September 13, 1908 TOOK POTASH AND A CIGARETTE.
But Neither Harmed Harry Jacobs, Cook, With a Poison Record.
An ambulance call was received at the Walnut street police station last night about 10:30, on a report that a man had tried to commit suicide by poisoning himself. When the ambulance arrived the patient, Harry Jacobs, a cook, living at 1508 Olive street, was found on the front porch smoking a cigarette. He did not deny that he had taken potash, but seemed to have completely recovered.
"You ought to remember me," he said to the surgeon, Dr. Warren T.Thornton, "you pumped a dose of carbolic acid out of me a month ago."
He did not give any reason for the attempt.Labels: doctors, Olive street, poison, Suicide, tobacco, Walnut street police station August 31, 1908 IS IT A DRUGGISTS' SCHEME?
Alderman Gilman Believes Carbolic Acid Ordinance Is a Bid for Profit.
The lower house last night referred to the sanitary and hospital committee the upper house ordinance making a physician's prescription necessary in buying carbolic acid at drug stores.
"It seems to me that ordinance originated in some druggist's profit factory," said Alderman C. J. Gilman, who is a practicing physician, "and I can't see how by compelling people to pay a druggist 600 or 700 per cent profit in the sale of carbolic acid we are going to restrain people from taking the poison for suicidal purposes. We all know carbolic acid is a common commodity found in every house for sanitary purposes. Druggists now sell an ounce of it for 5 cents if the customer has a bottle, but if the druggist furnishes the bottle the cost is 10 cents for the ounce. Make a prescription necessary and a druggist will charge 25 cents an ounce for the commodity, which is essential in every household for sanitary and antiseptic purposes. Physicians do not prescribe carbolic acid in the practice of medicine, and they don't want to be bothered writing a prescription every time one of their patients wants 5 cents worth of carbolic acid."
Alderman Joseph C. Wirthman, a druggist, introduced the ordinance in the upper house two weeks ago.Labels: druggists, Kansas City council, poison, Suicide August 26, 1908 RAT POISON KILLED A BABY.
Little Harold Hunt Suffered Six Days After Eating It.
After six days of unconsciousness from having eaten rat poison, Harold Hunt, 2 years of age, died at the Mercy hospital early yesterday morning. The day after the baby ate the poison it was taken to its home in Prior Creek, Ok., by its mother and received treatment from six physicians. Sunday the child seemed to grow much worse and its parents hurried it back to Kansas City, where it might receive expert medical attention. Mrs. J. J. Erwin, the mother, took the baby to the general hospital, where she was told that the child would receive better attention at the Mercy hospital, that being especially a hospital for children. The mother took the advice, but the child was beyond medical aid.
Mrs. Erwin had been visiting her mother at 216 West Sixteenth street, and it was at that place where Harold ate a biscuit which had been sprinkled with rat poison.Labels: children, death, Mercy hospital, oklahoma, poison, Sixteenth street, visitors August 17, 1908 ONE STREET'S SUICIDE MANIA.
Three Women Living on Campbell Street Take Poison.
Carbolic acid and laudanum were the poisons taken as a means of committing suicide by three women living on Campbell street yesterday afternoon and last night. The first case to call out the ambulance and physician was that of Maggie Adams, a negress, 537 Campbell street, who had taken part of 10 cents' worth of carbolic acid. She had been drinking liquor all afternoon and was not in a dangerous condition when Dr. George E. Pipkin arrived. She was not taken to the hospital. Dr. Pipkin said he found but one reason for the woman taking the acid, which was that she had become tired of walking up the long flight of stairs leading from the street to her home.
Call No. 2 occurred about 7 o'clock and proved to be Mrs. Lena Wheeler of 928 Campbell street, who had taken laudanum. She was also treated by Dr. Pipkin and allowed to remain at her home.
At 8 o'clock the hospital received another poisoning case message and Dr. Julius Frischer responded. It was also on Campbell street at No. 532 and proved to be a negress named Pearl Redding. She was extremely nervous while drinking the acid and her face was seared with it. She was taken to the hospital and treated. During the rest of the night the doctors were prepared to handle any other cases of poisoning that might come in.Labels: Campbell street, doctors, poison, Suicide, women August 6, 1908 TOOK POISON WHILE EATING HIS SUPPER.
Fred Guy Died in Front of "Saffire" Restaurant.
Frequenting regularly the "Saffire" restaurant, 908 Walnut street, where his divorced wife, Frances, was employed as a waitress, Fred Guy, 31 years old, about 9 o'clock last night ended his troubles by drinking nearly two ounces of carbolic acid and dying a few moments later on the sidewalk just outside of the restaurant door, where he had been removed by the proprietor, J. W. McCracken.
Guy entered the restaurant about 8 o'clock last night and was given a seat near the center of the room. He ordered a light meal from Mrs. Belle Smith, a waitress, and then motioned to his wife to come to his table.
When she reached his side she smelled the carbolic acid, which he had evidently drunk before entering the restaurant. She asked him what he had done and he replied by shaking his head, but did not speak. She ran to the front of the restaurant and informed Mr. McCracken that the man had taken poison. The manager said he believed the man was drunk and led him out of the restaurant. On reaching the street Guy dropped a bottle which had contained the acid, and then McCracken summoned the ambulance.
Dr. George H. Pipken of the emergency hospital gave emergency treatment to Guy on the street where he had fallen, but he was beyond relief when the doctor arrived. Mrs. Guy said last night that she had married Fred Guy in Leavenworth, Kas., nearly three years ago, but had obtained a divorce from him about four months ago.
