The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-04-04
A Chain of
Circumstance

Sam Clendenin had fancy for the
science Of medicine When be was at
the proper age 10 study he had not the
means. When he got the means he
considered himself teo old
Sam wooed and won Anna Guernsey.
One afternoon he called on her and
found her suffering with a headache,
accompanied by fever He induced her
to permit him TO bring her some pow
ders In the evening. On his way to
his room he stopped at a drug store
where be was very much at home. and.
the druggist having gone 70 dinner
leaving boy Ia charge, sam made up |
the powders himself and after dinner
took them to his fianceo and gave her
enc. In ten minutes there was a hurry I
call for a doctor, a pump was inserted (
in Annals stomach. and among other i
things arsenic was brought up The |
two remaining powders were found to
be harmless. Anna recovered, and /
Sam was arrested.
The case excited q great deal Of at /
tention. the newspapers spurred on the
authorities to make sure Of ClendeA
in's conviction, and the prosecuting at
terney made zip his mind to win rep
utation by hanging him Before the
trial came or the attorney had eonclu
sive evidence that sam had already
been married to Anna Guernsey and
was interested iii getting her out Of the
way that he might marry q fortune
The lawyer failed to entrap Anna into
acknowledging the marriage, but Am
mas mother. who was a firm believer
in Sans guilt, signed statement Civ
ing certain circumstances that had led
her 10 believe her daughter had been
secretly married. When all the evi
dance was ready there was no other
conclusion to be drawn from Il than
that Sam had tried to poison his wife
for d purpose. There was no written
evidence against him worth mention
ing, but witnesses in plenty to prove
the motive. Indeed the bare fact of
his bringing three powders, taking
care that the two he did not admins
Ter should be harmless was quite
enough to prove a case Of attempted
poisoning. one faw iii the chain Of
circumstances pointing to sans guilt
was not taken account Of, and that
was that sum was not fool Only
fool would give q person arsenic. for It
IS sare 70 be found wherever il Is
placed. But murderers usually SUES
prise us 10 leaving some door wide
open for their conviction
When the case was called the prose
cutting attorney introduced ample evil
dence 10 prove that Sam Clendenin had
been guilty of one Of the most diaboli-
cal murders on record. The defense
brought forth absolutely nothing to
show that ne had not poisoned Anna
Guernsey except that he had always
borne an irreproachable character.
This. however. was met by witnesses
who swore that Sam had been seen by
them III gambling and drinking saloons
frequently for months prior to the
attempted murder.
Just before the case was closed the
defense introduced new witness,
Thomas Biggs, detective. whose state
nent Questions of the attorney omit
ted was as follows:
son Dec. IL I was called to investi-
gate the following case. Mr.. Anthony
seymour had the evening before dined
at the Excelsior Chop and Oyster
House. He had hung Up his ogercoat
with $500 IN one Of its pockets. and on
reaching home found the money gone
was given an incomplete list Of those
who dined at the same time and pro
ceeded to get clew. On examining
M seymour's overcoat found In Z
corner of one of the pockets tins
package done up III a leaf evidently
torn from a memorandum book. Mr.
Seymour declared that no such pack
age was in his pocket At the time q
the robbery and J at once concluded
that there had been an exchange o
coats. The cont was a ready made on
az Parnum a Emke's. who had sold ;
great number Of the same pattern dur
ing tho previous autumn. There dine,
1T the same restaurant on the sam
evening. each wearing one Of thos
coats. Anthony Seymour, Joseph Mil
Ter and the prisoner Seymour's Goa
was stolen and has not been recovered
Seymour put on the prisoners coal
which the thief doubtless removed I
seymour's peg. and the prisoner pu
on Millers coat by mistake. Mile
had that evening purchased two pow
ders by prescription for his sick chill
and one Of arsenic to kill cat. III
label poison had not been well paste
on the arsenic and Miller havin
oDened the package on his way to lib
restaurant to see that it was all RICH
dropped the label without noticing th
loss
erhe prisoner left with Miller's pow
dcrs and happened to give Miss Gueri
sey the arsenic powder Here is
lnaf frntn tho nrIsoners memorandum