The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-19
POISON IN THE MAILS
HOW UNCLE SAM IS MADE TO ASSIST
THE MODERN MURDERERS.
The Historic Case of DIR. Graves Out
BOtkin aud Mrs. Adams.
Detroit Free Press.

| poisOHlnS as one OF the l0SI arts. Iney re-
fer to Lucretia Borgia, the Sparta, Nine. De
Brinvilliers and Blanca Capello as if they
had carried their formulas as secrets to
their graves and had left no hints behind
to guide woud-be imitators in the prepara-
ton of the Aqua Toffana or the Mamma of
| ST. Nicholas de Bari, the Installations with
which they so successfully summoned death
to relieve them of such persons as were OBJ
| jectonable to them.
The stories of the subtle use of such
| preparations by the Borgias, or of Nine
| De Brinvilliers's experiments on the patients
in the hospital, are typical of the age when
women poisoned as they smiled, but they
/ do not prove that the present day criminal
is any less deft in the handling of these
| mysterious destroyers of life.
The secret prisoners of the fifteenth CEN
! fury were sl1ilful without a doubt and they
| surrounded their work with a certain air
| of mystery that was made possible by the
conditions of the times, but the prisoners
of the nineteenth century administer their
| drugs even more cleverly. And the fact that
we have no Voisns and Filastis to make a
business of poisoning people by the whole
! sale for hire is due to our modern methods
! Of detection Of crime which make such a
! as artistic prisoners to-day and they have
| found in the mail one of the most adroit
methods of administering death to the UNI
/ fortunate victim of their arts.
The poisoning Of Mrs. Kate J. Adams a
few days ago in New York was a striking
illustration of the power of poisons and
with it's predecessor-the Botkn case of
| California-furnishes ample evidence on
which to base the assertion that the secret
| poisoner is not alone a fifteenth century in
! stitution. The poisoning of Mrs Adams and
! the killing of Mrs. Dunning and Mrs. Deane.
| the crime for which Mrs. Cordelia A. Bot
/ kin is now serving life sentence in Cali
| fornia, We're strangely analogous. In each
| instance the poisoner sent the death-dealing
| drug under the guise of a friendly gift, and
| In each instance the poisoner concealed
! Identity by making use of the United States
! mails. The box of poisoned chocolates with
which Mrs Botkin proposed to take the life
| Of the wife of the man she loved was mailed
! IN San FRANCISCO and the arsenic did its
/ deadly work in Dover, Del.
THE ADAMS CASE
In the Adams case the package of bromo-
settler in the silver bottle holder was
| dropped into the mail box at an out-of-the-
way substation in New York and few
days later Mrs. Adams was dead, killed by
the cyanide Of mercury that had been so
| skillfully mixed with the harmless remedy
In each case the murderer was actuated by
malignant passion, but was clever enough
to realize that the postoffice provided the
safest method of reaching the victim with
the most reasonable certainty of success.
30 the deadly drugs were dispatched on
! their fatal mission and the success of these
attempts to Kill at a distance has given the
| press of the entire continent topic of dis
| cusSlon for weeks past
successful as they were in making the
| government furnish the facilities for their
crime neither Mrs. Botkin nor the muir
derer Of Mrs. Adams can claim any origi-
manly IN the dispatches OF death through
/ the mail. Nearly eight years ago a Provi-
Gemce' X: l.; physician made use of this
same method of accomplishing a murder
I ana SO successful was he that it was only
| with the greatest difficulty that the crime
| was traced back to him. The murders that
ny n9aV9 atttffaceed 50 much attention during
! I Inc past few weeks and the killing of Mrs.
| Josephine A. Barnaby by DR.. r. Thatcher
| graves were so similar that it Is strange
! tlat they have not recalled the famous old
case TO public notice. Eight years ago the
mysterious poisoning was the chief topic
! or interest and the phrase, Death in the
mail was on every tongue.
Mrs. BarEaby was the widow of proni-
nenl and wealthy Rhode Island clothier J
Is. Barnaby. DR. Graves was not only her
| physician but her confidential business adj
wiser When Mr. Barnaby died and the wife
! received her portion of the estate she DIaced
! the money in the hands of DR. Graves for
! Investment and shortly afterwards upon his
! advice went to the West hoping that the
bracing air Of Colorado would help her to
ASt7oih ilti StidttGG6U Ne3tIn. with her
companion, was Mrs Edward S. Worrell,
| OF Chester Pa.
THE POISONED WHISKY.
Some time after Mrs. Barnaby's arrival in
Denver she received package in the mail.
1t was a bottle containing liquor, a large.
oddly-shaped bottle, and on the label was
written, with best wishes. Accept this fine
old whisky from your friends in the woods. /"
/ Ihere was nothing about the package to
attract suspicion. for Mrs. Barnaby had
friends in the Adirondacks of whom she al
ways spoke as her friends in the woods. >
and she never imagined that the gift had
| not come from them
1t was April and few DAVIS later = cold
rain set in. On the 18th the bottle was
opened and twenty-four hours later Mrs
| Worreil was at the point of death and
Mrs. Barnaby was dead. The police inves-
| LEGATIONS showed that the whisky contained
large quantity of arsenite of sodium.
!hen followed the long search for the
| criminal. The poisoner had covered his
tracks well and DIR. Graves was one of the
most urgent in demanding that no effort
! be spared to apprehend the guilty person
| Gradually, however suspicion centered
/ upon him. In spite of the fact that he was
! q prominent physician with a large practice
! the police We're unable to discover any other
/ person who could have wished for her death
When Mrs. Barnaby's will was read if
was found that she had left him a large
sum OF money and as irregularities in the
! management Of her estate were unearthed
the authorities were satisfied that their
suspicious were correct. Up to this time
| however, there had been no positive facts
! on which TO base this opinion and DIR,
/ Graves might never have been arrested if
! Charles r. Lincoln reporter of the Boston
Herald, had not discovered that when a
! younS man the physician had been the
! maker of a patent medicine
! lie Immediately instituted a search for a
| bottle of the remedy AS it had not been
! On the market for years this was no simple
! task, hut when at last the medicine had
| Deen found, and it was seen that the bottle
| IN which II was contained correSponded wit h
| the strangely shaped bottle in which the
| poisoned whisky had been sent to Denver ii
| was not difficult TO secure sufficient evil
| Dr. Graves had neglected the details of his
| work and the things that had seemed hut
! triVlaltticS proved his undoing He was
/ taken TO Colorado, where he was tried con-
| Victed and sentenced to be hanged hut he
at last escaped the death penalty on the
! sanold by killing himself with the poison
| that he knew so well how to use II is
| supposed that the drug was taken to him nv
| someone who was permitted to visit him in
! his cell. -
So ended the first great murder mystery
in which the crime had been committed
With the assistance of the postal service
and neither the Botkin case nor the New
York poisoning have caused as much ex-
citement that which resulted from the
discovery Of the fact that the transmission
Of death through the mail was a compara-
lively easy matter.
Where.