She said that he daily importuned her to return, but that she had refused to listen to his peleading.Labels: Divorce, doctors, Leavenworth, poison, restaurants, Suicide, Walnut Street July 30, 1908 TO MAKE CARBOLIC ACID HARD TO BUY.
DRUGGISTS WANT A LAW REGU- LATING SALE OF POISON.
Would Sell a Diluted, Harmless Form to the General Trade, and the Strong Drug on Pre- scriptions Only.
It is going to be harder to commit suicide with carbolic acid in Kansas City in a little while.
The dictum has gone forth from the Kansas City Retail Druggists' Association. Alarmed by the number of deaths from this drug, the association, at a meeting last week, appointed a legislative committee to draft an ordinance for presentation to the council. This measure, which is to be patterned closely after the law in force in Chicago, will to a great extent do away with the drug as a means of self-destruction.
At the present time any child may buy the acid, which really is no acid at all, but a form of alcohol called phenol. Druggists say they dare not refuse to sell the drug for fear of losing much of their trade, as carbolic acid is extensively employed in cleansing. Much as they hate to serve this trade, they find they must do it in order to hold their customers for other lines in the drug trade.
The new ordinance, which is to be presented for introduction in the council as soon as it has been approved by the legislative committee and presented to the Jackson County Medical Association for its indorsement, hedges the sale of the drug about with rigid restrictions. By its terms, the ordinary carbolic acid to be sold over the counters will retain all its qualities as an antiseptic and for cleansing. It will be robbed, however, of its power to destroy human life, and in a very simple way.
DILUTE THE DRUG.
While carbolic acid is a form of alcohol, the best antidote for the poison, curiously enough, is alcohol. So the druggists propose to sell, or rather to compel themselves to sell, a mixture of 1-3 carbolic acid, 1-3 alcohol and 1-3 glycerin. If anybody tries to commit suicide with this mixture, he will have nothing but a bad taste in the mouth and perhaps a little nausea.
The real carbolic acid, under this ordinance, may be sold only on the prescription of a regularly licensed physician. Exceptions are the sale of more than one gallon to one person or the handling of the product in a commercial way by wholesale houses and the like.
All offenses against the ordinance are made, as in the case of Chicago, misdemeanors, punishable by fines of from $10 to $25 or by imprisonment of from thirty days to six months.
To do away with abuses of the prescription, the ordinance makes it unlawful to forge prescriptions or to put on them the wrong date or to misrepresent in any way. These offenses are also made misdemeanors and punishable by the same fine.
THAT'S NOT COMFORTABLE.
"Druggists have decided that they must have some protection in this matter," said D. V. Whitney, president of the druggists' association, who conducts a store at 3722 East Twelfth street. "It is no comfortable feeling to know, if you are a druggist, that you have sold carbolic acid which has resulted in a person's death. But druggists have no way to get out of such sales except by passing a law compelling themselves to do what they already want to.
"Accidents happen easily. For instance, a child may be sent to a store to buy carbolic acid. On the way home it may drop the bottle, and in picking up the fragments sustain severe burns. The modified drug will not burn. It is a case in which the druggists are trying to secure legislation to protect the general public. The stores themselves will make no more profit for the diluted carbolic acid costs for the druggists as much as the strong drug.
"Our ordinance provides that prescriptions must give the name and address of both patient and doctor. These prescriptions must be open at all times to the inspection of the coroner, the police and the city and county authorities."Labels: Chicago, druggists, organizations, poison, Suicide, Twelfth street July 19, 1908 MISTAKE MAY COST HIS LIFE.
Samuel Stewart, Jr., May Die From Drinking Carbolic Acid.
According to physicians attending Samuel Stewart, Jr., exchange teller of the Commercial National bank of Kansas City, Kas, who drank carbolic acid by mistake at his home, 562 Oakland avenue, Friday morning, he is still very low from the effects of the poison and may die. Mrs. Stewart, who snatched the bottle from her husband as he was in the act of tipping it to his lips, spilled a quantity of the acid on her hands and feet. Her burns were not given proper attention at the time because of the excitement in the Stewart household over the accident, and she suffered much from them yesterday.
Samuel Stewart, Jr., is well thought of in the bank He is of a nervous disposition. During the last three or four weeks he has been on the verge of prostration and under a doctor's care almost continuously, it is said. Samuel Stewart, Sr., the father, who heads the Stewart Grocery Company, Seventh street and Minnesota avenue, is confident that his son took the acid through mistake.Labels: banking, Kansas City Kas, mental health, Minnesota avenue, poison June 30, 1908 TWO MEN TAKE CARBOLIC ACID.
One Because He's Asked to Pay a Debt; Other's Reason Unknown.
Roy Kirk, 31 years old, a contracting plasterer, who gave his residence as 407 West Fourteenth street, was taken to the emergency hospital about 5 o'clock last evening to be treated for carbolic acid poisoning. When Dr. J. P. Neal examined Kirk he found that there was more of the acid on his face than inside the mouth. Joseph Blake and Kirk, who had been friends for a long time, had quarreled because Blake had asked Kirk to pay a debt. They entered a saloon at 903 Wyandotte street and drank together. Then Kirk is said to have left suddenly and returned with an ounce of carbolic acid.
"If you don't forgive me for what I've done I'll call it all off and take this," he said.
Then Kirk attempted to drink the acid. Blake struck the bottle from his hand, spilling the acid over Kirk's face.
