IN $500 through the same
George II. Pratt. wholesale liquor deal
er Of this city, who had released Mrs
Turpie from durance.
The sons sudden Death.
SO the case Of Ransom Sholes stood
until Saturday. Then it was changed
completely through the sudden and
mysterious death at midnight of his
son, Ebenezer Sholes. who was toe
chief and most effective witness against
his father in the perjury proceedings
Of the latter's divorce suit. Ebenezer
who had stood faithfully by his moth
er, naturally was lot agreeable to his
father or TO Mrs. Emily Turpie.
: At u o'clock Saturday night ne was
taken suddenly and singularly ill. anf
in about an hour, Notwithstanding IA
efforts of physicians hastily summon
ed from Norwich, Drs. George and Or
rim f. Harris, he died I'm agony anC
commissions The circumstances Of hi
? death were peculiar, and all the mex
day Coroner Frank II. Brown, Medi
cal Examiner PardoGlS. State AttoTne!
Lucas and the Drs. Harris have beer
J. making an examintion of the case. Dr
PardOck and the Drs. Harris made al
? autopsy of the remains which shove,
that the young mans lungs and braii
= were badly congested, indicating al
abnormal cause of death. and Dr
= George Harris said that there wa
strong reason 10 believe that he ha
8 died from the effect Of a virulent poison
= state Attorney Lucas was noncom
d; municative, but It was plain from hi
manner that he considers the case I
s be a most serious one. Young Ebe
nezer Sholes was delegated to tcstif
= in the perjury suit against his fathe
that was to be tried tomorrow. Aft
l. er the autopsy the stomach Of youn
Sholes was removed. and that orgai
% together with its contents, was foI
warded to DR.. Smith, the famous ana
lytical chemist Of New Haven for
Genealogical examination.
Every one in eastern Connecticut
acquainted with Ransom. Sholes an
4 his family, and probably there nevo
was a case of the kind that caused