Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-05-20


counsel of Mr.. Walsh, said:
"The supreme court will remand the
case for a new trial. There has been
sufficient error in it to convince me of
this
When news of the conviction was
forwarded by telephone to Mrs. Swope
in independence, she shrieked and
dropped the receiver. She refused to
make statement 1t is the belief of
court attaches that the supreme court
will be unable to reach DR.. Hyde's
case for at least year on account of
the crowded condition of the docket.
Meanwhile the prisoner may be kept
in the county Jail or sent to the state
prison at Jefferson City by Judge Lat
shaw. The law of Missouri prohibits
the courts from admitting persons
convicted of murder to bail.
History of the Notorious Case.
DR.. B. Clark Hyde had been under
suspicion in connection with the mys-
terious illness and deaths in the Swope
family ever since the death of Col.
Thomas H. Swope on Oct, 8, 1909.
The death of Col. Swope followed
soon after he had sustained a severe
CONFUSION, and the CONFUSION, it was
charged by members of the Swope
family, followed Immediately after
the administration of a capsule at the
direction of DR.. Hyde. DR.. Hyde said
it was a digestive tablet. 1t was prov
en- at the trial that DR.. Hyde had pur-
chased cyanide of potassium IN five
grain capsules and he was prosecuted
on the belief that he gave one of
these capsules to Col. Swope. DR..
Hyde said he bought the cyanide cap
sules to kill cOckroaches in his office.
Two days before the death of Col.
Swope, Moss Hunton, cousin of the
millionaire philanthropist, died at the
Swope home following a stroke of
apoplexy. Drs. Hyde and G. T. ivy
man Of independence treated Hunton
charged, at the Suggestion OF Dr
Hyde. After six pints of blood was
taken from Hunton the bleeding pro
cess was stopped, but not until DR.,
Twyham had repeatedly protested
that too much blood was being taken
from the old man.
Beginning early in December an epic
demic of typhoid fever broke out in
the Swope home, during which ten
members of the family were stricken
and one, Chrisman Swope, brother
of DR.. Hyde's wife, died.
Chrisman died after taking cap
suIe given at DR.. Hyde's direction and
after suffering CONFUSION similar to
the one that attacked Col Swope.
Margaret Swope, Chrisman's sister.
who also was treated by DIR. Hyde,
had convulsion after taking cap
sule, but she was given an emetic at
once by DR.. Twyham and she recov'
cred.
On Jan. Z, 1910, the body of Chris
man Swope was secretly exhumed, and
four days later the body of Col.
Swope was removed from its tomb. |
and the viscera of the bodies were
taken to Chicago for analysis.
The analysis of the liver of Col. |
Swope's body showed the finding of
52-66 of grain of strychnine by the
Chicago chemists.
Judge Latshow empaneled grand
jury, which was ordered to investigate
every phrase of the Swope mystery.
The grand jury returned indictments |
charging DR.. Hyde with murder in
the first degree in connection with
the deaths of Col. Swope and Chris
man Swope, and manslaughter in con-
nection with the death of Moss Hun
ton.
In all DR.. Hyde was indicted on II
counts, the remaining indictments
charging him with trying to murder
members of the family of the Swopes
by introducing typhoid germs and poi
sons into the medicines administered
to them.