Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1911-03-17
!. AN IMPORTANT
S; SEARCH 4 R {,
By ALENE EDNA MAY
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.

''Those cases of poisons found in
the stomachs of the dead" said the de-
tective, with the consequent convlc-
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 Tor
trial by the state has only to prove
aotlve for wishing the deceased our
Of the was and presence Of poison III
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.
II work largely for attorneys. Bates,
Wakeley & Scrimser have given me
lot of work to do, and / have fur
nished them with facts that have
enabled them to win number OF
cases. They are criminal lawyers. and
| most of the evidence l have given
| them has been used, I am happy to
say, to secure the acquittal Of persons
accused of crime l don't know any
! thing that gives ME more satisfaction
than saving an innocent person from
punishment.
"One day Mr.. Scrmser sent to. ma
and said:
| eve have been retained to defend
Mrs. Edith Townsend charged with
poisoning her husband a man she was
induced by her parents to marry when
she was eighteen years old. Townsend
! was very rich and a miser. His wife.
who is only twenty -four years old, is
a beautiful woman. At the time Of
her marriage she had been engaged to
| a young man not able to support her,
and she loved him instead Of her nus
band Her husbands relatives, who
would like to secure his property, have
worked up the case against her. a
note she wrote the man she had been
| engaged to. Horace Truesdale, telling
| him she would not see him so long as
her husband lived, is all the evidence
| they have been able to a1duce to
| prove her intimacy with him during
her married life. But they have
| proved that on one occasion a month
previous to her husbands death she
! bought drug that was found upon
analysis in her husbands stomach.
She said that when she bought this
drug her husband sent her for a
prescription the nature Of which she
! knew nothing. | believe that he
was taking Il drug for a stiInu!unt nn'i
that it eventually killed him. Here is
the technical name for it, FIe gave
me slip Of paper. I wish you to dis
cover if he was not in the habit Of
buying it. Remember that woman S
good name. perhaps her life. depends
upon your efforts
II went at the matter systematically
first procuring 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 We're drug stores. II he wished
to conceal the fact Of his purchases he
had only to drive to one Of these towns;
sufficiently distant that he should no!
be known there. buy his drug and car,
ry it home himself. Though it was Il
poison when taken i'll large quantities.
it was prescribed by physicians, AM!
an order for it was not in all cases Is
sential
Il visited every drug store within 4
radius Of twenty miles from his 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. hit upon the place where
his wife had bought the poison she
was charged with having procured
but this had all been worked ny by
another detective
81 went to Mr. Scriuser and TO
ported my failure
""Try the wholesale ,lrIggi>fS' he
said
why should the man have bo'sgh
the drug at wholesaler | asked
"'He was mean enough to buy i,is
table salt at whhleSate' he replied
ITO make Il search Of the who'eSIl>
drug stores was quite another proprsi
ton. 1t w:ls equivalent to Il hunt IL
every wholesale drug house, in tn,
United States. and Mr.. TownSeus
might have bought the drug in Can
ada. Indeed. if he wished TO concea
his purchases Canada would be tii
better field. first looked: into the TX
press offices in the places where pack
ages might ti;ive been de4iverc,l to hiu
Nothing sent hin, that could huva bee,
drug appeared On the books Of t!,'
express companies. nor was auy SUI
recent on file
''The only hope left for Mrs. T',vu
send was that her husband has! %,
dered the drug sent by mail pro
cured a list of al! the whoIesale ,;r1i.
houses in the United States and "a:
ada and sent letter to each as.i..1.; ii