The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1904-04-30
THE DICKENS CASE
[Original.l

nls case.
81 can give you the case worked up
from the most remote clew." he said.
That's the Dickens case" g.
Tell me about It,"
Henry Dickens was a very rich old
man. He had a daughter who had
married against his will. n he was
supposed to have disinherited her.
Some one of several nephews and nleces
was supposed to be his heir. but no one
knew. One day he was found dead in
his bed with a bottle OF prussic acid
on the table beside him. A will was
found leaving a small part Of his for
tune to his daughter. the rest TO thar
liable institutions.
"Opinion was divided as TO whether
he had been poisoned or murdered The
daughters husband. Edward Clarke.
took charge of his effects Immediately.
and the first thing he did was to send
for me. | ooked through the house.
picking up a bit OF paper, a half
burned ma tch, a v~ial-anything. every
thing that might possibly furnish a
clew. In the kitchen | noticed some
white dust on the foor that looked rs
IL hour had been spilled and taken up.
leaving q trace. one of the servants
told me that q tin can of starch had
been left on a table the night before.
Ii was found where il had been left.
OF course | took the bottle of prussic
acid. almost surrounded with the label
on which was in big red letters the
word Poison over a skull n cross
bones.
II confess that after looking through
everything. including the private let
tiers and papers, l was as much at Il
loss where to begin as before | entered
upon my work. | did not suspect any
one. The daughter was very much cut
up over her fathers death, and her
: husband told me that he suspected
that the old mans death was
ed with an abortive attempt on the
part Of some one to get possession or
his property. Since the daughter and
son-in-law got only a small portion of
II. there was not sufficient interest To
implicate them.
The poison bottle / examined with a
: nagnifying glass. There were traces
} on 1t of something colorless; | could
not tell what. 1t might have been a
powder softened by moisture. took
c the bottle to a chemist and asked him
to analyze the substance on the label.
Taking Off a very small piece of the Ia
bel. he busted himself in his laboratory
while / waited.
There's starch in it, he said at
last.
".Starch? l repeated, thinking.
Starch? Where has starch turned up
y in this case? All, | have it! Professor.
there was some starch spilled on the
kitchen floor
Indeed? Well. Whoever spilled
that starch may have grasped the bot
tie of poison
"'Can you test for it OH the fingers
n of the dead MANI
Certainly
livery well. He is to be buried ut
= 8 o'clock. 1t is now 2. You had better
go ut once
HE did so, ! going with him and
waiting below while he went upstairs
to make the test. When he returned
he reported that there was no trace of
starch on the fingers of either hand.
-e $50 far, so good. Probably the dead
man had not held the bottle which he
d. was supposed to have used to commit
suicide, but some one else had held II
some one who had upset a tin can OF
starch in the kitchen. I went back
. with the professor to his laboratory.
E 81 will develop this label he said
with iodine and see what result We
get
"He did so, and n blue thumb and
two finger marks appeared. The par
where the two lower fingers had press
ed we bad torn away in the first test.
".Are the markings of the thumb ant
fingers of different people alikeT
asked
81 think not. Investigators In tina
IL line report that they are as different IA
the features of human faces
"I was now in a position to brin'
>, strong proof against any n | sus
pected. But unfortunately there wa
no especial reason TO distrust any one
" Half a dozen people had been in n
house within twelve hours before til
murder. | had taken n memorandum
of their names and on looking 1t owe
found no name OF IN n who coul'
have had the slightest interest in th
death of Mr.. Dickens. l Informed th
son-in-law Of the condition OF things
and he Immediately insisted on his an
his wife's thumbs and fingers being ex
il; amined. This was done. and they wer
r. found to be entirely unlike those o.
the bottle. From this time forward
had valuable suggestions from tn
le daughter as to those who possibl.
might have been trying to secure be
fathers fortune. There were six o
them. I called on each n separated
and examined the thumb and fingers
None of the marks agreed with thos
on the label.
ut was not till years afterward tina
q I finished the case. 1t was reported
--.I- L. 4 In nGrlIlIA 4