Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-07-07
Prosecution Attempts to Re-
call Defendant For Fur
ther Examination.
OBJECTIONS OF
COUNSEL UPHELD
Unusual Spectacle Of Sister Rebuttins
Testimony Of Sister in Today's Ses-
sion Of Court-Defense Closes With
Documentary Evidence Bearing on
Laws Governing Sale Of Poisons-
Cyanide Of Potassium Seldom Sold.

Waukegan, ILL.,, July THE defense
bearing on the laws governing the sale
Of poisons rested today in the case of
VIII H. Orpet. Attorney Joslyn, of the
prosecution, said he wanted Orpet re-
called for questioning with regard to
Celeste Youker, the young woman to
whom he was reported engaged Attor-
neys Wilkerson and Potter, of the de-
fense objected. Judge Donnelly ruled
the defendant could not be recalled.
The first witness called by the state
presented the unusual spectacle of u
woman rebutting her sisters testimony
She was Mrs. Margaret ycuker, g s!s-
ter of Dorothy Mason, and married to
a brother of Celeste Youker the "other
woman" in Orpet's life.
Rebuts Testimony Of Sister.
Miss Mason, called by the defense,
had testified that she had learned from
her mother that Orpet was engaged to
Miss Youker and that several days be-
fore Marian's death, as she and Mar
ian We're at school, she told her unsus-
pecting friend the news. According to
Dorothy, Marian received the news
with the comment:
do you know what think? Some
times think that life isn't worth liv-
ing"
Both Miss Mason and Miss Lambert
had noted that at the time Of the con-
versation that an old woman plodded
thru the snow outside the window
On cross examination at the time At
torney ,Joslyn had attempted to get
Miss Mason to admit that she had not
quoted Marian in full and that the lat
ter had continued, for a decrepit old
womanlike that"
investigator Influenced Testimony?
Miss Mason denied that ]. H. Carlin
an investigator for the defense had ad-
vised her that the conclusion of Mar
ian's comment was Of no Importance.
The witness today testified that she
was, present at the conversation be-
tween Miss Mason and Carlln, and that
Marion was said to have continued
with the comment concerning the old
woman.
On cross examination the witness adj
mitted she acted with counsel for the
state In an attempt to obtain damag-
ing admissions from Orpet.
lnstatese n $fioo.. .uD r far far harai
Defense Is Staggered.
After all the talk about deadly pois-
ons. it was the most inoffensive drug in
the world that proved the defense's
final sensation yesterday in the Orpet
rial at Waukegan.
Sodium-the homely, stuff that YOU
swallow in quantities every time you
season your breakfast eggs with COM
mon table salt-made a dramatic en-
trance on the scene. Sodium has not
figured before in the inquiry into the
death Of Marian Lambert. No one had
the slightest idea that it might turn up
to knock the underpinning from one of
the states most cherished contentious.
But 1t did.
James H. Wilkerson. chief of counsel
for Orpet. put four men on the stand to
tell the jury something about the cya-
nide which Edward Orpet. the ac-
cused boys father, kept in a green
house for use on the Mccormick estate.
Three of the four We're expert chemists,
the fourth a drug salesman.
The state has laid emphasis repeat
pet slept in the garage. near the green
house, the night before he met Marian
Lambert. He had free access to the
poison. Soon after Marian's death the
boys father removed all of it and threw
1t on an ash heap.
That Will made a solution Of this
cyanide and used it to bring about Mar
ian's death has been implied repeatedly.
Not Potassium Cyanide.
But the three experts and the drug
salesman calmly testified to a surpris-
ing thing. With the utmost unanimity
they declared that the substance in the
Orpet greenhouse was not potassium
cyanide at all, but sodium cyanide. 1t
was potassium cyanide that killed Mar
ian Lambert.
The unexpected testimony cut two
ways. It appeared to demolish, once
and for ALL the possibility that Will Or
pet committed the murder with his
fathers poison, for no sodium cyanide
was reported when the contents Of the
dead girls stomach were analyzed. And
it attacked the authority of DR.. Ralph
W.Wehster's crnc!a! testimony FOR the
state, for he had declared under oath
that the substance in the Orpet green
house was 40 per cent potassium cya-
nide."
Weaker Than Potassium.
To be sure, sodium cyanide is a
poison. and Marian Lambert might
have swallowed it. Moreover, it us
ually contains an extremely small
amount Of potassium. So, just to show
what would have happened in that
case, Mr.. Wilkerson asked Carl s. Min
er, proprietor of the Miner laboratories,
how much the girl would have had to
swallow IL solid form TO produce the
s.99 grains Of poison found in her stom-
ach.
Consider Irish Settlement.