The San Francisco call., 1898-09-10
Detectives Ready to Present the Case Against Mrs. Cor
 della BOtkin.
How One Structure of Facts Has Been Erected Out of the Ruins of Another.
 An Extraditon MuddIe.

The serious labor of the police in gath ering evidence against Mrs. Cordelia Bot
 kin is practically over, although the au-
 thorfties still entertain vague hope that
 they will be able to supply the missing
 facts that are so necessary to the com
 pletion of their case Detectives are still making a desultory investigation, but
 there Is neither method nor direction in
 their work, and If anything new be dis
 covered 1t will be by accident and not
 the result of design. The Chief of Po-
 lice is engaged in collecting for presenta-
 ton to the Governor the testimony he
 has at his command The District At
 torney Is reading what there Is or law
 on the complicated subject of extradi-
 ton and speculating on what the law does not discuss. When the affidavits of the physicians and the Coroner of Dover arrive, Governor Budd will listen to the arguments for and against eXtrAdition.
 AS the evidence of the prosecution now stands. 1t Is. far from being In that con-
 dition which does not suggest a doubt of the accused woman's guilt. There are
 many missing links In the chain that must establish guilt before conviction may be secured The authorities have traced many circumstances and de- veloped the existence of many facts that Mrs. Botkin must certainly explain, but
 
 of guilt, upon which 1t rests, very in- distinct. The police will begin the pre- sentation of their case by showing the illicit relationship that existed between Mrs. Cordelia Botkin and John P. Dun- ming.
 It will be shown that Mrs. Botkin was greatly infatuated with Dunning and jealous enough to make Cunning believe that she might do him some injury. He Nxrtl hot Doth yi .1<NrY- of his wife and sought to make him give her up. The anonymous letters written from this city to Mrs. Cunning a year ago will be introduced for a double pur- pose-to connect Mrs. Botkin with the poisoned box Of candy and to show that for year she planned and schemed to get Mrs. Dunmng out of the way, either through the divorce court or a more fatal avenue out of life itself.
 The handwriting expert of the Chief of Police will give his opinion that Mrs. Bot kin wrote the anonymous letters and the address on the box of candy. John F. Dunnlng will express the same opinion. It will be shown that Cunning wrote to Mrs Botkin after his departure from this city and informed her that he intended to break his relations with ter and re- turn to his neglected wife. All of this will be no more than the preliminary steps in the case, the foundation of probabilities upon which to erect structure of proof, however 2TS strong or weak 1t may be-
 The purchase of two ounces of arsenic be the first important fact directly point ing toward the accused woman. This pur- chase was made on June l, and is frankly later, the authorities will show that Mrs. Botkin, while ill at Stockton. discussed the efficacy of arsenic as an agent of death. She jocularly declared at the time that she contemplated suicide. On the following day Mrs. Botkin came to this city. The police have attempted to fol- failed to do so. They have traced the box of candy and the handkerchief, but they cannot prove beyond doubt that Mrs. Botkin was the purchaser.
 Two girls, Sylvia Heney and Kate Dett- ner, are sure that the box was bought on the afternoon of July 3l, and they are fairly accurate in describing Mrs. Bot kin as the purchaser. But they cannot identify the accused woman beyond the question of a doubt. At this stage of the presentation of the case of the police condition of affairs will have to be ex- plained by the authorities. It will be remembered that the police announced that the box of candy had been bought The clerks described Mrs. Botkin as the purchaser They told how she looked and how she acted. They gave a recital of her requests for special box without the manufacturers name. They told how she asked the clerk not to fill the box but to leave space for another present.
 
 had been bought at Stockton, and since Mrs. Botkin was in that town at tie time she, Of course, was the purchaser All that was left was to bring her face to face with the clerks and note her con- sternation as she was identified and In the Identification condemned. But in an instant the whole structure of proof crashed to the ground. The box was bought at the establishment of George Haas in this city.
 The police were forced to begin all over used the splintered fragments of the old Fact by fact was duplicated in the two proofs. A woman answering the descrip- tion, of Mrs. Botkin had bought box of the description of Mrs. Botkin had bought box of candy from George Haas The purchaser at Stockton had asked that space be left in the box for another pres ent.. The purchaser in San Francisco made the same request. She who ap- peared at the Wave store in Stockton the purchase in this city made the same demand
 Yet the police admit that the woman who operated in Stockton was not Mrs. Botkin, and knew absolutely nothing of the Dunning tragedy. From the stand point of the police themselves. two women, with nothing in common, with no same scene at the same time in different towns widely separated. Either the clerks at Stockton or the interesting young laQleS employed Dy N1SOTB6 I1ddS, UT per haps the astute assistants of the Chief, have proved too much.
 When this suspicious looking bridge has been crossed the prosecution will show that handkerchief was bought at the City of Paris on the afternoon of August g, and that Mrs. Botkin cashed money order in that store on that afternoon. A handkerchief similar to that purchased was sent in the box of poisoned candy. In defense Mrs. Botkin will probaoly show that there were others in the store that afternoon, and that no one saw her buy such handkerchief Another fact of importance that will be established has not yet been discussed. The police have made the most thorough search of Mrs. Botkin's effects. They have ransacked her apartments, but they have failed to Aud a handkerchief in any way similar to that which was sent to the unfortunate women at Dover.
 It Is in this condition that the prosecu- ton must present Its case before Cover nor Budd or before any tribunal com potent to try Mrs. Botkin for her life. Or the other hand. the accused woman needs only to present the legal argu-- ments her attorneys have collected against the plea for extraditton. When her defense Is presented four distinct ele ments will play conspicuous part. The grctesque Stockton episode will serve to throw suspicion on the methods of the police Mrs. Lena Rothkuff, whose strange story was published exclusively