Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1910-11-12
POISONED BY
SLOW STAGES 5
Physician and a Salesman
Suspected in the SChenk
Mystery
WIFE LIVES In LUXURY
In COUNTY PRISON CELL

BY United Press Leased Special Wire.
WHEELING, w. Va. Nov PA net
of circumstance and suspicion is be-
ing woven about a doctor and sales
man in the mystery Of the poisoning
Of John Schenk, millionaire porkpack-
er of this city. Mrs. Laura Farnes-
worth Schenk. the wife, is in the
county jail here, changed with trying
to kill her husband.
The millionaire is in a local hos
pital, fighting against the ravages Of
the slow poison that was administer
ed TO him in regular doses with the
prepared water that he drank.
The prosecution believes that it
would have been impossible for. any
one. totally ignorant Of the chemistry
of drugs. TO administer the arsenic in
the scientifically subtle manner in
which it was given to Schenk.
Therefore suspicion fastens on a
doctor
The prosecution says that it must
have been one at least skilled as a
doctor, who schooled the poisoner that
actually administered the poison as
10 what quantities would kill slowly
but surely and leave no evidence of
the crime
Seeking a motive the prosecution
claims to have found it in a young
man, we'll known in the high life OF
this city-the exact antithesis of the
commonplace millionaire porkpacker
who twelve years ago redeemed from
abject poverty the woman who is now
IN jail under charge of trying to muir
der him.
II was when the best medical skill
of this city failed to relieve the mill
lionaire, thought to be suffering from
stomach disease, that one of the
physicians who attended him became
suspicious and had a lithia water that
the pork packer had been drinking,
tested for poison.
The poison was found and the chem
list i'm announcing his discovery de-
clared that none but an expert i'm pois-
ons could have drugged the water in
the manner it was done.
Mss Schenk locked up IN a cell in
one OF the embattled towers of the
county jail, lacks none of the comforts
of the mansion to which Schenk took
her from the kitchen of one of his
fathers neighbors where she was en-
ployed before he married her The iron
bars are concealed by tapestries taken
from her fashionable island home. 1t
is a coy corner. She sleeps on an en-
broidered couch. She has a mahogany
card table and plays solitaire through
the day. Called from her home to the
Jail at midnight, she hastily gathered
together the appurtenances of her
! dressing table. perfumes, powders
/ combs and brushes.
She had her best clothes brought
to jail and is dressed as she might be
clad at home FOR an afternoons re-
ception.
Woman Says Nothing.
BY advice OF her lawyers she says
nothing-nOt even to the jailer.
There is absolutely no truth in the
charges against AIRS. Schenk." says at
torney O'Brien on whose advice she
has refused to say anything
Her meals are brought to her from
the leading cafe, and they cost So
each. The local papers call her the
splendid prisoner"
From kitchen to mansion and from
mansion to iail-that covers the life
story of Laura FarnswOrth Schenk.
She was born on a farm and came
to this city 20 work fifteen years ago.
She worked as a domestic three
years and the remaining twelve years
i'm this city have been devoted to UNI
successful social climbing-to brill
liant social campaigns that have al
ways failed She is 81 years old. Her
husband is now so.
She was working as domestic
for his fathers neighbor when he
met her. He married her against the
protests OF his family. The Schenk
family had had social aspirations and
had arrived" The first Schenk, the
father of John Schenk, came to
Wheeling from Germany, started a
butcher shop and now his family
owns a great deal of the tangible
property of the city. The wealth
they had amassed had just opened the
doors of the charmed social circle
TO them. when John married the
neighbor's domestic.
IF she is not as good as we,
will make her as good said John,
and he built for her mansion more
magnificent than his fathers, and
furnished II more beautiful than the
home in which she had worked. Two
children were born to them-a girl
who is now II years old, and boy
who is z.
Laura Farnsworth Schenk began
her social campaigns a year ago af-
ter she married. She invited nu-
merous of the local aristacracy; the
newspapers used to describe the ar
rangements as magnificent. But few
came.
Mrs. Schenk was not discouraged
and made attack after attack on the
barriers that her humble past had
set up against her.
The income Of John Schenk, is
100000 year. II has been spent
freely on his wife. He bought her a
$4,000 automobile and built a gar
age in the rear of their home.