Birmingham state herald., 1897-07-10


 time when the mother worked in this town for -$4t or $5 a week or month, l don't remember which.
 I then went back to the undertaker's s establsshnient and talked to some gentle men there and they told me if they were in my place sttfey would have the matter investigated thoroughly
 MT. Owens affd T then went before the probate,ju judge, and after laying the mat ter before him he said l. was matter for nYestiga.tion, and =vidsn.ly a dirty piece of business and should be looked into. I returned to the nndertaker's and found out that the. coroner had decided to hold an autopsy on the. child the next morning at g o'clock.
 Al, g o,eloois tn; next morning I ap- peared at the. undertaker's establishment by agreement with the coroner and found him there. He told me he wanted me to g'st- the witnesses in the case together, and for me to gosimmediately home and get all of the medicine and bring it there to him. l did SO. l gave them to ;he cor oner and he told me to place them on the u11d rtalper.s desk near he front door. There, ihf medicine was inspected by sev- er1I dfsinterekfed parties The handling of the, medicine grew SO promiscuous that I went to MT. Leslie and asked him to put that medicine away; that if there was anything wrong with it everyone should not be allowed 10 handle it. He told me
 
 charge 0asldsthat she would attsn nd to it. I went to the coroner and repe ated the re- quest made to MT. Leslie, but he did not h lave it put away at that time.
 The coronar called up several physicians and. Dts. Gillespie and Wilder said they would come and hold an autopsy. This was about 10 o'clock. A News reporter got hold of me and tried to draw facts from me-. .bHts5sfieeided hat it was best for me to only give the date of the child s rlIfxA Tza fused to. say any thing further until after an inquest was held. A Ledger reporter then got hold of me. Coroner Burkhal.er .Jel}ing me to lay the facts before him, 'sskv4ffch I did.
 < Ahaut 1:90 o'clock Dr. Gillespie ar- rived, after Coroner Burkhalter had re- lased the jury whom he had summoned and sworn in until the following Monday
 The.ehild died on Monday at 6:55 D. m., was brought co eoatife1undertaker's on Tues daySat 4 P nIss the. jury was summoned its6 peaf anssW Wednesday,; were no. sworn in, ,eh1tsa djeHrned sby the coroner until tlfe Following storisiay.
 ' fsor0fief BHrKhaNsr then left the estab- HSflnleuH aandaawaS.gons probably thirty minutes aeT4essretarned and asked if Dr. Gillespie s1ad'cuffe He was informed that he had ii9t~'. IT ha- Child was becoming so offensive-thaL,AIr. Miller pressed Cor enereBurloha ltef-be have the autopsy held without delay The coroner pointed to the Sphone andeIold MT. Miller to tale- phone and see if he could get Drs. Giles pie and Wilder. which MT. Miller did. The coroner then asked the physicians to come. at once. Then coroner thsn left, asking me tarten the doctor if he needed any instructions to send for him. When the physician arrived he said he would rather have thes coronsr there. I went for him~and returned with him. After ths-asa.eFsy the stomach and liver were pfdced in a bottle of alcohol. The cor oner then said he wanted the medicine locked up.s s..e-
 On Wednesday the witnesses were pres ent and the coroner went into the inv stI- gation. After the investigation ;he jur- orss informed the coroner that he had not sworn them in. When the verdict was rendered the coroner demanded that l sign the verdict. I did not see where l came in on the verdict. but signed the paper as required, Just before signing the Ts1'dict the jurors were sworn in