About 9 o'clock last night an old man was found breathing heavily in a bunk at the Helping Hand Institute, 406 Main street. Dr. J. P. Neal was called from the emergency hospital across the street. Strong antidotes were at once administered and after an hour's hard work the old man was declared out of danger. By his bunk was found a bottle that had contained carbolic acid. On the books of the institution the old man was registered as Jeff Smith but that is not thought to be correct. The man's throat was so badly corroded that last night he was not able to talk.Labels: doctors, emergency hospital, Fourteenth street, Helping Hand, Main street, poison, saloon, Suicide, Wyandotte street May 22, 1908 SARAH MORASCH IS GUILTY OF MURDER.
CONVICTED OF POISONING A 4-YEAR-OLD GIRL.
Sent Poisoned Candy by Mail to Ella Miller, Who Did Not Eat It Be- cause It Was Bitter -- Her Sister Was Killed.
Mrs. Sarah Morasch must spend the remainder of her life in the Kansas penitentiary for the murder of her 4-year-old niece, Ruth Miller. The jury which heard the evidence in Mrs. Morasch's second trial reached a verdict of guilty at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon. The case had been on trial since May 4. There was no verdict in the first trial.
When the verdict was read Mrs. Morasch held her usual composure, and merely laughed.
The case went to the jury at 4 o'clock Wednesday afternoon, and from the first ballot to the one which settled the fate of Mrs. Morasch the jurors stood eleven to one for conviction. At noon yesterday George E. Horn, foreman of the jury, asked for the testimony of Charles Miller, father of the dead girl. A few minutes later a knock was heard on the door of the jury room. "We have agreed," said Foreman Horn, and the twelve jurors filed in the court room and took their seats.
On the afternoon of February 13, the Miller children were in their home, 634 Cheyenne avenue, Armourdale. A knock was heard on the door and the postman, Henry T. Keener, handed Ella Van Meter, better known as Ella Miller, a package weighing about a pound. It was wrapped in white paper and bore the inscription: "Ella Miller, 634 Cheyenne avenue, Armourdale. A knock was heard on the door and the postman, Henry T. Keener, handed Ella Van Meter, better known as Ella Miller, a package weighing about a pound. It was wrapped in white paper and bore the inscription: "Ella Miller, 634 Cheyenne avenue, corner of Cheyenne & Packard avenues. From the S. & S. girls."
The box was opened, and found to contain a pound of chocolate candy, which she says tasted bitter, and gave some to the other children who gathered around her.
A few minutes later Ruth, who had eaten more of the candy than the rest, was seized with cramps while playing in the back yard, and was taken into the house. She died before the nearest physician, Dr. Zacharia Nason, who lived a block distant, could be summoned. He pronounced the death as due to strychnine poisoning.
The fact that Mrs. Sarah Morasch bore a grudge against Ella Miller, who had once laughed at he, and that immediately after the little girl's death, she had gone to Harrisonville, Mo., caused suspicion to be directed to her. She was arrested at the Missouri town.
The testimony of handwriting experts was a strong factor in the conviction.Labels: Armourdale, children, courtroom, Death of Ruth Miller, doctors, murder, poison May 22, 1908 TOOK MORE THAN A TOOTHFUL.
Schoolboy Disregarded Mother's Di- rections in Use of Carbolic Acid.
Lloyd Thomas, 11 years old, 2035 East Thirty-fifth street, was told by his mother to put some carbolic acid in the cavity of an aching tooth. That was about 8:30 a. m Tuesday. Lloyd had never used that drug before and knew nothing of its potency.
Lloyd, instead of trying to put a drop into the cavity, turned up the bottle and filled his mouth with the acid. It burned so that he swallowed it. Presently he became unconscious and the family became alarmed. Dr. W. A. Shelton, who lives lose by at 3435 Brooklyn avenue, was summoned and gave the boy a powerful antidote, not before his throat and esophagus had been badly burned by the acid, however. Yesterday the boy was better, but is not yet out of danger. He is the son of Robert Thomas, a real estate man. Lloyd is a school boy.Labels: Brooklyn avenue, children, doctors, poison, real estate, Thirty-fifth street April 14, 1908 BURNED CHILDREN WITH ACID.
Boys Rubbed It on Their Faces, Caus- ing Them Much Pain.
Four boys, living in the neighborhood of Fourteenth and Campbell streets, last night took a bottle of carbolic acid and a medicine syringe and spread terror among the girls and smaller children of that section. An alarm reached No. 4 police station and Patrolman T. M. Scott captured one of the boys, Tony Hanson, 1320 Campbell street. His is 11 years old and his companions were about the same age. The names of the others said to have taken part were Chester Cheney, 910 East Fourteenth street; Harry Wintermute, 912 East Fourteenth street and Chester Northfleet, 914 East Fourteenth street.
The boys claimed they secured the bottle in or behind a barn and that they did not know what it contained. Many children were burned by the acid. While one boy used the medicine syringe the others, it is said, would saturate pieces of rag and rub the necks and faces of children they could catch. Ugly burns and much pain followed. Lieutenant Hammil in charge of No. 4 police station did not want to place boys so young in the holdover, so he merely left their names, addresses and other information for Captain Flahive to act upon as he chooses today. Some of the children who were most burned are Florence David, 1431 Campbell street; Winnie Austin, 914 East Fourteenth street, and Edna Barnes, 1425 Campbell street.Labels: Campbell street, children, Fourteenth street, No 4 police station, poison, violence March 30, 1908 OUT OF WORK, TOOK POISON.
Jacob Kohn, Sick and Discouraged, Ends Life With Acid.
A man, believed to be Jacob Kohn, committed suicide in room fourteen at the Plaza hotel, Missouri avenue and Delaware street, Saturday night, and the body was found at 9 o'clock yesterday morning by Sara Ridgeway, the housekeeper. Coroner George B. Thompson says that during his term of office no other Jew has taken his own life in Kansas city and that the crime is almost unknown among men of Jewish belief
Kohn, in a farewell note, directed that the Jewish Society of Kansas City take charge of his remains. The society will bury the body, but it cannot be laid in a Jewish cemetery.
