Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-05-25
TRIAL Of DIR.
ARTHUR WARREN
WAITE BEGINS
IN new YORK
(By United Press Ass0ciatiOn.)


New York, May 22-With the OPP
ening Of the trial of young DR.. Arth-
ur Warren Waite here today OF the
charge of poisoning his millionaire
parents-in-law, Mr.. and Mrs. John E.
Peck of Grand Rapids, Mich, there be-
gins to pour into the dry records of
the New York Supreme Court one of
the most sensational and ASTOUNDING
stories of fortune-hunting, illicit love,
murder, intrigue and deception that
has ever been disclosed, as the alleg-
ed record Of one man. Waite's for
NAL plea was mot guilty" but he may
change it today. The state will at
tempt to prove that the slender, nat
tily attired, smiling youth who sits
quietly before a long table in this
drab and silent courtroom, deliberate
ly wooed and married Clara Peck with
the precOnceived intention of murder
ing her, her father and mother and
any other persons it might be naces-
sary to murder in order that he might
get possession of the Peck millions.
The state will introduce evidence to
prove that Waite, married to Clara
Peck and having Mrs. Elizabeth Her
ton as his "Studio Companion" in a
big New York hotel, actually did get
Mr.. and Mrs. Peck to New York on a
visit and murder them by poisoning
them with arsenic; that he got his
wife to will her estate to him and was
planning her murder as the third of
the series in his alleged scheme to
get the Peck millions; And that af1e1
numbering his mother-in-law and en-
gineering the cremation OF her body
to prevent the discovery of the cause
Of her death, he bribed a New York
Undertaken with $4,000, (S7,80O of
this amount was found where the I'M
dertaker told the police he hid it,, to
swear that arsenic was use1 in the
fluid employed in the embalming of
his father-in-law's body. With his
wife turned against him and prosecu-
ting her suit for divorce; and Mar
garet Horton, his ''Studio Companion"
fresh from the triumphs of vaude-
vile engagement won as e result Of
the publicity she gained from her as
ISOLATION with him, Waite faces his
fight against the electric chair with.
out the support either Of the woman
he married or the woman he s1uander-
ed his money on.
While he lay on cot in Bellevue
hospital, recovering from the effect:
of poisons he had taken in an attempt
to die after the poisoning of his faith
er-in-law was discovered, Waite told
several stories of how it had all hap
pened. Chief among these was the
fable of The Man From Egypt. This
mysterious and sinister Spirit. Waite
is said to have assured District Attor-
ney Swami, was with him night and
day, goading him on to evil deeds.
Nameless and intangible and possess
ed of the fiendish resourcefulness of
ten thousand devils, The Man From
Egypt never has been found. Nor is
he expected to be.
Another story Judge Swami report
ed as having been told him by Waite
was that his father-in-law was tired
of living and asked him to get the ar
senic for him so he could die. 1t was
only a few days after the death of
Peck that the Waite apartments on
Riverside drive that the frEt hint
came to the authorities here and in
Grand Rapids that all was not as it
should be. This hint took the form
of a mysterious telegram from *.
Adams" in New York to the authori-
ties in Grand Rapids, advising an in
vestigation before Mr.. Peck's body
was inferred. 1t has since developed
that when Waite saw this in the pa
pers, he went to Margaret Horton at
| the school of languages where they
first met and, according to Mrs. Hor-
ton, asked her to buy him certain
| sleeping powders" which she says
she did. Mrs. Horton, who at once