The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-04
FOUR THIN CLUES PERPLEX POLICE IN EDWARDS CASE Frantic Effort Being Made To Locate Origin
 Of Chloroform HUNT FOR BULLET
 IS CONTINUED Projectile Is Sought In Garden Of Fairfield
 Home

After two days of one of the most minute searches ever made in Jefferson county for the solution of a death mys- tery. officials late last night frankly admitted that they were as far from the answer to the brutal murder of Mrs. George T. Edwards as they were early Tuesday morning when her husbands frantic screams brought neighbors to the Fairfield home and the scene of the crime.
 Solicitor Ben Perry of the Bessemer circuit court, in which Dr. Edwards will be given preliminary nearing on charges brought in coroner's warrant which has held him in connection with his wife's death, expressed his deter imitation last night to insist that the doctor be held until something more tangible than the husbands own story is offered to explain the affair. Further Disclosures
 sNo one wishes to do Dr. Edwards an injustice" said Mir. Perry, but there must be further disclosures before we can drop the charge. At the proper time intend to talk with him and see | if there is any possible light that he can throw on the case.
 "The physcial facts at the Fairfield home cannot be reconciled to his story. Yet the mans character, his family re- | lations and his standing as profess sional man argue for him. The state will insist that he be held until some thing further develops"
 Clues Probed
 Meanwhile the search has developed along the following lines: . A city-wide hunt is being made
 for the origin of the bottle partially
 filled with chlor0fOrm which was
 found by Mrs. Edwards bedside.
 The Edwards yard is being
 thoroughly searched for the bullet
 which the doctor says was fired
 through his hand by the marauder
 and thence through the wall into the open.
 Investigation of purpOrted
 "WOman in the case" was tenn
 pOrarily dropped when deputies
 positively asserted that the doctor
 was not the man caught on Fair field highway in company with a
 woman, several days before the
 crime.
 The four-bullet theory, little of
 which has been written, still occu.
 pies strong position in the chain
 of evidence that investigators are
 seeking to weave.
 While officials searched in vain for additional facts nj the murder Dr. Ed wards, of the Employees hospital staff, was unworried Wednesday as to the outcome. Under the watchful eye of two deputy sheriffs. Dr. Edwards re- ceived his father, his counsel, George Ross of Bessemer, and other friends in his room at the local hospital, while the bottle of chloroform came used by the murderer.
 With loyal friends fighting against the web of circumstances entangling, Dr. Edwards, the accused physician puffed an Englash pipe for solace, in an hour which he said was dark as midnight. But out of it all he stoutly matains, that he will emerge untainted. Dr. Edwards will go to Montgomery Thursday morning to see the wife in tered at her old home. Permission to make the trip was given by Chief Deputy Sheriff Feeders of Bessemer and Dr. Lloyd Noland, head of the hospital. The accused physician will be accompanied by an escort of deputy sheriffs and his word as well as that of his father, Colonel Lit Edwards of Selma, has been given, that he will ex- empt the authorities for whatever un- forseen incident may happen. He will return to the Employes hospital Thurs day night, there to remain for at least few days while Dr. Earle Conwell, assistant chief surgeon, administers treatment to the wounded left hand. Later he may be transferred to the Bes- semer jail.
 ChlOrOform Used The murder of Mrs. Edwards, follow ing an administration of chloroform which also affected her sleeping child nearby, has caused an amending sensa- tion at Fairfield and throughout the district. Skilled investigators confess they have only circumstantial evidence to go on. This includes the finding of bottle of chloroform, containing a serial number beside the bed of Mrs. Edwards. The official statement was made by Dr. Lloyd Noland, of the hos pital, that the bottle did not come from there. The sheriff has four officers checking the bottle and all drug stores ill the western part of this county have been asked if they sold it. None have replied, except in the negative. The stores in Birmingham are now being visited. The Squibbs company, has q record of the bottle and on this slender thread may hang the solution of the murder. A
 A complete search is also being made for the bullet which passed through tKe left hand of Dr. Edwards, through
 Continued on POge Two
 STONE SILS.NT ON DISMISSAL