The news & observer., 1905-12-06
Mathews Listens StoIidIy
to the Evidence.
HORRIBLE STORY TOLD
As the Witnesses Give Their Testimony
Mathews Shows No Emotion Save
That Revealed by the Perspira-
tion That Gathers in Beads
on His Brow.
on His Brow.
Especial to News and observer.)

Especial to News and Observer
Greensboro, n. c., Dec. 5.-At two
o'clock today after hearing for four
hours evidence of witness for the
prosecution, Mayor Murphy, in the
case of DR.. j. b. Matthews, charged
with wife murder remanded him to
jail to await the action of the grand
jury at next weeks term of Superior
court
The defendant introduced no evil
dence, seeming totally Indifferent to
the proceedings having nothing to
say or suggest to his counsel, speak
ing once or twice to his father be-
side him and frequently wiping with
his gloved hand beads of perspiration
from his brow.
Doctors Farrar, Turner and Brooks
who reached the house at eleven
o'clock and remained all day, stated
that Mrs. Mathews was suffering from
an overdose of morphine, and that
DR.. Mathews explanation that she
had taken strychnine was bound to
be untrue: that they had nearly re-
stored her to consciousness when at
five o'clock they caught DR.. Mathews
with a syringe in his hand under the
coverlet in the act of injecting some
thing. which proved to be strychnine;
that in twenty minutes she showed
every symptom of this poison, dying
in two hours.
Br. Brooks said this was the i'm
mediate cause of death. hut she
would have died anyway, while Drs.
Farrar and Turner declare it was the
strychnine that Killed her.
All tod of efforts of Mathews dur
ing the afternoon when his wife was
thought to be recovering to get them
out of the room on one preteXt or
another. the last time pretending to
be praying.
DR.. Turner described DR. Mathews
actions as those Of a man in full pos
session of his mental faculties, having
i'm his opinion, taken sufficient drug
to nerve him to a desperate deed.
He said Mathews held several private
interviews with him, making propo-
sails even after his wife's death, as to
certificate of death from heart dis
ease and no mention of other circum-
stances. which they all spurned; that
after her death the doctors told
Mathews father and brother he
should be locked up as he was in
a mood to kill not only himself, but
others.
DR.. Mathews said that he came
home Thursday night from Durham.'
and going into the bath room hung
his coat on the rack. I'm the pocket
was a vial of 100 strychnine tablets.
His wife, when he came out of the
bath room was sn the act of swallow
ing part of them, at least fifty.
Within a few minutes she was suffer-
ing so ne began giving morphine as
an antidote. From eleven O'Clock that
night until Captain Gipman came
next morning, he had sat by her and
then neighbors had sent for doctors.
He said that she was respondent be-
cause her people and his, she thought.
hated her.
Testimony in Detail.
The court house was crowded to its
utmost capacity this morning when
Mayor Murphy began the investiga-
ton of the charge of wife murder
against DR.. j. b. Mathews. The pris-
oner was in better plight than yester-
day BY his side sat mis- father and
his brother from Durham. his coun :
sci, Major Guthrie and Mr.. a w
Cooke. He looked straight ahead
during the whole terrible ordeal OF
listening to the most revolving and m
credible portrayal of his actions dur
ing that fateful Friday OF last week.
Never have more eminent or more
reputable witnesses been called upon
to tell of more desperate and criml-
nal tragedy than was told this morn
ing and this afternoon During it all
Mathews sat, looking straight ahead,
once in while speaking aside to his
father, and often rubbing his kid
gloved hands over his brow on which
clustered great beads of perspiration
He never spoke to his lawyers or
noticed them. sitting bolt upright be-
hind them, while they piled the ply
sicianS and other witnesses with queS-
tions on cross examination.
The Story OF Gipman.
The revelations today were worse
than had been previously told or be-
lieyed. The Pullman car conductor,
who runs between Richmond and
Greensboro and Raleigh, Captain jas
i. Gipman, of Richmond, was the
first witness telling of having called
at the Mathews residence at $3.50 on
Friday morning. being intimate with
the family. Doctor Mathews, in a
staggering condition met him at the
door and asked him in the parlor. He
first began to talk about. his wife's not
being liked by his people or her peo-
pie whom she felt hated her He then
began to talk about not having slept
any in three nights, and was very eX-
cited.
He wanted to talk about family
troubles until ! told him to stop and
not to do so now or at any time with
me- Then he said his wife was UP
stairs then very sick, having taken
50 30-100 grains strychnine the night
before to kill herself. but he had been
working on her since eleven o'clock
the night before and thought he had