The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-26
TIE MISSING MAN n a. .!!:!::' mn |
Sa2a@S2a2ASAaS a6aGGESEI1S

from justice, disguised to appear a
nalf-witted workman; forgot he had a
Wl1e already, the beautiful Lenora
Ashley, who had chung to him, as some
women will, through evil as we'll as
good report; or if he did not forget
II, he put these considerations one side,
ana set himself to win the notice of
Mrs. Hamilton by Watching her Win
doWs, playing the violin, winning the
love of her little boy, and various other
articles likely to work upon the heart
and imagination of a woman like Mrs
Hamilton.
She, from the first, professed to see
a resemblance in Primus Edes to her
husband, and, no doubt, he heard of
II. But he made no use of this idea
until after the return of her husband
and he was warned not to go near
the premises of the Hamiltons. Then
he shot himself one morning on those
very premises with a pistol, without
doubt stolen from Dan Fry, in the
hopes of its being laid to Mr.. Hamil-
Ton. All the cry about Solomon Marks
by the learned counsel for the prose-
cutlon is of no account whatever 1t
mas not been proved that he was in
town that day at ALL and, if so, that
ne had an opportunity for possessing
himself of the pistol. But Edes did
for he lived in the house with Dan
Fry, and he had sufficient motives for
the act. He wished to make it appear
that he was shot by Mr. Hamilton,
and the wound on his head-a slight
one-was to be the groundwork of his
CLAIMS; for no doubt, he planned the
whole scheme of villainy before the
shooting of himself.
Mrs. Hamilton did not go near him.
Indeed, she was prudent from the first.
but when Mrs. Fry went for her to
quiet her patient, who she thought was
wider than ever in his rawlings, Mrs.
Hamilton went over. EdeS claimed her
as his wife the moment she entered
the room, and she did not gainsay him.
Inc next thing was to lay
claim to the Hamilton estates
But before this, nearly two weeks
before the shooting, he sent the pois-
oned ring to his wife to remove her
from his path. The letter was signed
Henry Ashley and was a loving ten
der missive that would have deceived
any woman. She wore the ring a
few days and died. There was so
much talk about the matter that it led
to disinterment of the remains, when
it was found that she had really been
poisoned"
Mr.. Stone then explained the Pc
culiarities of many poisons, so potent
and subtle in their action as to almost
equal the wonders in tales told to
charms condensed in the necroman-
GERS phials. Such, he said, was in use
in the Middle Ages, when poisoned
rings were given to people of high
rank whose mental integrity was con-
sidered dangerous to the despot in
power; and such a ring, he claimed,
had been sent to Lenopa, for it was
well known in the circles of medical
science that many of these rings had
survived, and come down to our day as
curious reminders of past wickedness.
He then mentioned the initials H A
on the linen of the claimant, and the
attempt to prove the articles had been
given him a fallacious. He spoke of
the absurdity of thinking that, had the
defendant been really Ashley, he would
have thrust his head into the lions
mouth by coming to Grovedale and
taking possession of another's estates,
When he was already so we'll known
to the police as it was proved that
Henry Ashley was. There was no ade-
quate motive for such a suicidal act.
With EdeS it was different. Edes was
in love; and there was a powerful mo-
tive-powerful enough to make him
forget even great danger in his hopes
of success. The plea of insanity had
all the time been a ruse, the counsel
claimed, to avoid punishment and get
placed in an asylum, from which he
would more easily escape. The same
plea, united with that of great igno-
rance, served his purpose when he came
to Grovedale, and, no doubt, he would
not have cast it aside had it not been
for his passion for Mrs. Hamilton. But