Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-10-16
PROSECUTOR ASKS
EATON JURY FOR
MURDER VERDICT
Says He Will Prove Admiral
Was Poisoned by jealousy
Mad Wife.

PLYMOUTH, Mass, Oct. 16.-The
States case against Mrs. Jennie May
Eaton, on trial for the murder by
Joseph G.. Eaton, was outlined today
by Assistant Attorney Fred G. Katz-
mann, who said that jealousy fur
nished the motive for the crime He
admitted that the case against the
prisoner was mostly circumstantial.
but declared that the government had
evidence strong enough to show that
Admiral Eaton received at his wifes
hand the poison that caused his
death.
The suggestion of insanity was in
who told the jury that If they should
find that Mrs. Eaton killed her hus-
band while laboring under haliucina-
tons that constituted an irresistible
impulse, the State would be satisfied
with verdict of not guilty by reason
of insanity.
The principal witness of the fore
noon was DR.. Gilman T. Osgood. the
medical examiner, who described his
visit to the Eaton house soon after
the tdiniral's death.
Miss Dorothy Ainsworth. younger
daughter of Mrs. Eaton by her first
marriage, arrived here yesterday,
prepared to testify early in the trial
She was summoned by the prosecu-
ton, and last night held a consulta-
tion with District Attorney Barker.
Her sister, Mrs. June Keyes, planned
to come here today.
Expects First Degree Verdict.
do
poets to show" said Mr.. Katzmann,
that Mr.. Eaton met his death at the
hands of his wife by the administra-
tion of poison. The commonwealth
expects the jury to render a verdict
of guilty of murder in the first de-
gree, IL the act is shown to have been
committed by rational being"
Mr.. Katzman indicated that jeal-
ousy was the motive for the alleged
crime. He recounted the incidents of
the admiraps courtship and his mar
riage to Mrs. Eaton and told of the
unsettled life in the household,
This resulted" he said, ''in Mrs.
Eaton becoming irascible and devel-
oping the temperament which has
brought her to her present pass. One
form of this temperament was un-
founded jealousy"
Tried to Have Him Adjudged Insane.
For years. he said, Mrs. Eaton had
tried continually to have her husband
adjudged insane. The formation for
those attempts. he said, was Mrs.
Eaton's accusation in the summer of
1908 that her husband had poisoned q
child adopted by them the previous
spring.
According to Mr.. Katzmann. Mrs.
Eaton wrote to Professor Whitney,
hn II ox-1 oI,A -
to whom the child's stomach was sent
for examination. II rely upon your
finding poison in the stomach to have
my husband declared insane" The
official report, however. showed death
to have been due to natural causes.
The death of the child was followed,
Mr.. Katzmann said, by constant
charges by Mrs. Eaton and by June
that the admiral was dabbling in
poisons.
Mrs. Eaton cried in the high
ways and the byways," said he, that
the admiral had poisoned the child
and had tried to poison her and her
daughters
Analysis Showed Poison.
Prof Whitney would testify Mr..
Katzmann said, that his analysis of
the admiraPs stomach revealed the
presence of 10 grains of the poison.
Two grains was enough to kill.
In concluding the prosecutor said
that if the jury should find that Mrs.
Eaton committed the crime while
laboring under Authorizations that
constituted an Irresistible impulse,
the commonwealth would be satisfied
with verdict of not guilty by reas-
on OF insanity.
The presentation of evidence was
then begun. Edward b. Hayward,
a civil engineer, testified to the de-
tails of plans of the Eaton house
made by him and Undertaken Jo-
seph L. Wadsworth told of preparing
Admiral Eaton's body for burial