The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-01-01
DRUGGIST ADMITS
POISON INDEATH
Of BERTHARANDLE
Arrests on Liquor Charge and
GraveSt Accusations Follow
Death of Woman said to-
Have Drunk Alcohol Sunday

Detectives Bishop and Joyce arrested
l.. H. Tigniere, of the Liberty Drug
company, Beale avenue and Front
street, Thursday morning about 10
CLOCK, on charge of violating the
The detectives claim that the first
bottle of Jamaica ginger which Rsaile
pought, and which he drank with his
wife, was purchased at the liberty drug
store They state they found about so
bottles of Jamaica ginger in drawers in
the store. A sample was turned. over
to the city chemist for analysis. Tig-.
Mere declared at police headuuai ters
that the sample was Jamaica ginger,
all right"
Murder is the charge police have
placed against Theodore Pinsten, "a,
proprietor Of the American Pharmacy,
III Beale avenue, following the death
last Sunday of Mrs. Bertha Randle, from
drinking a compound supposed to be Ja-
nlaica ginger made with wood alcohol,
which, It is charged, was purchased from
Pinstein's store, and which police say,
was compounded by Pinstein& The
druggist Is at liberty on $4,000 bond.
Irwin Bodenheimer, 10, clerk iiIt Tsin-
STEMS store, alleged to be the man who
sold the bottle of poisonous fluid. is
charged with manslaughter. 1t was on
his testimnoy that a charge of man
slaughter first placed against Pinstein,
WAS CnhnBeQs TO MURDER.
Police charge that Pmstein compound
ed the Jamaica ginger which was sold,
knowing that it was not pure grain al
eohol which he used in manufacturing
the fluid. A bottle found on the shelf
OF Pinstein's drug store, among pare
goric bottles, Is supposed to contain the
same fluid that caused Mrs. Handles
death 1t was given by Detectives
Bishop and Joyce and Motorcycle Off
Ger Ward to Hulet Smith, chief of de-
tectives, who gave it for analysis to +.
A. Mantel, city chemist on Thursday.
. Two bottles, found at Mrs. Randle's
home after her death, contained less
than thimble full of fluid-insufficien
for purposes of analysis but the odor,
both local and federal officers say was
that of wood alcohol in one bottle.
This bottle, e. l. Randle, husband Of the
dead woman says he purchased from
Bodenheimer, at Plnsteins pharmacy,
last sunday.
Mrs. Bertha Randle, 26, lived at so
Vance avenue. Her husband purchased
q bottle Of Jamalca ginger last Sunday
from South Main street druggist
They drank It. Randle went 70 get
another bot "A lH went to RinRteift's
lslfi,g Store kn says. and tried to ptlr-
chase . 81 bottle He got two 58-cent
bottles from Bodenl elmer, he says, who
poured the contents of the two into one
ticed the second bottle was of paler
color than the first he had purchased
Mrs. Randle drank the contents Of that
bottle Sunday, and Randle then left for
trip to Chattanooga, which is head
quarters for the medicine company for
which he is a salesman. The next day
he received word that his wife had died,
Bodenheimer talked freely at police
headquarters He said he sold the
home compounded" Jamaica ginger
after Pinstein told him, in reply to q
query, that 1t was all right. "Deodor-
ized'' alcohol Bodenheimer said, was
what was used in making UP the fluid.
However local wholesale drug houses
say there rs no such alcohol in ex-
lstense.
Bodenheimer gave what he purported
was the "inside" of the sale OF com
pounds, such as Jamaica ginger, for
beverage purposes, in some drug stores
He charged that statesmen 'wised" re-
tailers how they might sell alcohol for
beverage purposes, and account for 1t
in the record the government forces
them to keep as having been used in
the compounding of spirits of nitre,
liniments and the like.