Kohn's farewell note, which he wrote just before drinking carbolic acid, as the pencil left on the table bears witness, reads:
"To whom it may concern -- This is my second attempt at suicide. I
think I shall succeed this time. I am in poor health, am unable to get
work and have no friends and no money. Give my body to the Jewish
Society. -- Jake Kohn."
Mrs. Ridgeway says that Kohn came to the hotel Saturday night late and registered as John Johnson. She had never seen him before. He paid for his room. Shortly before 9 o'clock yesterday morning when a maid was unable to get into the room to tidy it, Mrs. Ridgeway, who was called in, was informed from a man who had spent the night in room 15 adjoining, that he had heard the man in room 14 groaning and rolling around during the night. Upon that statement Mrs. Ridgeway called the police, who forced the door and found the body.
Coroner Thompson was notified and sent the body to Freeman and Marshall's morgue. Not a penny was found in the clothes. There was nothing to identify the man, excepting the signature on the note. In the pocket were cards from business houses and factories in many Kansas and Oklahoma towns. Kohn was evidently a laborer and had been in these towns looking for employment.Labels: Coroner Thompson, hotels, laborer, oklahoma, poison, race, Suicide, undertakers March 27, 1908 NEW KIND OF EXPERT IN MORASCH TRIAL.
IT'S A WOMAN WHO HAS HAD THIRTEEN CHILDREN.
Called to Bear Witness That Mrs. Morasch Did Not Give Birth to Child She Claimed as Her Own.
Ollie Jones, the mysterious witness for the state in the prosecution of Mrs. Morasch, accused of poisoning Ruth Miller, did not testify yesterday and, according to County Attorney Taggart, will not today. Court is adjourned until 9:30 o'clock Monday morning. The prosecutor says there is a world of minor testimony to be heard before Jones can be called to the stand. Jones was subpoenaed in Indianapolis, Ind, Monday.
Professor Beshong of the chemical department of the Kansas university finished his testimony at 11 o'clock yesterday morning and was dismissed. In cross-examination, Professor Bushong could not be certain that the symptoms of a certain kind of ptomaine do not resemble the effects of a dose of strychnine. He held, however, that ptomaine cannot exist in ordinary glucose such as used in making the white center portion of a chocolate cone.
The first witness called in the afternoon was Mrs. Laura Brooks, special witness for the state. Mrs. Brooks testified that the child Mrs. Morasch took from the Hughes maternity hospital a month or two before the poisoning, and which she claimed she had given birth to, could not have been her own.
"But, how do you know?" questioned Attorney Maher for the defense.
"The day after she said it was born I examined it and found it to be at least three weeks old."
"Three weeks old? I venture to assert t here is not a woman in the court room who could be sure on that point after a child is three days old. Are you a mother yourself?"
"Oh, yes; I have thirteen children, most of them grown," sighed the witness wearily. She was then dismissed by counsel for the defense without further cross examination.
Dr. Z. Nason of Packard and Osage avenues, Armourdale, was then called. Dr. Nason said he had been the first physician called after the poisoning and had seen Ruth die. He said she died of strychnine poisoning as far as he could judge. Her symptoms did not resemble those of ptomaine poisoning.Labels: Armourdale, attorney, County Attorney Taggart, courtroom, Death of Ruth Miller, doctors, murder, poison, women March 27, 1908 WAS SLAPPED BY HER MOTHER.
Lena Vaughn, a 15-Year-Old Girl, Tries Suicide With Acid.
The specter of suicide in her bedroom, and a door without a knob, almost broke the heart of 9-year-old Edna Vaughn last night. Her sister, Lena, 15 years old, after insolence to her mother and a slapping, had sulked through the evening, supperless, at a neighbor's until Warren Vaughn, the father, a contractor, sent Edna after her He said she must come home for bed. She went with her sister to a little square bedroom, where, in a moment, she said: "I'm going to take something to kill myself, Edna," and tipped a bottle of carbolic acid to her lips. The child was paralyzed with terror for a moment, then shutting her eyes, turned and beat her little hands madly against the door, from which the loose knob and handle had fallen to the outside.
The parents had retired across the hall, and did not hear at once. When they were aroused there was difficulty in opening the door. Lard and vinegar were forced down the girl's throat, while the police ambulance was making a run to the home at 1820 Summit street. Dr. Carl V. Bates, ambulance surgeon, found the girl a stubborn patient and it was only after a continued resistance that the stomach pump was used. When he left, the doctor said the girl would recover She was a laundry employe. When she came from work she resented her mother's refusing to fix a sewing machine for her.Labels: children, doctors, poison, Suicide, Summit street March 22, 1908
MRS. MORASCH TELLS STORY OF HER LIFE
REARED IN THE SQUALID PACK- ING HOUSE DISTRICT.
Still Wears the Wedding Ring of Bill Morasch, Her First Hus- band, Whom She Loved. Case Goes On. 
MRS. SARAH MORASCH, ACCUSED OF MURDERING 4-YEAR-OLD RUTH MILLER.
"I did not send the candy. Who thinks I sent it? Not my associates in the West Bottoms, who have known me for years Not little Ella, the poison was intended for. Ask her; look her in the eyes and see if she doesn't tell you on the square she loves me, and will come back to my house to visit as she used to, when this dreadful trial is over. I am innocent, I tell you; I am innocent."
