Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-09
Finally the county attorney asked.

where the doctor was shot. or how?'
"tt seems to me when / think about IT
that he was shot at the corner Of Forty
first and Farnam streets and got down to
the porch or else he sat down in the chair
and could not get up. They tell me he had
been drinking and someone came along
and shot him"
Did II ever occur to you that he took
his own life7"
Never. when he was in his own mind"
Did you know that he once before at
tempted to take his own life2"
Knew He Took Germs.
II know that he once attempted self
destruction"
by what means?'
IL think he took some germs"
How do you know it7'
Tho doctors who attended him in ty-
phoid fever and I decided that. DR.. Pollard
was one OF them"
with this question the examination of
Mrs. Rustin was concluded, she was ex-
cused and left at once in a carriage with
her mother and mother-in-law
While she was testifying Mrs. Abbie c.
Rice, alias Leons Bunnell, the woman who
says she walked almost to DR.. Rustin's
door with him the night of Tuesday. Sep
TENDER 1, was within a few feet of the
witness. The girl was between the police
matron and a detective. Mrs. Rustin did
not look at the Bunnell woman and APP
parcntly did not know she was even in the
room. The jury asked Mrs. Rustin but
two questions when the county attorney
concluded and they were of minor import
ance. She answered them and breathed a
sign Of relief as she left the witness chair
in the center of the crowd packed in &
tight room.
DIR. Lavender's Testimony.
Or. w. r. Lavender told Of the micro
scopic examination which he had made Of
the flesh and tissues surrounding the bull
let wound in the side of DR.. Frederick
Rustin and of tracing the bullet in his Of
fetal capacity as coroner's physician. He
said Drs. Lord. Langfeld and Hull were
present when the examination was made,
but took no part in the work. The cor
oner's physician also told Of finding finger
marks on DR.. Rustin's right arm, such as
would be made by anyone grabbing the
ann and pinching 1t tightly.
'The bullet entered the abdomen an inch
and a half to the right of the center of
the breast bone" he said. at went
straight in and was not DETECTED i'm the
least. The organs injured were the in
NOllp Alu VI lHb llNtis lie III Duil6
cut three little Sits. and then passed
through the tissues above the kidneys, but
did not wound the kidneys. 1 found the
bullet against the right edge of the spinal
column, but 1t did not penetrate the bone
or imbed itself in It.. The bullet weighs
eighty-six grains and is of 30 caliber. From
my examination 1 would say the bullet
went straight in from the point Of en-
trance and was fired into the body either
while standing erect or in an upright sit
ting posture.
Had the bullet not penetrated the vena
cava and caused hcmorrhage death would
not have resulted as quickly as it did and
probably not at all unless complications set
in. The little organ which was penetrated
is on the right Of the spinal column and
passes to the right of the aorta."
No Powder Marks on Wound.
Then the coroner's physician told of look
ing for powder in the flesh and tissues
about the wound.
There were no powder marks in the
wound or adjacent to 1t. So minute was
my examination that 1 found small hairs
which grow on the body in the fatty it's
sues, which were driven into the body by
the bullet. 5000
But, of course, where there is clothing
through which a bullet isi fired. we do moi
expect to fiId powder marks on the skin
even though the gun is held close to the
body. Powder marks would be found In
the wound or around 1t IL the skin wa:
bare when the bullet entered. But there
would be no evidence of powder on bare
skin If the weapon was held from four t
six feet away-unless 1t was a shotgun
To this expression DR.. Lavender added
as he produce the bullet which he tool
from DR.. Rustin's body:
This bullet must have come from a dis
lance. as a bullet from a 32-caliber revolver
would have doubtless gone through tn,
entire body unless it struck a bone, wher
1t would have imbedded itself, but thi,
bullet did not pass through anything bu
the fatty tissues and it was not found i'm
bedded in the bone and did not strike any
thing which would defect 1t or lessen it,
course"
Vest Showing Bullet Hole.
Here Chief of Police Donahue u~nwrappeC
a package which a detective had handed
him. Attorney English requested DR.. Law
ender to examine the bullet hole, which thu
physician did with a magnitying glass. H,
then expressed this opinion. which seemed
In contradiction to the opinion expressed
before the vest was produced.
There are no powder marks around tn,
hole, but a slight brownish scorching ex
tending nearly a quarter of an inch AROUND
the edge of the hole. I believe the gun
was held within twelve inches of the vest
Closer 1t would have set fire to the cloth
H%alf-burned powder grains burned the vest
is my opinion"
DIR. Lavender also stated before he lief
the stand that he knew DR.. Rustin and be
lieved he was so built physically that h,
could hold a gun twelve inches from hi