The San Francisco call., 1897-11-21

which was to drive Piggot:, the chief wit.
ness, to exile and suicide, and turn the
august proceeding into a slanderous farce.
1t became obvious soon after the trial of
Mrs. May brick began that behind the
prosecution was some mystery. and tha
in the trial itself Justice Stephen was
preiudlced against her.
1t may be well to explain at this point
that the Judge had divorced his wife for
inndelity. He was a peculiarly erratic
man, soured and out of sorts with the
world at large, and especially severe upon
trail womankind.
only short time previous he had pub
Hshed in the Nineteenth Century Maga-
zine an extraordinary defense of atheism.
The Judges rulings throughout were
harsh and unfaVorable to the accused
The case against Mrs. May brick rested
upon expert testimony as to the presence
OF arsenic in the stomach OF the dead man
disclosed at the autopsy; testimony that
she had bought arsenic imm ediately prior
to her husbands death, and testimony
that she had lover to whom she was
devoted.
The inference drawn by the prosecution
an6 the court was that she wished to be
rid Of her husband to secure bis fortune
and marry her paramour. Her convic-
ton must be grounded in the hypothesis
OF the prosecution, inasmuch as the
evidence was correct in the three essential
particulars outlined. Conscious of her
own innocence, and despite OF the ad.
vice of her counsel, Sir Charles Russell,
now Lord Chief Justice of England, she
took the stand in her own defense.
Alas, her sef-a basement failed to touch
the heart of tbs Judge and only served 10
fortify mis- manifest intention to hang
her. She admitted her intimacy with tho
man Brieriy, but avowed that it was ap-
proved by her Neutrality-suspicious. assertion
without proof. She admitted that she
bought the arsenic May brick took imme'
diately prior to death, but asserted that
be was addicted to its use. She protested
her innocence before heaven.
The case was concluded with a mon strous
charge to the jury, in which Justice
Stephen convicted her as a self-confessed
murderess because she could be nothing
else as a self con fessed adulteress. The
jury prompt returned a verdict in keep
ing with the virtual command of the
court and she was sentenced TO be hanged.
Then it was that Bennett opened the
Herald batteries. Thirty-six hours later
the Herald appeared in the streets of Lon.
don with journalistic retrial of the case
that caused profound sensation. In the
interim vast amount of new evidence
had been procured by the enterpriaing
methods characteristic of American Jour
nalism.
Two "mysteriously disappeared" wit
nesses had been overhauled and inter
viewed, one in the mountains OF Wales,
the other in the Isle of Wight; drug
stores where Maybrick had often bought
arsenic had been located; demon stration
from the best chemical experts of Glas-
gov that the post m ortem proved May
brick TO have been habituated 10 the use
OF the drug was obtained; proof that the
deceased was the i'm becile and incurable
victim OF secret malady had been Sc
cured.
In short a mass of evidence was com.
piled by telegraph. which showed con-
clusively that Mrs. Maybrick, whatever
her faults. did not murder her husband.
On the contrary it was made quite plain
that she had been degraded by his hber-
tinism and vices.
An investigation of the personnel OF
the jury also disclosed the significant fact
that four OF the members were sggrisyed,