Mrs. Sarah Miller, better known as "Mrs. Morasch," said this yesterday to a reporter for The Journal. She is the accused woman in the case of the poisoning of little Ruth Miller, the 4-year-old daughter of Charles and Ida Miller, 634 Cheyenne avenue, Armourdale. Ruth sickened and died apparently from strychnine poisoning, ten minutes after eating bonbons from a package anonymously sent by mail to her step-sister, Ella Van Meter, 14 years old, at noon, Wednesday, February 12. The case is now being tried before Judge McCabe Moore, in the district court of Wyandotte county in Kansas City, Kas.
Mrs. Morasch spoke earnestly. At the mention of Ella Van Meter, who testified against her Friday, her deep-set gray eyes softened, and the lines about her mouth thawed visibly. All facial evidence of years of hardship, toil and companionship in the packing house district of both Kansas Cities became temporarily erased. She did not look the woman who could deliberately poison a 14-year-old girl and a family of little ones.
Mrs. Morasch is only 49 years old, but stooped shoulders and gray hair make her appear 60, at least. Two front teeth are gone, and this discrepancy makes sinister a smile which otherwise might be motherly and kind Her voice is a trifle harsh at times.
BEEN HERE ALL HER LIFE.
"Where was I born? In Dayton, O., 49 years ago. I was brought to Wyandotte county, Kas., by my father, Edward Davis, and my mother, Elizabeth Davis, when I was but 3 years old. My father was a veteran of the civil war and a farmer.
"Everyone loved dad. He was such a neighborly soul and so fond of children that he at once won the hearts of everybody who got acquainted with him. I think that if I have really gone to the bad, it cannot be justly laid at his door or my mother's. Good, kind souls, both of them.
"I remember when I was a little girl father took me on his knee and told me to grow up to be a good woman like mother. We were in the kitchen of the old farm house near Quindaro. Mother was knitting a pair of leggins for me by the fire. Father took the family Bible off of a stand near his chair and read some part of it which meant 'be a credit to the old folks that they may live long and die in peace and know in heaven you did the best you could.' "I think he cried a little then, for I remember he took a big, red handkerchief out of his pocket and after wiping his own eyes, wiped mine as though I had been crying, but I hadn't After that he lectured me on how I should behave when I had grown up. FORTY YEARS AGO.
"About forty years ago, father moved to what they call the West Bottoms now. It was known as Kansas City, Kas., then and was not a packing house district at all, but a little village of two or three thousand people. He had some money laid up and invested in a home and truck patch in the rear I was to go to school. I believe that was the object my father had in view when he moved into town Mother wanted to move in so as to be near a Presbyterian church, for she was an old Scotch woman. " 'Come to church with me,' she used to tell me of a Sunday morning, as she tidied me all up ready for the service 'You be a wee bit Scotch and Presbyterian yourself, do you know it lassie?' "Father seldom went to church or to Sunday school, himself, but believed in it. I think I must have been Sunday schooled to death in my younger days." Mrs. Morasch laughed harshly at the recollection. She seemed for the moment to have forgotten the dreadful charge hanging its threat of life penal servitude over head. "Sunday schooled to death," she repeated seriously, returning to the story of her life in the West Bottoms. MARRIED BILL MORASCH.
"When I became 20 years of age," she went on, "I married Bill Morasch. I was a little wild at that time. Fond of boys and kiting around to parties and dances at my own free will, but Bill was a steady fellow and we settled down to housekeeping. I married again after he died three years ago, but I have never taken his wedding ring off my finger and like best the name he gave me." Mrs. Morasch, as she prefers to be called, then crowded a thin, wrinkled left hand through the small opening in the door of her cell, through which her victuals are passed to her by the jail matron. On the third finger was an embossed gold band ring, which she turned reminiscently with her thumb. "Oh, I can stand this murder charge," she assured suddenly, "if it pans out all right in the end. I'll tell you what I'll do. When the trial is all over, and Ella comes back to me, I'll take her up to your office, wherever it is, and let you see for yourself. "I know what you think. You think she will not, but she will. Ella knows in her heart I did not send the candy, and when she comes back to me she will say, 'Mrs. Morasch, I thought all the time you didn't send it, and I was sorry for you all the time I was testifying against you.' " The accused woman seemed to think most of the attitude of Ella Van Meter, whose testimony more than that of any other witness, according to the prosecutor, condemns her. Several times during the interview she pronounced the name, always following it with a statement that Ella was her friend and would come back to her after the trial. Ella testified Friday that she knew no reason why Mrs. Morasch should try to poison her, but insisted she had been to the latter's home only twice and had not been more than ordinarily intimate with her. When Daniel Mahe, attorney for the defense, asked the witness why she did not refer to the defendant as "auntie," Ella had replied sharply: "She's not my aunt!" and manifested in other ways that the law relationship existing between herself and the prisoner was a matter of repulsion to her. SAYS SHE'S PREJUDICED.
Mrs. Morasch said yesterday that this attitude was affected and that Ella has been prejudiced against her by older persons. It was said by her counsel last night that both Ella and her mother, Mrs. Ida Miller, would be recalled for further cross-examination before the conclusion of the trial. Her lawyers profess to have suffered for the failure of the state in locating Ollie Jones, a 19-year-old half-brother of Charles Miller. Jones is said to have left Kansas City the night following the poisoning, and later it was learned he went from here to Indianapolis, Ind. When County Attorney Taggart tried to subpoena him there a few days ago he could not be found. What use the state intended to put Jones to and why the attorney for the defense should be disappointed because he could not be found is studiously screened from the public gaze. It was stated by counsel last night that Jones was a close friend of the Millers. County Attorney Taggart, who is bending every resource of a fertile and brilliant mind toward the conviction of the prisoner, practically admitted the same thing in the same mysterious manner less than an hour later. "We need him badly," said the prosecutor. "There is one important phase of this case he must cover with his testimony If he will not come when subpoenaed, then a bench warrant will bring him." EXPERT WOMAN WITNESS.
