Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1918-05-16
FIFTH CONVICTION
IN HERON TRIALS
Odis Wren Found Guilty for
Second Time I'm General
Sessions.

Another conviction was yesterday add
ed To the States string of similar achieve
rnents IN the prosecutions of heroin sellers
undertaken by Attorney-G encral Rein
hardt, Deputy Attorney-Gensral Green
and the Detective Bureau in an effort
To rid the community of the traffic in
the drug The defendant who was
found guilty. before Judge IIeiHel in
General Sessions. Room No 2. was Odis
Wren, who also was convicted last week
upon another Indictment and found not
guilty upon third Sentence was
deferred pending the result of motion
Tor ncw trial
Wren's conviction makes the 9th
the State has obtained One uf the
seven defendants pleaded guilty, and
one remains untricd There are still
three more bills against Wren, the
State chooses 90 try them Other trntricd
billie pend againHt some If The defendants
Deputy Attorney General Green fret
placed upon the stand Charlcs Palmer,
colorrd, who aornc time ago pleaded
guilty tn handling hernin and has been
used previously by the State rs a witness
He testified to having gone tn Wreu's
ho,lae in klund street on January ~ 10
get heroin failed Ia find him there.
hunted for him and found him at Fourth
and King streets lie asked the usual
uIestlnn Got any ~ the stuff
Receiving M Affirmative reply he bought
a bottle ~ hrroin from Nreu. paving
g. 80 for II in one-dollar hills and
fifty cent piece The bottle had nothing
IN II ~ Indicate tn contents There
WAS = rcd label hearing the name Smith
and the avmbol for one-eightb If an
aunce
wuY Hr rIRaT rfgEp IT
Wren's counsel wac "a IN tho other
trials. levin | Handy EIo puf Palmer
through grilling croes- examination but
tho wltncee stuck To his story After i
wa over and before Palmer left tho
stand Judge IIotaeI asked tho witness
how he carno ~ tako his fret dose nf
herein Palmer replied that he hafl been
a heavy whisky driukcr and had reached
. stage whore hn was worried about y
10 fell in with hornin usrrs who told him
that The uae If the drug was brttcr for
him than whisky. that n "wnliidn't
mako him rave 80 whereupon he started
~ ne an haiitue of the drug
He expressed regret THAT hc eyer did
M
State Chemist Watson was nevt called
- establish The chemical nature NJ heroiu
=
a few DAYS ago the STATE chelnlet wit
neza. Ipr brown testified that the sample
of heron submitted to him for evamina-
ton as having hoon tonight from Wren.
WINS not = compound If morphine, within
the meaning 80 the law under which
tho Indictment on trial was brought taif
derlvative If morphine Thus testi-
mouY resulted IN tho court ordering
n verdict of not guilty
To-day I)r Watson said most emphatic
ally that heron - 2 compound If morphine
Turned over 10 Mr. Handy for cross
examination. Dr Watson was first asked
where he had been trained IN chemistry
lie replird the College of Pharmacy and
the University ~ Pennsylvania IN Phila-
delph,n through 2 FIVE year course winch
gave him the degree of doctor Of chemistry
fie was graduated n 1907
PlungIng INTO the matter Of hernin it,
self, Dr Watson replied tn questions
that while the drug ~ comparatively a new
ono there ~ published mention of # As
early as 1890, the year after Is lntroduc-
ton In nature chemically u Is two
acetIc acid radlala linked with one rnoieCiie
OF morphine That he SAID IN effect made
It \ compound of morphine a compound
heing the union 1T two substances 10
form = thIru. y compound cplud he
decompos,,d and It's free hasc extracted
In heron certain alkallnes are used upon
the drug To get back from IT the free
morphine That drug, he went on. IS
an alkaloId which - direct derIvatIve
Of opium He described derivative rs
something which partakes Of the nature
OF something else To illustrate this.
Mr. Handy having asked concerning the
chemical nature of gasoline with regard
10 It's origin DR. Watson SAID IT was a
dervative of petroleum, but not a COM