The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-07-15
POISON USED
AS MEDICINE,
KOLB DEFENSE
Wife Took StryChnine as
StimuIant, Says Diploma
Mill Doctor.
OFFER SUICIDE THEORY
Character Witnesses Are
on Stand to Testify
for Defendant.
BY BEN STERN
Times stan Correspondent


GREENFIELD. Ind, July 15.-
Testimony of a diploma mill' doc
tor that the second wife of George
Kolb. SIS, Rushville farmer, used
strychnine tablets regularly as
stimulant. vas offered today as pri-
mary defense for Kolb. on trial in
Hancock circuit court, charged with
murder Of his third wife, Mrs. Edna
Dagler Kolb.
An indictment in Rush county
charges Kolb with the murder also
OF his second wife. Mrs. Matte
Rhoades Kolb. and the state pro-
duced evidence in the present trial
TO indicate she suffered fate SINH
lar to that alleged for Mrs. Edna
Kolb.
The defense today also produced
a witness whose testimony indicated
that the third wife may have con-
fessed a suicide attempt just before
she died last fall.
Tell of Good Character
A dozen other witnesses testified
to Kolb's good character Judge
Arthur G. Van Duyn announced ne
would limit the defense to twenty
five character witnesses. Defense
counsel previously stated it would
produce more than two hundred.
DR.. Walter Marion Rowland, Con
nersville. took the stand to say that
KoIb and his second wife visited
him i'm February. 1927. for treat
ments for the wife, suffering from
nervous and heart trouble, and high
blood pressure
Under three subsequent bath
treatments. Mrs. Kolb tainted. ana
admitted that she had used strych-
nine tablets as a heart stimulant,
DR.. Rowland testified. He said he
warned her against the practice, but
she later admitted violation of her
promise to abstain. She died In
April.
Raps at Doctor
paul Benson. Newcastle, chief Of
The prosecution. elected from Row
land that the doctor obtained his
degree" from a diploma mill
school of drugless physicians in In
dianspolis.
You say that she MRS. Matte
Kolb) keeled over on the sixth, sew
enth aud eighth of your treatments
and that was the result Of your
good work?" Benson asked.
Mrs. Ora Siler, Rushville. told the
igrv that after Mrs. Edna Kolb's
death. Mrs. Rema McGinnis, sister
of the deceased, said to her:
Before she died, Edna told me:
I didn't sleep at all last night.
7 never dreamed Edna would do
anything like this
Mrs. McGinnis. on the stand, said
she did not remember that CONVEX
sation.
Harger on Stand
Testimony Of the state, which
closed Mor.lay. tended to show that
the second wife died from strych-
nine given her by Kolb in the
guise of an aspirin tablet. while the
third wife died from strychnine
KoIb allegedly gave her as a quinine
capsule.
Using the expert testimony of DR..
r. n. Hargef, professor OF biochem-
istrv at the Indiana university
school of medicine. and an out
standing toS1cologist. the prosecu-
ton showed that no traces Of qui-
nine we're found in the stomach,
kidney. or liver of the third wife,
but tests had shown more than
one-half grain of strychnine.
Harger Tells Of Analyses
DR.. Harger then told how his
ANALYSES Of the organs Of the sec
ond wife had revealed us grain Of
Strychnine.
After discussing the symptoms OF
both women before their deaths and
the results of his examinations, DR..
Harger fatty declared that the two
women died from strychnine pol
soning.
Efforts Of defense counsel headed
by John H. Kiplinger. to shake the
Harger testimony on croSS-examina-
ton. although well planned, did not
succeed.
AS Harger drove home each point
until he reached his conclusion. the
face OF the 55-year-old farmer de-
PENDANT grew white He was lean
ing forward in his chair nervously
when the toxicologist announced his
finding.
Standing room was at premium
in the courtroom when the expert
testified and many had gathered IN
the hall TO listen through the open
doors.