Taggart further said that a woman witness, mother of thirteen children, would be employed by the state as a special witness tomorrow in proving Mrs. Morasch's physical condition prior to the time the baby is represented to have been adopted out of the U. S. G. Hughes maternity home, and that the handwriting experts would probably be called in the afternoon of the same day. Attorney Maher said last night that a great deal of the defense would lie in showing up Mrs. Morasch's past. "She is a poor woman in two senses of the word," he said. "Poor from the standpoint of health and means of financing her case. She has been a wanderer in the West Bottoms, without money and almost without friends, for years. Her first husband died three years ago, killed himself with carbolic acid. Her second husband likewise died. Children she has kept and mothered, from the Hughes home, have sickened on her hands. One of them died after it had passed to the care of others in the hire of the county and the revolting suspicion that she had killed it with drugs and slow poison was expressed in her presence. She was warned by Attorney Taggart to leave town. Haggard and worn, dogged by the law and shunned by her intimates because of her misfortunes, Mrs. Morasch hurriedly gathered up her few belongings and fled to Harrisonville, Mo. But the Nemesis followed her even there, strangely coincident with her flight the poisoned bonbons arrived at the Miller home, so she was arrested on the murder charge and brought back to face trial." Labels: Armourdale, children, Civil War, County Attorney Taggart, Death of Ruth Miller, murder, poison, The Journal, women March 14, 1908
SET TRIAL IN POISON CASE FOR WEDNESDAY.
STATE HAS MANY WITNESSES AGAINST SARAH MORASCH.
Less Than Month Ago Little Ruth Miller Died From Eating Bonbons Sent Her Half-Sister in the Mail.
Next Wednesday is the day set for the trial of Mrs. Sarah Morasch in the Wyandotte district court, where she will be called to answer the charge of murdering Ruth Miller by sending a box of poisoned candy through the mails to her father's household. he child, who was 4 years old, died February 12. She was the daughter of Charles and Malinda Miller of 634 Cheyenne avenue, Armourdale.
Since her arrest in Harrisonville, Mo., on February 20, Mrs. Morasch, in default of bond, has been confined in the Wyandotte county jail. Her stories of her relations with the Miller family told at different times to Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Taggart, Chief of Police Bowden and others, have not agreed one with another, and her description of her flight from Kansas City, Kas., to Harrisonville is vague and not convincing, according to Taggart.
Among the fifty-six witnesses who have been called to testify for the state next Wednesday are: Charles Miller, father of the dead girl; Malinda Miller, the mother; Ella Van Meter, their step-daughter, to whom the poisoned box of bonbons was addressed; Coroner A. J. Davis, Professor of Chemistry Bushong of the Kansas state university, Chief Bowden and Detective Harry Anderson.
The defense is in the hands of Attorney Daniel Maher and will rest chiefly upon statements of relatives of Mrs. Morasch and boon companions, who were with her during her stay in the West Bottoms. In the event of her being proved guilty by the state, she cannot be hanged and will be admissible to bail under the revised criminal statutes of KansasLabels: Armourdale, children, County Attorney Taggart, Death of Ruth Miller, detectives, Kansas City Kas, murder, poison, women March 5, 1908 STRYCHNINE IN HIS LIQUOR.
Someone Poisoned Edward Whalen, Bricklayer, in a Saloon.
"Send for a priest I am dying," cried Edward Whalen as he fell to the floor in front of the bar in a saloon at Nineteenth street and Troost avenue last night. As Whalen fell, he was seized with violent convulsions and the bartender, with several men who were standing around the bar, hurried to his assistance. Someone telephoned for the police ambulance, and Police Surgeon Carl V. Bates was hastened to the saloon. At the hospital it was found that Whalen had been poisoned by strychnine His body was badly bruised, bearing out the statement which Whalen made later that he had been kicked in the side and stomach.
The man told the doctors at the hospital that he had been drinking with several men in a saloon -- not at Nineteenth and Troost -- and that they got into a fight during which he was severely pummeled. Whalen said that their difficulties were soon adjusted, however, and that they went back into the saloon to have another drink.
Soon he left there and went the saloon at Nineteenth street and Troost avenue, where he ordered a drink of whisky. It was at this juncture, and before the order had been filled, that Whalen was taken violently ill and the doctor summoned.
The doctors at the city hospital think that Whalen was poisoned by the men with whom he had been drinking, but are unable to find any cause for their desire to kill him, unless it was that they harbored the hared feeling caused by the fight. Whalen was unable to give the names of any of his companions at the saloons.
Whalen is a white man, about 40 years old, and said that his home was at Twenty-Third street and Wabash avenue. He is a bricklayer.Labels: Nineteenth street, poison, saloon, Troost avenue, Twenty-third street, violence, Wabash avenue March 1, 1908 WOMAN DRINKS CARBOLIC ACID.
Mrs. J. T. Woodford Was in Ill Health and Despondent.
Mrs. J. T. Woodward, 50 years old, the wife of J. T. Woodford, formerly an elevator man at the city hall, drank a half ounce of carbolic acid at her home, 1121 Harrison street, about 6 o'clock yesterday evening. A call for a physician was sent to the emergency hospital from this address at 10:20 o'clock last night. Dr. R. A. Shiras answered the call and found Mrs. Woodford in a semi-comatose condition from the effect of the acid. She was revived and may recover.
