Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1921-06-22
POISONING ALLEGED.
Prominent BrOOksville Man Charged
With Attempt to Kill Wife.

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With Attempt to Kill Wife.
Isaac l.. Slower, aged forty-seven
years, prominent farmer of Brooks
Vile, has been held for the October
grand jury on the charge of attempt
ing to murder his wife by giving her
poisoned candy.
Mr.. Slower was arraigned' before
Judge Crabtree in the Ellsworth
municipal court Monday. County
Attorney Whiting appeared for the
State and D. E. Hurley for the
respondent. The State alone pre-
sented evidence. Probable cause
was found, and the respondent was
held for the grand jury under $1,000
bonds, which were furnished.
The principal witness for the State
was Mrs. Slower Her maiden name
was Albertine Howard, and her home
was in Bluehill. She was married to
Mr.. Slower in September last, but it
transpired in the testimony that he
had been attentive to her some
twenty years ago, before his mar
riage to his first wife.
Mrs. Slower testified that on the
evening of Saturday, May 21, Mr..
Slower took her to the moving
pictures at Brooksville, for the first
time since their marriage. Before
the picture began, Mr.. Slower left her
in her seat, went to the back of the
hall and purchased some candy. He
returned to his seat beside her just
before the picture began, and after
the hall was darkened, he placed two
chocolates in her lap. There she ate,
and they were apparently all right.
A few minutes later Mr.. Slower
placed two more chocolates in her
lap. She bit one of these in half,
and found it extremely bitter. She
threw the other half on the floor, and
ate the fourth chocolate, which was
apparently all right, to take the taste
| out of her mouth. Mr.. Slower, she
said, was also eating candy, but he
did not offer her candy out of a box
or bag.
Some minutes after eating the
candy, Mrs. Slower was taken i'll, and
had to leave the hall She described
her first symptoms as chilliness, a
stiffness of the joints, and twitching
of the nerves. Mr.. Slower took her
home in his car. She does not re-
member going from the car to the
house, but she was conscious after
that. Her husband, she says, sug
gested getting the doctor, and as Dr..
Franklin Farrow, who attended her,
later testified. Mr.. Slower seemed
| very anxious for him to hurry, asking
him not to wait to fully dress. Mr..
Slower was back at the house in
about fifteen minutes, with the doc
tor
DR.. Farrow administered an
emetic, and brought Mrs. Slower out
of her condition. She described the
apparent nervousness of Mr.. Slower
on Sunday and Monday morning, and
quoted him as saying Monday morn
ing that he wished he were dead.
Mrs. Slower testified that from the
first she thought she had been
poisoned, but not until Monday noon
did she suspect her husband. Then
the suspicion flashed upon her, and
she communicated it to her
mother, who was with her. In the
afternoon of the same day she dis
covered that three chocolates had
been removed from a box of candy
that had been in the house several
years, and that she had known was
full short time before.
Tuesday morning she came to ELS
worth, and communicated her sus-
picions to the county attorney, and
Wednesday she returned to the house
in Mr. Stover's absence to get some
of her belongings, and had not been
back since She said she believed
her husband to be in love with a
young woman who for four or five
years after the death of his first wife,
and to within a few weeks of his
second marriage, had kept house for
him. She related incidents to sup
port this conclusion.
DR.. Farrow testified that in his
opinion the symptoms which Mrs.
Slower showed when he reached her
indicated strychnine poisoning, and
this opinion was corroborated by DR..
Lewis Hodgkins of Ellsworth, who
testified to the effects of strychnine
poisoning.
Counsel for the respondent offered
no evidence, but brought out in the
cross-examination of the States wit
nesses that Mr.. Slower bore a good
reputation in the town. He asked
for the respondents discharge on the
ground that the evidence against him
was insufficient.
The Court found probable cause,
hot oh