Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-18
MOST SUBTLE
OF ALL CRIMES
Termination of Orpet Case Adds
One More Poison Mystery
to the Long
List

TTNtE official termination of the "Orpet
Il case" in the acquittal of the Uni
versity of Wisconsin student, who at the
age of 20 was accused of poisoning an
1S-yearold schoolgirl, ends nothing of the
mysterious element of the tragedy of
Marion Lambert. The closing of the trial
has simply added one more to a long list
of lnsoluble poison mysteries, and one
more lesson for those who have the terri.
BILE responsibility of dispensing death
dealing drugs. Whether the girl whose
body was found in the snow in Helms
Woods, the traces of cyanide of potassium
on her lips, drank death of her own voli-
tion will never be known. Once more is
proved, what the Borgas we'll knew four
hundred years ago, that poison is the
means of committing the subtlest of
crimes, most difficult to fasteu upon the
perpetrator, and the only consolation
Is that science and the improved policing
of advancing civilization have done much
to combat the sinister fine art of the
Renaissance"
The steps that have been taken to
bring the chemist under public regula.
ton have made impossible modern yer.
sions of those evil though colorful pages
that describe the work of tho private poi
soners that played their part in tho
retinues of Renaissance rulers and mobiles.
Some of their devices are almost in
credible. Finger rings and bracelets were
made with tiny receptacles, in which poi
sons could be secreted and from which
they could be subtly emptied into wine
glasses at dinner. Gifts of snuffboxes
and haircombs were coated with powerful
drugs that took effect like magic.
From fine art" notable poison cases
in more recent annals have developed into
q series of isolated cases of homicidal
century there was a series of murders
committed in Germany which have given
to the name of Anna Maria Zwanziger
an unpleasant prominence. She was
living in Bayreuth, in 1907, so exemplary
life that one Justice Glaser thought
he was getting a "jeweP when he en-.
gagged her to act as his housekeeper. He
was at that time separated from his wife.
The new housekeeper improved his good
opinion of her when she managed to effect
reconciliation between the Judge and
his wife. But within a month after the
wifes return she was suddenly taken sick
and died in a few days.
Anna now left Glaser's service and went
to live as housekeeper with Justice Groh-
mann. He was a sufferer from gout and
was often confined to his bed. After one
OF his illnesses, lasting eleven days, he
died, and his housekeeper appeared in.
consolable. Her good name and "her
skill as a nurse" as some smple-minded
person expressed it, soon procured her
another place, this time at Magistrate
Gebhard's house, as nurse for his wife.
Shortly after her advent the magis-
trate's wife was seized with violent i'll
ness and died in great agony By this
time, when the womans further activity
threatened to eliminate the German ju-
dietary of the generation, there grew a
superstitious dread of what was called
her "unlucky" presence. This caused
Gebhard to dismiss her. On the day of
her departure every one in the household
became i'll and shortly afterward packet
of arsenic was found in her possession.
Traces of arsenic were found in the
bodies of the three persons who had
suffered from Mrs. Zwanzlger's house
to confess, but at length broke down and
her head was struck off on the block, a
method OF infiicting capital punishment,
by the way. which survives in Germany
to this day.
Perhaps the most notable poison mys.
terry of the last century was that of Will
liam Palmer, who murdered John Parsons
Cook in 1856. At the trial the theory
was promulgated that strychnine could
not be detected in the body of victim
after death by any known test At
the present day, however, it is certainly
not true that there is no infalible test
for strychnine, for If. by the color test
so-called, a certain succession of colors
is produced, the presence of strychnia
is said to be determined beyond doubt.
The story of the case was as follows:
Cook, on coming into his fortune OF
$50, 600, abandoned his profession OF law
and took to tho turf. Here his intimacy
with Palmer began. AT that time the
latter, a surgeon by profession, but now
occupied with the breeding and training
of race horses, was in severe pecuniary
straits His wife's fortune being only
for her life, he had insured her life for
s65 900 at a premium exceeding his yearly
income. and strangely enough, within
nine months of this time the wife had
died.
The insurance money from his wife
did not keep him long afioat. In 1854
he had discounted bills TO the amount
of nearly 100000. TO every one Of which
he had forged the acceptance of his
mother, and these bills were all due or
maturing in November. 1885, the month
Of the murder. On November Is Cooks
horse Polestar won at the Shrewsbury
races, and $500 fell to Cook in cash
or bets, payable in seven days On Wed
nesday the 2lst. Cook lay dead and his
pocketbook was empty, Though other
physicians attended, Palmer, intimate as
he was with Cook, was constantly at
hand and administered to him, among
other things coffee, broth and pills.
There could be but one question; Had
Cook died of poison? Accordingly, the