New-York tribune., 1920-11-28
England Revels
In Sensational
Creenw0odCase
Conservative Brnish News
papers, Forgciful for
Nonce, Give First Place
to Alleged Wife, Slayer
Eternal Triangle Appears
Lawyer, Accused Of Poison
ing His Spouse to Wed
Another, Is Acquitted
By Harold f. SCARBOROUGH


sational criminal trial Of recent wears
in Britain came to an end when Harold
Greenwood, n solicitor of Kidwelly.
Wales, was acquitted Of the charge of
numbering his first wife by administer
ing arsenic.
For seven days the little village Of
Carmarthen, where the trial was held,
has jostled Paris and New York and
even London from the display posi-
tions in the newspapers. The average
Londoner knew as much about Car
marthen, Wales, as the average New
Yorker did about Mount Clemens,
Mich, before the famous Ford libel suit
was brought to trial there. But now
Carmarthen has firmly established it's
r.sht to place in the sur--or in the
log. to be more accurate.
a part of the Intense interest in the
case arose from the fact that Mrs.
Greef wood was q sister of a one-time
Lord Mayor Of London. But even that
cannot account for the great publicity
which the Welsh drama received. The
fact is that it blended the elements of
themes beloved Of noveIsts--,he eter-
nal triangle, the crime pGssionel.
To begin with this trial, which
caused one press association alone to
send 10000 words day from the little
tewn OF Carmarthen, conferred about
aarc!d Greenwood, country solicitor.
On June l6, 1919, his wife, Mrs. Mabel
Greenwood. died suddenly She had
been in i'll health for some time and
apparently her death caused no par
t4cular amount Of comment.
Poison Alleged in Wine
Less than month later Harold
Greenwood became engaged to Miss
Gladys Jones, an employed Of The X d
welly Mercury, and three months after
this date he was married to her. Early
the next year anonymous letters, mint
ng, that the death Of the first Mrs.
( Greenwood was not due to natural
causes, began to reach the authorities.
Her body was exhumed and sent to
London for examination by Home Once
experts, and on June 16, 1920, exactly
one year after the death of his first
wife, Greenwood wss arrested and
charged with the murder.
The case which the state sought to
build up was plain. Greenwood, hav-
ing become tired OF his first wife, who
vas semi-invald and having become
fond of Miss Jones, na& seized the oc-
cs.icn Of the formers serious illness
to put an end to her life. How? BY
placing an arscnical preparation, used
rs weed killer, in the wlnc which she
drank at dinner. The Home Office cx-
orts were prepared to swear that ar
sen was found in the first Mrs Green
woods visccra; maid in the Green
wood home would testify that Mrs
Greenwood, alone, drank Of the Bur-
Il, r1, ~, l.
q the Greenwood homo on June 16
1919.
Sn1all-town gossip was condemnatory
of Greenwood. His wife had died sud
denly; within few months he had
married girl many years younger
than the first Mrs. Greenwood. What
more natural than that he had DIS
creetly got rid Of the first wife in or
der to be able to marry the second?
Doster MADE a Mistake
When TIE case came to trial before
Justice Ssearman at the Carmarthe n
Assizcs Greenwood had retained Sir
Edward Marshall Hall, one Of the fore
most criminal lawyers of England, to
defend him. The Crowns case was
presented by Sir Marlay Sampson.
The first sensation Of the tria
proper came when DR. Gri4iths, tho
pT0COtlODcr VINO Hdu dIlcHucu 4fli
Greenwood for many years, and who
had testified on three separate occa
sions that on the occasion of her fata
illness he had administered morphia
sworc he had made q mistake" ano
that the two pills which he gave Mrs
Greenwood to quiet her following the
attack of acute indigestion which pre-
ccded her death contained not morphia
but opium. The defense had hoped tt
show that death was due to an over
dose of morphia; or, failing that, te
indigestion due to Mrs. Greenwood''
entinE gessebcrry tarts.
. expert medical testimony a:
is usually the case. Or. Grifiths hnt
! given certificate Of death from hear
failure. Medical authorities were citct
to show that the amount of arsenic
found in the internal organs Mt th'
post mortcm was not suficient t.
, cause death; or was at least the mini
mum which might have proved fatal.
t The home Office experts clung t.
enough to have ended Mrs. Green
woods life. The fact that Greenwood
! had made large purchases of weed kin
2 ing preparations containing the poison
seemed point in their favor.
, Greenwood, himsel., placed on tn
Y stand, did not cut a good figure. Hi
3 answers seemed sullen and evasivc. HI
y denied any fondnoss for Miss Jone
Q prior to his wifc's death, stating tina
he discovered "all of sudden" Will,
/ nc WAS lunchiny with Miss Jones, tina
he was in love with her.
Daughter Drank Wine
But he admitted that he had give1
> her a $3.50 diamond ring, which he ha'
originally purchased for his daughter
Miss Irene Greenwood, twenty tw
years old. There also was the ques
ton Of travelling bag, which Green
wood asserted was a present to Mis-
v Jones from the staff Of the Kidwcll,
Mercury, bat which he had been choscl
to present her.
\ Then came the crucial point of tn,
E trial.
Hannah Williams, maid in tn
Greenwood home, already had testhe1
n that Mrs. Greenwood, and she alone
: had partsken Of the Burgundy which
|, was on the lunch table on the day o
her dezth. Irene Greenwood swor
. positively that she had drunk twic
k from the bottle supposed to hold th
poison. Her testimony was given il
, clear and explicit fashion. 1t wa
, shown that wsen Mrs. Greenwood die,
d Fer income Of $4,000 a year, which, O
: course, had been subject to Green
q woods disposal during her life, re
= vorted to her children. Sir Edwnr,
Marshall Hall also raised the point tha