Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1911-10-25
BODY EXHUMED
THE THIRD time
pnl;ce Failed to Find Phial of Poison
in Young Woman's Bath
robe.
POISON IN STOMACH,
cruesome Midnight Procedures-Police
suggest That poison Was Given Miss
IennilI in CapsuIe-Quinine Res
moved and Capsule Filled with CYAN
ide of Potassium

Boston, Oct. 25.-District Attor-
ney Pelletier announced this after
noon that the autopsy on the body OF
Avis Linnell developed the fact that
she died of cyanide of potassium
presumably taken in powder form
Boston, Oct. 25.--A second autop-
sy was made today on the body OF
Avis Linnel.
At the same time, the mystery sur
rounding her death was deepened
when a search Of the girls bath robe
failed to disclose any vial OF paper
which might have contained the cy-
anide of potassium which the medical
authorities declare positively caused
her death.
The second autopsy today was the
third time the girls body has been
examined. The first was performed
after the finding of her body in the
bath room in the Y. w. G. A.
The second examination was made
at midnight last night, when the girls
coffin, brought back from the grave
at Hyannis, was opened and the bath
robe examined.
The third examination was made
when the second autopsy was per-
formed this morning, only after po-
lice captain Ainsley Armstrong, head
OF the bureau of criminal investiga-
tion had demanded it. Armstrong
asserted emphatically he was not sat
isfied with "the haphazard manner
in which the first autopsy had been
made.
The midnight opening of the cas-
ket was grewsome. Under the glare
of the electric lights Of the city
morgue, Medical Examiner Leary
and DR.. Hendricks, his assistant, took
the bath robe from the coffin and ex-
amined it carefully. Although they
declined to tell what had been dis
closed. it was learned from other
sources that no poison container had
been found.
How the girl could have disposed OF
the bottle or paper which contained
the cyanide of potassium is ques-
ton that has completely baffied the
police, and they admit today that II
Is a point in their chain of evidence
against Richeson that is materially
weak.
The police hoped to find a vial OF
paper in the girls bath robe and to es-
tablish that such bottle or paper
had been in the possession Of DR..
Richeson. In this way the police
hoped to prove positively that Rich
eson was the girls murderer.
In that, however, they We're foiled.
The police are, therefore, advancing
a new theory, that the poison was
given Miss Linnell in a gelatine cap
sule. They say the person who gave
Miss Linnell the drug could easily
have emptied quinine capsule, re-
filled it with powdered cyanide, and
given it to the girl. This, they say
may account for the mysterious
length of time it took the cyanide to
kill the girl. Cyanide is instantane-
ously fatal, but the police say that it
may have taken the capsule some time
to dissolve after she swallowed it.
That an alibi will be one of the
chief points in the defense OF Rev
Richeson was indicated today when
Robert Burns, of the Burns Detective
Agency, declared his operatives had
secured evidence to account for ev'
cry movement of the pastor from
the moment he purchased the cyan
ide from Druggist Hahn to the time
Miss Linnell died. This evidence
Burns declared, will show that Rich
eson did not see Miss Linnell during
that time and had no way OF deliver
ing poison TO her.
Relatives of the preacher are gath
ering here and are pledging fnancia
support to the defense. Richesons
father. " T. Richeson, and his sister
Miss Russell Richeson, already are
here, and two other sisters of the pas
tor, Lillian v. and Katharine, were
expected to arrive today.
Medical Examiner Leary and Dis
trict Attorney Pelletier both have de
clared positively the first autopsy
showed beyond question that 1t wa:
cyanide and not some other drug
that killed the girl, but up to date
there has been no explanation as t,
the length of time it took this fata
d-"g to kill.