Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1921-11-11
FOUND GUILTY OF POISON.
ING HER 4TH HUSBAND
Mrs. Southland, Formerly Of Keytes.
vile, Mo-, Faces 10-Year MINI
mum Term at Twin Falls

Mrs. Lydia Meyer Southland, for
merly of Keytesvilie, Mo-, was declar-
ed guilty of second degree murder OF
Edyard F. Meyer, her fourth husband,
by a jury in District Court Friday aft
ternoon.a The verdict was returned
after twenty-three hours deliberation
by the jury.
The defendant showed no sign of
feeling, and did not raise her eyes
from the floor when the verdict was
announced. The verdict carries Q
penalty of not less tnan len years
Imprisonment.
Trial here of Mrs. Southard on
charge OF causing the death OF aieyef,
foreman of the Blue lakes Ranch,
Twin FAILS, by administration of poi
son, said to heve been derived from
poisohous insect exterminator, was
opened in the District Court, Judge
w. A. Babcock presiding, on Septem-
ber .26.
Because of the extended notoriety
given the case difficulty was encoun-
tered in obtaining jury, this func-
tion consuming a weeks time. Wit
nesses were called from Missouri,
Montana, Tennessee and California.
Hypothetical questions, together
with clinical discussion, consumed the
greater portion of the five weeks de-
voted to the trial.
Many Doctors Testify
Many physicians, chemists and sim
liar professionals were called upon to
give testimony as expert witnesses.
On the stand the accused woman
maintained an unperturbed attitude
throughout long grilling by the pro-
secntion, which failed to derive any
important admissions from her.
Every session Of the trial found
the court auditorium filedtto capa-
city, principally by women and girls.
The defendant was accompanied on.
ly by her husband, Paul Vincent
Southard, and her attorneys when the
jury filed into the courtroom. She
was dressed in the brown suit with a
fur collar which she has worn al
most continually during the trial.
The proceedings were brief. Mrs.
Scuthard was said to have slept
scarcely at all last night, and to have
paced the floor almost continually un-
til daylight. In appearance she show
ed no evidence of fatigue.
Woman Arrested Last May
Mrs. Southard was arrested last
May in Honolulu in connection with
the death of Meyer, who died in a
hospital at Pocatello, Idaho, August
20, 1920, an autopsy having revealed
traces Of poison.
Mrs. Southard and her fifth hus-
band( petty officer of the, U. s. S.
Monterrey, arrived in Honolulu from
San Francisco January IL. They
were married in Los Angeles last No
vember.s
Southland in statement at the time
of her arrest, denied the assertion at
tributed to him by the police that
Mrs. Southland had sought to have
him take out $4,000 worth of insur-
ance and that his wife had never ask
ed him to take out any.
Mrs. Southard's matrimonial record
was investigated for the purpose OF
determining the cause and fixing the
responsibility for the deaths of three
other former husbands, an infant
child by Robert Dooley, her first hus-
band, and Dooley's brother, Edward
Insurance which Mrs. Southland was
the beneficiary was carried on the
lives of all five men, it was said. OF
this she is said to have collected at
least $4,000. Mrs. Southard, who is
% years old, worked for time as a
waitress at Twin Falls after Meyers
death. She departed for California
last winter. Her parents are Mr.. and
Mrs. w. ]. Trueblood of Kimberly,
Twin Falls County.
Bodies All Exhumed
Prosecutor Stephan said the bodies
of all the men had been exhumed and
the contents Of their stomaehs analy-
zed by Herman Harms and Edwin F.
Rodenbaugh, state chemists, respec-
lively Of Idaho and Utah, and that a
deadly poison had been found. The
poison in each case was said to have
been the same.
The woman's arrest on . charge Of
numbering Meyer was made as re
suit OF the chemists report.