The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-06-16
BYRON PETTIBONE IN
JAIL, CONFESSES TO
POISONING HIS WIFE
Investigation Carried By Detectives Leads to Confession in
Lawyers Office Yesterday-No real Motive for Crime
Revealed By Pebone, Says He Worried Over
Payments House Recently Purchased.

She constantly pleaded with the doc
tors to give her relief. There was
second convulsion out Of which she
emerged without losing her men al
control and she again asked for re-
lief. Had she taken the deadly drug
with suicidal intent the physicians
were confident that under the shadow
Of dea h she would have made some
admission
Mrs. Pet.ibone's relatives ever since
the tragedy have stoutly maintained
their belief in the young mans in
nocehce. AT er her death they came
o Bennington and helped the young
man to move his personal effects from
the house and TO make his room com
Portable and cheerful. They resented
the rumors that we're in circulation
in The village and were vigorously op-
posed TO an autopsy. Because Of lhis
opposition the body en- the Friday fol-
lowing Mrs. Petitioners death was
taken tothe cemetery as hough for
burial and was hen returned TO the
Walbridge undertaking rooms for the
examination.
When the physicians announced
tha' death was due to strychnine po!s-
oning there were but two solutions:
FL her the drug was self-administered
or it was no. and there were no cir
cumstances indicating that Mrs. Pet
tibone was at all likely to have taken
her own life. She had for years de-
sired home Of her own and now tina
she was so located she was taking an
Intense interest in The future. Earlier
on the evening of her death neighbors
called at the house and she talked
freely CT her plans as neighbors are
accus omed to do on such occasions.
Mrs. Pet ibone was muchN older than
her husband and had nearly reached
her 50th year a. the time OF her death.
She was ma i've OF NJ Hclly and had
been twice married. Her maiden
name was Eva Earl Her second mar.
riage took place in Pownal 12 years
ago and soon afterward she moved to
Bennington and her husband entered
the employ of H, p. Woodman as un-
der aker's assistant. Later he enter,
ed the employ of J. Ed. Walbridge.
Attorney General Frank c. Archi-
bald arrived in Town late in the fore
neon and has since beenin consulta.
tion with States Attorney Graves.
The case Is attrac ing a large amount
of in crest in the village and here is
ia crowd in from OF the county court
house awaiting further developments
Relatives of the accused man includ
ing his father and brother, arrived in
town during the day and have been
IN tendance at the Office ofthe sta e 5
attorney. Naturally, they are heart.
broken over the sad affair and the
sympathy of The community goes out
to them in their afilic ion. The fami.
ly is one of the best known in the
town OF Pownal where ii has always
been held in highes, respect.
More excitement has been caused
.by The arrest han any event that has
taken place in town in months. In.
terest has been increased by the pres
once of Bos on newspaper men with
camera experts and the detectives.
During he forenoon a detec i've and
two deputy sheriffs went to the house
on School stree where Mrs Pettibone
lived and made a search for the bottle
which contained the ia al drug The
detective stated later that the search
was unsuccessful.
The evidence in the case has been
gathered by j. Rodney Wood of the
Wood detec i've agency OF Boston, Mr.
Wood is probably the mos. capable
detective in New England and has
done most of the important detective
work for the state of Vernon for
many years.
Mr. Wood has spent some time here
and has had assis ants at work, Mr.,
Wood and MIR, Graves prepared ser
les of questions which Pettibone was
required to answer and It was his
failure to make his answers agree
wi the known facts tha. finally
tripped him and broke his nerve
Pettbone for some weeks has
shown the effects of living under a
nervous strain, After It was known
that his wife died from poisoning
there have been, some people who
have looked on him with suspicion
and hat and the street talk might
easily have affected him had he been
innocent.
Pettibone was generally liked by
the people Of the village and nine out
of ten have refused to believe that he
could possibly be guilty of any crime.
Certainly he never showed any ten
dency tina would lead anyone to sus-
lpect so serious deed
He and his wife had some quarrels
but not more serious than others. He
has sometimes been suspected of be-
ing too partial to other women but he
worked every dayand seemed anxious
to do all in his power to ge ahead.
|, has been several years since Ben
nington has had real or supposed
murder case and the village shows the
greatest interest in the affair, There
is group of hundred or so men
hanging around the courthouse most
of the time and the case is almost the
sole opic OF conversation. Not since
the Mary Rogers case, Is years age
has there been so much interest IN
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