The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-04-18
AN AUTHORS REAL
DETECTIVE. WORK.
[Original.1

case, however STRONG, against all NC
cused person that l cannot frame as
strong a theory for the defense. Hav-
ing made this statement to friend
who is practical worker in prison re
form, he told me that he had seen a
woman whom he believed to be inno-
cent serving life sentence for having
poisoned her husband. He asked me to
visit her and ii l came away with the
same opinion as himself to interest my
self in her behalf. | consented.
I found Mrs. Julia Ringland pretty
woman of thirty. l had long CONVEX,
Sation with her. not with a view to
learning of her guilt or innocence from
her arguments, but to make up my
mind upon the higher plane Of intui-
ton. 1t did not seem to me to be pos
sible for refined person. as Mrs. Ring
land was, if guilty Of - 'Ghtful crime
to appear to me to be N cent After
a long conversation left her perfectly
sure that she was being punished for a
crime she had not committed. This
conclusion had nothing to do with any
appeal whatever to my reason.
This is a synopsis of her case; She
married Peter Ringland, man twenty
years older than herself, a stingy.
crusty note shaver of the olden type.
Ringland, never in good health, at last
gradually sank away and died. What
he died of no one knew. for he was too
mean to have a doctor. He was buried.
and his wife proceeded to take posses
sion of his estate.
One day Ernest A. Parsons received
at his club through the mail a note
signed Julia Ringland, Of whom he
had never heard. In it she admitted
that she loved him, but would not perS
NIT him to be near her SO long as her
husband lived The note ended with
the single word "Wait."
1t happened that t&ere was another
Parsons in the club, Edward A. Par
sons. The note had been addressed to
e. A. Parsons and had fallen into the
wrong hands. The Parsons who re-
.ceived it talked about it. It's existence
reached the ears of Peter Ringlands
relatives, and they accused the widow
Of having poisoned her husband. The
body was eXhumed, the stomach ana
lived and arsenic found in sufficient
quantity to kill several men. The note
and the arsenic were the main points
on which the prosecuting attorney Sc
cured conviction.
NV proving Mrs. Ringlands inno-
cence depended solely upon one point
her husband must have taken ar
senic without the knowledge Of any
one else The attorney for the defense
had taken this position, but could .ad-
duce no proof that Ringland had ever
bought a grain of arsenic in his life
He had investigated every drug store
in the suburban town In which Ring
land had lived, but not one had ever
sold the drug to the deceased.
I One day a possible solution to the
problem occurred to me. Ringland was
so stingy that he might have bought
the drug wholesale. The theory was
certainly farfetched, but l determined
to investigate the wholesale druggists
thoroughly. There were five of them
in the city. l went to all of them and
asked if they had had any account
with Peter Ringland. Not one of them
had ever had such an account on its
books. Besides, they would not have
sold the goods to any one not in the
drug business, certainly not at the
wholesale price. Since'I had made up
my mind that proving Ringland's pur-
chase of the drug himself was the only
- 70 hi ;chi l.,
owls innocence, l determined to push
| further in my investigations. Was il
not possible that Ringland had had the
| drug sent to him under an assumed
name?
I requested every wholesale drug
store in the city to make up a state
ment of all the arsenic it had sold
in the town where Ringland had lived
within two years prior to his death.
! There were a number of quantities of
| arsenic ON one of the statements that
had been billed to the Ridgewood
| pharmacy. The items arrested my at
| tention, for the articles were all
arsenic / inquired for the Ridgewood
pharmacy and was told that it did not
| RX1SC ana never udu eAlSCeu. linen
knew / had found what | had been
hunting for.
1 still had to produce proof that
Ringland had received the goods.
had the matter hunted up at the ex-
! press Office and found receipts for
packages signed ''The Ridgewood Phar-
macy, per p. R." in Peter Ringland' $
handwriting. The dates of shipment
and the receipts accorded exactly.
Armed with this evidence. the lawyer
who had defended Mrs. Ringland in
court, working with me, secured a
pardon for her. the only means availa-
BILE Of doing her justice, or, rather, Of
getting her out of prison. There are
no words CIR phrases capable of ex
pressing her gratitude to me.
Once out of prison, Mrs. Ringland
went to work to discover reason for
her husbands taking arsenic and learn
ed that many years before, when much
run down in health it had been recon-