Woodford had not called in a physician before he sent the call to the emergency hospital. He told Dr. Shiras that he had not thought it necessary, knowing that his wife had swallowed only a half an ounce of the liquid. He thought that she would recover without the assistance of a physician, And he would thus escape the notoriety.
Mrs. Woodford is said to have been despondent and in ill health.Labels: city hall, emergency hospital, Harrison street, health, poison, Suicide February 21, 1908
MRS. MORASH IS UNDER ARREST
SHE MAY KNOW SOMETHING OF POISONED CANDY.
FOUND IN HARRISONVILLE.
WHERE SHE HAD WALKED WITH HER DAUGHTER.
Ella Miller Says She Wrote Her Address, as on Candy Box, for Mrs. Morash Three Months Ago.
The first arrest in the murder case of Ruth Miller, poisoned by eating candy containing strychnine at the home of her father, Charles Miller, 634 Cheyenne avenue, Armourdale, Wednesday noon, February 12, was made at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon on state warrant by Sheriff Fred J. Hamilton of Cass county at Harrisonville, Mo. It was that of Mrs. Albert Morash, sister-in-law of Charles Miller. Sheriff Hamilton acted under orders of Attorney Joseph Taggart of Wyandotte county, who telephoned him to the effect that Mrs. Morash was wanted in Kansas City, Kas., on a murder charge, Wednesday and again Thursday. One-half hour after the telephone message, Hamilton had her in the county jail of Cass county. Chief Bowden of the Kansas City, Kas., police department and Detective Harry Anderson returned with the accused woman to Kansas City, Kas., early this morning and she was lodged in the city jail. Sheriff Hamilton said last night over the telephone that the woman and her daughter, Blanche, had arrived in that city last Sunday afternoon, after having walked fifty-eight miles, all the way from Kansas City. They were jaded and their shoes worn through in many places Sunday. They stopped at the home of a farmer a mile outside the city limits that night, but Monday and Tuesday nights stayed at local hotels. Chief Bowden and Captain U. G. Snyder have expended every resource to find her, on accoun of information it was thought she might be able to give concerning the poisoning. Yesterday morning they arrested Blanche Moran, the daughter, and compelled her to tell where she and her mother had gone after quitting Kansas City. Blanche had returned on a train to the home of her sister, Mrs. May Gillin, 634 Armstrong avenue, Tuesday afternoon. County Attorney Taggart says he has discovered that the sender of the poisoned candy did not write all of the inscription on the wrapper. He says that Ella Miller, to whom the bonbons were addressed, wrote the words, "Ella Miller, 634 Cheyenne ave. Corner Packard and Cheyenne ave." appearing on the wrapper for Mrs. Morash, three months ago, and writing of the little girl corresonds exactly with the writing on the package. He says Ella has denied writing the rest of the inscription, "From S. S. Girls." Blanche Morash cried when questioned by Captain U. G. Snyder, captain of police, at headquarters. She said she thought her mother was wanted by police in connection with an ocurrence of a month ago when Mrs. Morash was found guilty of mistreating and neglecting an infant taken from the Hughes maternity home. Blanche furthermore said she was willing to make a statement regarding the sending of the box of bonbons, but did not say whether or not her statement would be in in the form of a denial of any knowledge concerning them. Labels: Armourdale, County Attorney Taggart, Death of Ruth Miller, detectives, jail, Kansas City Kas, murder, poison February 15, 1908 STRYCHNINE CAUSED RUTH MILLER'S DEATH.
ANALYSIS OF CANDY DEVELOPS THIS FACT.
No Motive for the Attempt on Life of the Elder Miller Girl Has Yet Been Dis- covered.
Strychnine was the bitter-tasting foreign substance noticed by the Miller children who survived sampling the box of bonbons mailed to Ella Miller, 14 years old, of 634 Cheyenne avenue, Armourdale, Wednesday. Four year old Ruth Miller, after eating one of the candies, fell dead in the throes of a paralyzing agony. The lives of the other children were saved because of the unsavory taste of the sweets.
The candy was sent to the chemical laboratory of the Kansas state university at Lawrence. Yesterday the analysis had progressed at the university to such period as to make certain the identity of the poison employed. It was strychnine. How much of the drug each piece of candy contained has not been determined, but one-twelfth grain of strychnine crystals, the form employed, is sufficient to cause death.
But who committed the deed, and why?
This question was asked and left unanswered a great number of times in the office of the Kansas City, Kas., chief of police yesterday. Detectives Quinn, McKnight, Walsh and Wilson reported finding nothing, after a diligent inquiry into the private life of the Miller family for a possible reason why the little girl, to who the package was addressed, should be out of the way. Apparently she has always been a dutiful daughter, living in peace and harmony with her step-father and well loved by he playmates and friends at the packing house where she worked.
The theory at first held by the officers that some jealous small boy, a sweetheart of the girl, perhaps, had prepared the package and mailed it to her, was explored when the only two boys with whom the little girl has gone anywhere were brought in by the drag net and proved to be the neighbor boys selected by Mrs. Miller once or twice to walk with Ella to a nickel show in the vicinity.
According to Mille last night about 500 people have called at the home to express sympathy yesterday. Many of them offered financial help in locating the poisoner. Among the visitors were a half-dozen girls who worked in the canning department of the Schwarzschild & Sulzberger plant. They were unanimous in declaring no one in their department had sent the bonbons.
"Why, we all loved little Ella," said Artilla Hack, Miami and Coy streets, Armourdale, one of the visitors. "She was just as good as she could be to all of us, and I know none of the girls had anything against her. If they had someone would have been sure to mention it, since she left there a month ago." Geanette Brymer, Seventh and Coy streets, said practically the same thing.
