Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-01
20 YEARS FOR MATHEWS
Physician Convicted of Numbering His
Wife


A dispatch from Greensboro N G. says.
In the case Of DR.. J. B. Mathews, convict
ed of murder in the second degree and Civ
en- twenty years in the penitentiary for moi
soning his WIFE Mrs lola Mathews, with
morphine or strychnine, the supreme court
finds no error, and DR.. Mathews, who was
sent to Baltimore sanitarium under 81. OOO
bond, must be returned to North Carolina
and begin his prison term. The defendant
who claimed to have been insane from the
use OF drugs, contended that jury, to con-
Wet him of murder by poisoning must have
sentenced to death, its failure so to do be-
ing equivalent to acQuittal The court
holds that the statute provides for degrees
for murder in poisoning.
At Mount Hope Asylum, where Dr. Ma
thews was placed after his conviction pend
ing his appeal, it was stated that DR. Ma
theWs had left that institution in September
last. Or. Mathews was convicted in Green's
boro, N. c., in March last Of murder in the
second degree on the charge of poisoning
his wife and was sentenced to twenty wears
in the penitentiary. The evidence was SEN
sational. Mrs. Mathews failed, to appear
among her associates tor several days, and
some of these made repeated efforts to WIS.,
1t her at her home. Each was received by
DIR. Mathews, who told her that Mrs. Ma
thews was only slightly indisposed but in
order to hasten her recovery he had ordered
absolute quiet and would allow no one to
see her. On the morning of December 1
Edward Gipman, a Pullman conductor of
Philadelphia, who had long been intimate
at the house, called, and when refused per-
mission to see Mrs. Mathews brushed DR..
Mathews aside and made his way to the
sick chamber.
that she was being slowly poisoned by her
husband. Gipman left the house and sent
Mrs. Hay, neighbor, while he summoned
three physicians, among them Dr. J. P.
gTtpry fhn ynfT
diagnosed the case as a severe example Of
opium poisoning, and by means of powerful
antidotes made heroic efforts to save her
life.
Later in the afternoon believing that
their patients end was near, they inform
ed Mr.. Mathews that his wife was dying
He wept and pleaded to be allowed to have
a last word with her in private, but this
the attending physicians refused to sanction,
although they withdrew to another part Of
the room while the husband knelt at his
wife's bedside. What happened then is
best told in the affidavit made by the cor
oner, who swore out the warrant for Ma
thews arrest
1--WE heard Mrs Mathews utter a low
moan," declared DR.. Turner, land has,
tening to the bedside I seized Mathews and
wife, while his left hand, which was under
the coverlet, grasped hypodermic syringe,
the needle Of which had been plunged into
a vein of the dying woman's leg"
DIR. Mathews was then accused of MUIR
der and arrested, while DIR. Turner made
an analysis of the contents of the syringe,
which he avowed had contained sufficient
strychnine to kill ten people. Two days
before the trial, to assure himself that his
analysis was correct, he had chemist
at the state university to again analyze the
contents of the syringe. and to the conster-
nation of the prosecution the latter declared
1t to be morphine and not strychnine. AS
the indictment was based on the fact that
Mrs. Mathews came to her death by means
Of strychnine administered hypodermically
by her husband, 1t was feared this phase of
the case might upset the entire line of pros
ecution. He was convicted, however, and
now the supreme court has affirmed the
sentence.