Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-22
WAITE, WHITE AND WAN,
FEELING FINE AS TRIAL
FOR MURDER STARTS
Two Women-His Former Wife
and "Studio Companion"-to
Be Chief Witnesses Against
Alleged Poisoner
CASE WILL BE RUSHED

NEW YORK, May 22.-Iis Ijaunty mlen
gone, with the two women with whom he
played arrayed against him, Arthur War
rem Waite, dentist and dilettante lover and
Inguist, athlete and. by his own confes-
sion, arch-poisoner, went on trial today.
The laws accusing finger was pointed at
him for the murder, by arsenic poisoning.
o. his father-in-law. John E. Peck, million.
atre, of Grand Rapids, Mich The chief wit
nesses against him. by whose testimony the
State hopes to exact the capital penalty
were to be his wife. who has divorced him,
and his Studio companion" the pretty Mrs
Margaret Horton.
Mixed ineXtricably in the tangle of muir
der by poison of the Borgias will be
Waite's apparently countless love affairs
his pleas of bad man from Egypt" who
took possession of his faculties and urged
him onward to his plot of poisoning the
whole Peck family that he might inherit
their millions, and his final nsstence that
he now is sane and desires expiation of
his crimes. His attorney will plead in
sanity. The State has nearly $50 witnesses
to support it's contention that it was not a
madmans brain, but that of cool cal
culating adventurer, who weighed the
chances of failure against the dreams of a
butterfly life of millions to be spent for
pleasure, that planned the murders of his
wife's parents.
LAUGHS AT VEN1REMAN.
-, Waite looked Whlte ana wan today, al
though he has fully recovered from the
effects of strong narcotics taken when he
foresaw the police must inevitably uncover
the trail of his plot of poisoning. He said
he was feeling fine"
Waite seemed master of his emotions as
he 'ritnessed the dreary routine OF question
inr of Jurors The first time Assistant Dis
t'rt Attorney Mancuso asked, what later
'ovai0ped was one of his stock interroga-
tions, Are you opposed to capital punish
ment?" Waite burst into laughter as the
uenireman Joseph S. Irving, replied, Yes,
but not in case like this"
Up to noon seven Jurors had been tenta-
lively accepted. These are still subject to
challenge by either side.
The only stock question which seemed to
make Waite lose his ice-cold calm moment
arily was, Would you be moved in your
Judgment by sympathy compassion for
the defendant?"
STATE REVIEWS CASE.
Before the talesmen were examined AS
sistant District Attorney Brothers, in a
brief review of the case, said the State
would cali Doctor Moore, Waite's family
physician; DIR. Perry Schurtz, of Grand
Rapids, whose autopsy on Peck revealed
the poisoning; Percy Peck, Mrs, Clara Lou
ise Peck (Waite's former wife) the drug
z gist who sold the arsenic used in the poi
soning, several bacteriologists who exam
ined cultures in Waite's laboratory and
with which the State contends Waite tried
TO poison his parents-in-law; Dora Hitler.
Waite's negro maid; Assistant District At
torney Mancuso, Ray SCHNEIDER, a private
detective; District Attorney Swan. Mrs.
Margaret Horton. Miss Catharine ID. Peck.
Mrs Dorothy Van Palmenberg, Mrs, Hor-
toms friend