Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1911-02-09
AN
SEARCH
By k-ENE EDNA MAY
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.

the SIOIIdCIIS C1 LIC dCdd- Sd1d IhC oO
teetive, with the consequent convic-
ton of some one who is charged with
murder. have resulted in the hanging
Of many an innocent person. The
prosecuting attorney whose business
it is to convict those brought up for
trial by the state has only to prove d
motive for wishing the deceased out
Of the way and presence of poison IN
the stomach to win his case. Another
matter strengthens it; that is, proving
that the accused bought the poison;
though there are instances in which
this is not considered absolutely neces-
sary to swing the accused.
81 work largely for attorneys. Bates,
Wakeley & Scrimser have given me
a lot Of work to do, and l have fur
nished them with facts that have
enabled them to win a number OF
cases. They are criminal lawyers, and
most Of the evidence l have given
them has been used, | am happy to
say, to secure the %acquittal Of persons
accused Of crime. | don't know any
thing that gives me more satisfaction
than saving an innocent person from
punishment.
zone day Mr.. Scrimser sent for me
and said:
"'We have been retained to defend
Mrs. Edith Townsend, charged with
poisoning her husband, a MAJ she was
induced by her parents to marry when
she was eighteen years old. Townsend
was very rich and q miser. His wife,
who is only t~wenty-fcur years old, is
a beautiful woman. At the time of
her marriage she had been engaged to
q young man not able to support her.
and she loved him instead Of her hus-
band. Her husbands relatives, who
would like to eur his property, have
worked up the case against her. 4
note she wrote the man she had been
engaged to, Horace Truesdale, telling
him she would not see him sc long as
her husband lived. is a. the evidence
they have been able to aQduce to
prove her intimacy with him during
her married life. Bus they have
proved that on one occasion q month
previous to her husbands death she
bought a drug that was found upon
analysis in her husbands stomach.
She said hat when she bought this
drug her husband sent her for a
prescription the nature of which she
was taking a drug for a stimulant and
that it eventually killed him. Here is
the technical name for it, He gave
me a slip of paper. I wish you to dis
cover if he was not in the habit of
buying it. Remember that q woman's
good NAME, perhaps her life, depends
upon your efforts
Il went at the matter Systematically,
first procuring q list Of the drug stores
within reach of Mr.. ToWnSend'S resi-
dence. He had lived in his country
place surrounded by villages in which
there were drug stores. If he wished
to conceal the fact of his purchases he
had only to drive to one of these towns
sufficiently distant that he should not
be known there, buy his drug and car
~ it home himself. Though it was a
poison when taken in large quantities,
it was prescribed by physicians, and
an order for it vas not in all cases es-
Sential.
Il visited every drug store within a
radius of twenty miles from bis home
and talked with every proprietor and
clerk in all of them. Not one of them
could remember any person answering
to my description Of Mr.. Townsend,
and all declared that no such person
had ever to their knowledge visited
their store. l hit upon the place where
his wife had bought the poison she
was charged with having procured.
but this had all been worked up by
another detective.
II went to Mr.. Scrimser and re
ported my failure.
""Try the wholesale druggists he
said.
"'Why should the man have bought
the drug at wholesale? l asked.
"'He was mean enough to buy his
table salt at Wholesale he replied.
ITO make a search of the wholesale
drug stores was quite another PROPOSE
ton. 1t was equivalent to a hunt in
every wholesale drug house in the
United States. and Mr.. Townsend
might have bought the drug in Can
ada. Indeed. if he wished to conceal
his purchases Canada would be the
better field. | first looked into the eX-
press offices in the places where pack
ages might have been delivered to him,
Nothing sent him that could have been
a drug appeared on the books of the
express companies. nor was any such
receipt on file.
"The only hope left for Mrs. Town
send was that her husband had oil
dered the drug sen by mail. l pro
cured a list of all the wholesale drug
houses in the United States and Can
ada and sent a letter to each asking if
they had ever filled orders for the drug
found in his stomach, giving also the
reason why l wished to know. 1t was