Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-04
Murderer of Philadelphia Ply
stefan Tells of Crime.
VENGEANCE THE MOTIVE
Police Fear Man Who Sent Poisoned
Ale Will Escape.
NO CLEW TO THE CRIMINAL
Writer Of Notes to Coroner Tells Of
His Reason for Taking
Doctors Life.

PHILADELPHIA. July 4.-"Let those
who live by poison die by poison.
The escaped murderer of DIR. William II.
Wilson has given his defense for the
commission of the crime In a remark
able explanatory letter sent to Coroner
Jermon the day after Wilson's death. and
kept secret by the authorities until yester-
day. the murderer calmly reviewed the
murder and summed up the reasons which
made him craftily plan the PHYSICIANS
death.
The murderer is a man Of education.
Last night. after exhausting clues which
pointed to both an uptown merchant and
a millionaire business man as the slayer
Of the malpractitioner. detectives came to
the conclusion that the letters received
after the murder and supposed to have
been written by a crank were in fact
written by the murderer, for the sole
purpose of informing the public Of the
motive which he believed justified him TO
take another's life.
The murderer. IL is now positively es-
tablished is a husband who thought II
proper to rid the community of DIR. Will
son for the common good OF all after ne
had suffered by the PHYSICIANS uniawfui
practices. His wife died following treat
ment by DR.. Wilson. To accomplish his
end and at the same time escape detection
he planned so cunningiy. so crattily. that
yesterday the detectives were forced TO
confess themselves at sea and no nearer
a solution of the mystery than the day
they first went to work to solve the case.
Prisoners First Letter.
The first letter received from the muir
derer was postmarked Bristol. Pa It
was mailed there June 70 at $50 pm.
It Is typewriter on a sheet of plain pa
per of fine texture and addressed in
square envelope to J. NJ. Rush Jermon.
coroner city hall. Philadelphia. The let
ter reads:
Dear Mr.. Coroner: I want to write you
regarding the death of DR.. w. H. Wilson.
This person was malpractitioner and In
some way induced my wife. without my
AS a result of poisonous injection he used.
she died a few weeks ago. In order 10
protect her name, l did not give the last
attending physician all the facts. and
she was buried with another cause as
signed.
ITO rid the community OF him have re-
moved him as I might a weed from
garden.
way In a suburban town few years ago.
and had a few fonts OF card printing
type left. Also a small press. The print.
ing was done entirely by myself.
bought one additional character OF type.
Now that this service to the community
Is rendered and the death of my dear
wife avenged. 1 am going to quit this
part of the world. / don't think you viii
ever find me. but don't care what hap
pens, anyhow.
my only regret is the grief caused his
wife and child. but I believe even they
are better of without him.
Think Of 1t. A little investigation win
IN a ~
his business.
~ say let those who live by poison die
by poison:
to prove that ! am the person who at
tended to this matter ! will tell you that
the ale contained cyanide and there were
two seals with the letter S on the neck
of the bottle. I know nothing about the
the time you get this Monday morning,
I will be far away from here. The town,
by the way. from which this is mailed. is
not the one in which 1 was In business.
Yours truly,
IAN Outraged Husband and Father"
Slayer Wants Publicity.
From Bristol the murderer ent to Bos-
ton. From that city he sent another let
ter to Coroner Jermon. This letter 10
dated two days later. having been mailed
June % at am. and postmarked Back
Bay Station" The slayer, closely watch
ing the papers. failed to see the let
ter explaining his justification of the
crime in print. So he wrote again. ask
ing the coroner to give the first letter TO
the papers. This is the letter:
Dear Mr.. Coroner: In my letter regard
ing DR.. Wilson forgot to request you to
give my letter to the papers. as il might
there are some people who regard this
sort of thing in its true light-murder OF
the most cowardly sort.
If II ever comes my way to do any,
thing for the little girl will certainly do
anything In my power. provided Mrs
Wilson does nothing toward carrying en-
his Internal business"
The detectives realized last night that
only the murderer and the officers at
work on the case could know of the ''S''
piece of type which had been used to inn
press the letter into the sealing wax
around the neck of the bottle of poisoned
ale At the time of the receipt of the
first letter DR. Wilson's death was suppos ed
to be due to natural causes. day later
it was said he had committed suicide. and
1t was not until three days later that the
coroner was in possession Of the letter in
forming him that DR.. Wilson had been
murdered and why he had been murdered.
Letter With the Ale.
The police last night made public the
decoy letter sent to DR.. Wilson June .
paving the way for the bottle OF poisoned
ale. This letter was typewriter. At the
top of the leaf was printed the inscrip-
ton Peter Schemm & Son, Brewers. 18th
and Poplar streets" The envelope bore
the name and address of the Schemm
brewery also. The murderer with his
font of type printed both letterhead and
envelope the police say. Peter Schemm
stated yesterday that his firm never used
such a letterhead, that 1t was bogus and
had been printed apparently for the sole
purpose of aiding in the murder plan.
This letter mailed to DR.. Wilson June 23
at am. and postmarked West Phila-
delphia." reads:
civilian H. Wilson, MD.
Dear Doctor: We are taking the lib
erty of sending a few physicians sample
bottles OF our new product, 'tandard ale.'
ale.
Believing there Is a field for an Amer
lean ale that can compete In quality with
foreign brands. We have devoted our best
efforts to producing a beverage that for
flavor and healthfulness is beyond criti-
cism.
10 be our strong talking point, we have
decided to cooperate with the physicians
as far as possible in the introduction Of
our goods. We figure this plan will be
more effective than the heavy magazine
advertising generally considered neces-
sary for the Introduction of anything
new. This alone shows that We have the
utmost confidence in this brew.