The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-05-18
TABLET NUMBER FIVE.
The Story Of a Remarkable Murder
and How the Truth About 1t Came
Out.

Out.
From the New Orleans Times. Democrat.
The story was told by a police COM
missioner of another city who was in
New Orleans recently on a visit.
THE most ingenious murder 1 ever
knew anything about" he said "was
committed by young physician. He
was rising practitioner at a place
where formerly lived, and, with your
permission, will speak of him sim.
ply as DR.. Smith. About a dozen
years ago, as nearly as 1 remember,
this young man went on visit to a
relative in a neighboring city, and one
afternoon, on the third or fourth day
of his stay, he startled a lady mem
ber OF. the household by remarking
that he had feeling that some mis-
fortune had overtaken a wealthy plan
ter whom they both knew very we'll,
and whom l will call Colonel Jones.
The colonel was a prominent resident
of the Doctors home town and had a
large outlying estate, which he was
in the habit of visiting once a week.
On the day of Smiths singular pre-
monition he was on one of those tours
of inspection, but failed to come back,
and the following morning his corpse
was found lying in a cornfield. He
had evidently been dead about twenty
four hours, and from the appearance
of the body seemed to have been seiz-
ed with some sort of fit or convulsion.
"Of course the affair created a great
stir, and the police made a pretty
thorough investigation, but the only
thing they found that merited any
special attention was a small, round
vial in the dead mans vest pocket.
1t was about the diameter of a lead
pencil by four inches long, and had
originally contained a couple of dozen
medicinal tablets, which, lying one
on top Of the other, filed the little
bottle to the cork. A few still remain
ed in ;he bottom. Upon inquiry it was
learned without trouble that the tab
let's We're a harmless preparation of
soda, and that Jones himself had
bought them at local drug store.
That ended suspicion in that quarter,
and, for lack of anything better, the
coroner returned a verdict of death
from sunstroke. There was no au-
toDsy.
Some time after Jones had been
| buried" continued the police commits
soner, II learned accidentally of DR.,
Smiths curious prophecy, and 1t set
me to thinking. Eventually I evolved
theory, but 1t was impossible at
the time to sustain 1t with proof, and
for five or six years I kept it pigeon
| holed in my brain, waiting for some-
thing to happen. Meanwhile, to every
| body's surprise, DR.. Smith went to the
dogs He began by drinking heavily,
gradually lost his practice. and finally
| skipped 10 avoid prosecution for CASH
| ing a fake draft. After his fight /
| learned enough to absolutely confirm
my theory as to Jones' death. What
| had really happened was this:
"Dr. Smith owed the old man a con-
| siderable sum of money and had given
a note, upon which he had forged his
| fathers name as indorser. The planter
was pressing him for payment and had
threatened suit, which meant newt
able exposure. One day, while they
were conversing, Jones pulled out a
| little glass vial and swallowed one of
the tablets 1t contained, remarking that
he took one daily, after dinner, for sour
stomach. That suggested a diabolicaI
scheme of assassination, which the doc
tor pfOceeueu 10 put lillO SAeCullOU.
Repairing to his office, he made up a
| duplicate tablet of strychnine, and, en-
countering the colonel next day, asked
him to let him have the vial for a mo-
ment, so he could copy the address OF
| the makers from the label Jones hand
ed it over unsuspectingly, and while
his attention was briefly diverted else
where Smith put in the prepared tab
| let. He placed ii under the top four
| thus making it reasonably certain that
| his victim would take 1t on the fifth
! day from that date. Next morning he
| left town, so as to be far away when
the tragedy was consummated, and
some mysterious, uncomfortable im-
pule evidently led him to make the
prediction that first excited my sus-
piclon. When / made certain of all
this, / located Smith in Oklahoma and
was on the point of applying for an
extradition warrant, when he anticl-
pated me by contracting pneumonia
and dying. I thereupon returned the
case to it's mental pigeon-hole. where
1t has remained ever since"
Pardon me for asking" said one OF
the listeners, "but is that really.a true
story, or are you entertaining us with
interesting fiction?"
''It is absolutely true" replied the
narrator.
But how did you learn the particu,
lars?"