Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-10-26
PROF. FULTON A WITNESS.
In Albany Case Man Accused
of Poisoning Wife.

A sensational trial is in pro
gress in Albany this week in
which a heretofore highly re-
spected ,arpenter is accused o.
having attempted to poison his
wife. According to published
reports the motive is thought tc
have been the securing OF life
insurance money.
Prof Fulton of OAC is an inn
portant witness in the case. The
story is related in the Telegram
Wednesday as follows:
That she plainly saw her nus
band, Elmer E. Wagstaf, put
rat-poison in her cup of tea, and
then induced her daughter to
watch him the next morning as
he repeated the attempt to kill
her, was the story Mrs. Rachel
Wagstaff calmly related on the
witness stand yesterday after
noon before Judge Burnett in the
trial of her husband on a charge
of attempted poisoning. Her
testimony was sensational in the
extreme, but the defense main
tains that it is only an inproba-
BILE fiction wrought out in the in
sane jealously of very cratic
woman.
Mrs. Wagstaff explained her
custom of drinking cup of cold
tea every morning, brewing it
the evening before. She said
sometime in February the tea
"made her lips pucker'' when
she started to drink it and she
threw it away. Then she relat-
ed how on the evening of March
8 last, she found a package of
powdered rat-poison in her hus-
bands pocket when she was
placing clean handkerchief
there and, remembering the acid
taste of the tea before, grew sus-
picious. She then told how she
watched from hidden view
point the next morning and saw
her husband empty part of this
package in cup of tea which
stood on the stove.
II saw him walk to the center
of the room and stop and seem to
mediate a few minutes" she
said. ''Then he took out the
package and poured some in the
cup and stirred it with his finger.
ne walked away but again re-
turned and stirred the tea with
his finger"
That day, the witness stated,
she took the tea to DR.. w. H.
Davis to examine and asked her
daughter, Pearl LaPorte. to
watch Wagstaff tae next morn
ing. Vesta Conn, a friend of
Miss LaPorte's, stayed with her
that night, and the witness said,
both girls saw the defendant re-
peat the attempt the next morn
ing, March 10. This cup was
also taken to DR.. Davis aud Wag-
staf's arrest caused.
Professor John Fulton, of the
Oregon Agricu tural College,
was the first witness and told of
analyzing two bottles of tea last
March, which contained enor-
nous quantities of poison. He
said the fumes of arsenic drove
him from the room when he was
making the test, and he found
pulverized glass and other in
gradients of rat poison.
DR.. Davis identified the bot
tle's:which Professor Fulton had
examined as those brought to
him by Mrs. Wagstaff.
Mr., and Mrs. Wagstaf were
married twelve years ago. Both
had been married before and each
had children and this is said to
have caused friction. Mrs. Wag-
staff testified that they had not
spoken to each other for four
months previous to the alleged
attempt at poisoning, any more
than was absolutely necessary in
order to live together. She was
submitted to grilling cross-ex-
animation yesterday afternoon
by Attorney Kelly. 1t was
brought out that she herself had
had rat-poison at their home in
East Albany and had killed dogs
with it.
HYy>A-n -