The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-16
SHOW TELLTALE
! SPOTS ON CLOAK
OF The DEAD GIRL
Clothes Worn by Marion Lam
bert Brought Into Court.
Cyanide Was Spilled on Gar
ments From a Bottle.
STATE FAILS TO PROVE POINT
Orpet, Panic Stricken, Fled
From Fatal Spot.
accused Shows Signs of Near
ing Physical Collapse.
Cyanide Was Spilled on Gar
ments From a Bottle.
STATE FAILS TO PROVE POINT
BY DOROTHY DIN.

BY DOROTHY DIN.
Waukegan. Ill. June 16.-They
j brought into court the clothes that
poor little Marion Lambert had on
when she was found dead under the
three oaks in Helms wood. On the
bop of the pile of neatly folded gar
rnents was heavy green top coat. of
some loosely woven material and on
& the front, just above the waistline,
were two perfectly round, shiny white
spots about the size of a dime. They
Hooked exactly as if two soda mint
tablets had adhered to the fibrous
Surface of the goods.
Originally there were three of these
gylite spots. but one of them had been
carefully scraped off and analysed by
"a toXicologist and found to be cyanide
be potassium, that mad formed in that
Fashion from some heavy solution of
the drug.
There was no installing the signifi-
Zcance of those round spots. They
were spilled from the bottle of poison,
but of which Marion Lambert drank
her fatal draught. No dry powder
"dropped on her coat could have taken
that form. or hardened in that man
ner. Only the sediment from liquid
would have dried heavy and thick, in
drop.
Spilled Poison on Coat.
Up near the lapel of the coat was
smear where there was cyanide mixed
n the saliva that flowed from the
dying girls mouth. But on the coat
itself there were just the three drops
from super-solution of cyanide that
was spilled by a shaking hand as the
deadly draught was pressed to the
girls lips. But whose hand it was,
whether her own, or William Orpets
here was no clue to tell.
If Orpet killed the girl. he could
have killed her just as easily with the
liquid cyanide with the dry cyanide.
Marion Lambert committed suicide
she could as easily have carried the
poison with her in a liquid form as
any other. Even the fact that no
bottle containing cyanide was found
near the girl, throws no light on the
subject, because if Orpet was the de-
liberate murderer that the state holds
What he was, he could have cleared
Fhimself by planting" the bottle in the
dead girls hand just easily and far
more plausibly than by disposing of it
Elsewhere.
Orpet Was Panic Stricken.
And he was simply the frightened
kid, panic stricken, who fled from the
scene of tragedy which happened so
suddenly and unexpectedly it deprived
him of his wits. 1t is not inconsistent
ne might have secured the bottle from
the girls hand as she swallowed the
deadiy poison and almost auto
rnatically stuck it in his pocket, or
made away with it to save the scandal
rs he gives as his reason for fleeing
The scene, and leaving her alone dead
n IN the woods
So, even what seems conclusive
proof that Marion Lambert died from
he effects of liquid cyanide does not
-faINH ? J. a.
Vhere everything is good up to a GER
ain point and then goes to pieces
against some circumstances that you
annot explain. For after all is said
md every theory exploited, you can
mink of no adequate reason why Ma
ion Lambert should kill herself. nor
)f any reason whatever why William
Orpet should slay her. And yet the
girl died of cyanide poisoning, which
he either took herself or William Or
pet gave her.
Accused Is Worn Out
The sight of Marion's poor little
elothes, as they were spread out in the
courtroom and labelled and tagged
Trung from Will Orpet the first hin
of sorrow that he has shown during
he whole trial. Day after day, as hi
has sat by his mother. he has gotteI
fsTaner and whittier and more pincheC
81 ookinc. until he seems too PHYSICAL,
pens to him. His face has worn al
Expression of melancholy so deep tina
has settled into a sort of stolid DIES
pair.
He did not move a muscle whe1
#TOSlyn flayed him in his opening ad
zdress. He has not smiled when his at
Iorneys have scored a point, nothing
mas seemed to matter. But when the,
brought in his little sweetheart
Clothes and he saw again the litt1'
blue frock and white velvet hat will
Is brown fur band and the green Goa
n which he had last seen her, his eye
filled with tears and his lips began
trembling so that he had to put up hi
F. hands to hide them. And for a lon:
time afterwards he sat staring dow
81 the table, his mind filled with Coz
knows what thoughts of sorrow an,
remorse and what unavailing wisl
hat they might go back to last Jun
H5nd live the summer over again s.
differently.