St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-09-27
THE DODGE CASE AGAIN
Massachusetts Woman Claims She
Wrote Suspicious Letter.
New Trial Possible.

The statements of Mrs. Mary Jane
Strumbert of FL Harvard street,
Cambridge, Mass, that she is the
author of the mysterious IN. J. So
letter in the Dodge murder case has
aroused new interest in the matter
and possibly will result in a new
trial for Mrs. Dodge, who is serving
a four year term in state prison for
the shooting of William Heath. Har-
ry Blodgett, attorney for Mrs
/ Dodge does not make any statement
for the public in the matter as he
knows nothing yet Of the validity of
Mrs. Strumbert's statement An
other question that would have
much weight in the matter is The
extent the jury was Influenced by
the letter and the claim of the state
that it was written by Mrs. Dodge to
mislead the attOrney-general
The discovery Of the authorship of
the letter was made by a Boston
newspaper man and came about at a
meeting Of the selectmen in the town
of Weston. In the latter place a
reward was offered of $4,000 at the
time of the Mabel Page murder for
information which would lead to the
arrest of the murderer, Charles
Tucker, afterwards convicted and
electrocuted but the money has new
er been awarded.
Among the claimants was one
who signed her initials tM. j. s.
The newspaper man was struck by
the fact that these were the same
initials signed to the note presented
at the Dodge trial and hunted up the
address of the person. He found
that she was clairvoyant and she
admitted to him that she wrote the
letter to the atrorney-general
Text of the Letter.
The letter was as follows: ''Dec-
ember 27, 1911-The man who shot
Mr.. Heath was tall with heavy
dark hair and wore cap. They had
words in a shop over money. After
shooting, he went into the cellar for
few minutes, then went over a
fence and then lay down beside the
fence. M. J. s., Brooklire, Mass
H. w. Shaylo, of Portland, Me-,
a handwriting expert, testified at |
the time that the letter was written
by Mrs. Dodge. She said that she
was not in Brookline at the time and |
proved an alibi, her sister testifying
that she was with her in Vermont.
A. w. Bosworth, foreman of the
jury which found the woman guilty
OF manslaughter is reported to have
said to newspaper man: "The let
ter formed a most important factor
of the evidence in the deliberation
among the Jurors He said later
that he did not believe the letter
made any difference in the jury's
finding.
Mrs. Strumbert's Statement.
Mrs. Strumbert said last Sunday:
L wrote the letter. I am a med
um and l had been working on the
Dodge case and I knew Mrs. Dodge Y
vas innocent. That is the reason I
sent the letter. Furthermore, T
Knew it was a man who mad been :
hiding in the house that fred the c
atal shot. When l discovered that. :
wanted to see that justice was
lone and that innocent woman set
rec.
FWhen I learned the prosecuting
ttorney had presented the letter in
ourt as evidence and claimed it was
1rltten by Mrs. Dodge l wrote Judge
ialI and told him the letter was
Trltten by me. To this communica-
ion, however, I only signed my mi
ais. Then l called the Judge on
he long distance phone and told
i'm it was [ who had written the
9CteF, DuC o1d not give my name.'
Judge Halls Statement.
Judge A. A. Hall, presiding Judge
the. trial in an interview would
OF commit himself as to whether
r not he thought the discovery of
lie authorship of the letter would
ave any bearing toward securinA a
ew trial. He rememb bered receiv-
g the letter and said that follow
g it he had received a letter, mail
in Massachusetts, acknowledging
le authorship, but again no name
as signed. When the attorneys
ere making their closing argu-
ents, he was called up over the
ng distance phone and a voice
id: 81 wrote the letter." but when
lestfoned would not give any name
even the location although the
dge in endeavoring to ascertain
no was talking said that he could
It allow an anonymous letter to %
huence him in any way.