The other children of the Miller family affected by eating candy from the box sent the oldest daughter are out of danger. D r. Zachary Nason, who lives two blocks from the Miller home, and who atended Ruth Miller while she was dying, says they all showed strong symptoms of strychnine poisoning.
"It must have been this drug that was inserted into the bon-bons," said Dr. Nason, last night. "The theory that it might have been arsenic is, in my opinion, absurd, as arsenic is an acid while strchnine is a salt, and therefore their symptoms should be diameteically opposite. The little girl, when I saw her, was rigid in the arms and across the chest. Occasionally she completely relaxed. Lockjaw preceded death by at least two minutes. All these symptoms are those of strychnine poisoning, and not posible after a dose of arsenic."Labels: Armourdale, children, Death of Ruth Miller, doctors, Lawrence, murder, poison, universities February 13, 1908 POISONED CANDY BROUGHT DEATH.
DEADLY PACKAGE IS SENT THROUGH MAIL TO A GIRL.
SISTERS ATE THE SWEETS.
RUTH MILLER, AGED 4, SOON DIED IN AGONY.
Other Children Became Ill, but Were Revived -- Package Purported to Come From "Girls of S. & S." 
RUTH MILLER.
Victim of Poisoned Bonbons Sent Her Sister Through the Mail.
"Sweets to Ella Miller, From girls of S. & S."
This was the labol on a box of cheap bonbons sent through the mail to the oldest daughter of Charles Miller, 634 Cheyenne avenue, Armourdale, at noon yesterday. The postmarks were blurred and the stamp of the postoffice where the box had been mailed had evidently been turned around purposely, as it was brought into contact with the wrapper. The police believe the sender told the postal clerk that the candy was intended for a valentine. What it really contained was poisoned bonbons, and as a result of eating two of them Ruth Miller, the youngest daughter of Charles and Melinda Miller, died in agony less than ten minutes after the box was received at the home. All four of the Miller children were affected by the poison in the candy, which is supposed to have been strychnine, but none except the little girl suffered more than temporary distress, which an application of home remedies relieved.
NEVER HAD A SWEETHEART.
Ella, 14 years old, to whom the candy was sent, has worked in the canning department of the Schwarzchild & Sulzberger packing house up to a month ago, when she was withdrawn by her parents so that she might attend school. She said last night that as far as she knows she has no enemies among the girls at the packing house. She never has had a sweetheart and her parents seldom allow her to go far from the home unless accompanied by some relative or friend. They considered her too young to keep company with young men and also that she has never indicated any desire to receive boy or men callers.
This statement was borne out by the little girl last night.
"I never had any lover and I don't want one," she said, the tears trickling between her fingers as she held her hands to her eyes. Her little frame shook with sobs at the memory of the tragedy and she was bordering on hysteria.
"I don't see how any of the girls at the packing house could ever have had anything against me. I never did anything against them. I don't believe they had a hand in the crime. It is too horrible. The girls in the canning department where I worked were good to me, and always asked my mother who worked in my place after I left how I was getting along every morning as she came in to work. No, I am sure it was not the packing house girls. I can not imagine who could have sent them, but I know it was not my old friends there."
CHILDREN SOON BECAME ILL.
As far as the police are concerned, the tragic death of little Ruth Miller is a complete mystery, while it represents one of the most mystifying crimes in the criminal history of the city.
Immediately after the postman arrived at the Miller home at 12 o'clock noon, Ella discovered the package near the front door on the veranda. All the children are small and crowded around their oldest sister as she opened it to receive their share of the treat. They each took at least two of the bonbons. None except Ruth ate one. As soon as the candy touched the mouth, according to the surviving children, a bitter taste was noticed by them and their tongues became puckery, as though they had touched a powerful astringent. Ella, who had tasted her piece of candy first, got a cup of water and rinsed out her mouth and those of the others.
Ruth did not complain of the bitter taste but a moment afterwards began to scream, and fled from the ho use in the direction of the home of George Gause, 628 Cheyenne avenue, a neighbor. While the mother of the Miller children was away from home it had been the custom of Gause and his wife to care for the children.
Mrs. Miller was away from home at noon yesterday visiting a brother of her husband in the West bottoms near South James street. Gause had been apprised of the mother's absence and when he heard Ruth scream ran out at once from the house, thinking, he says, that she had fallen and hurt herself. When he reached the back porch of his house he saw little Ruth throw up her hands and fall to the ground.
DEAD IN FIVE MINUTES.
"What's the matter, Ruth?" he called, as he ran to her assistance. At this juncture Ella, who had followed the little girl from the house, called out that all of them had been poisoned. Gause sent for a doctor. Ruth did not live over five minutes after the doctor arrived.
Both Miller and his wife were not at home and were not apprised of the death of their little daughter until nearly an hour later, it being necessary to send a special messenger in both cases. The Miller family was prostrated with grief last night.
Miller could not name any enemies likely to take such a cruel revenge on his family. He said he lived in Toad-a-Loup, Armourdale, a year or two ago, and then moved to Greystone Heights, Kansas City, Kas., hwere he lived in perfect peace with his neighbors up to a month ago. Both Miller and his wife have a reputation for being agreeable neighbors and loving in their treatment of their neighbors. Girls working in the canning department of the S. & S. packing house said yesterday they had never known a little girl they liked better than they did Ella Miller. Mrs. Miller was also popular with them.
POLICE CHIEF PUZZLED.
Chief of Police Bowden was at a loss to account for the crime. He said it was without parallel in the city for brutality, considering the extreme youth of the intended victim. He said the matter was one for both the United States postal authorities and the local police to look into. City Detectives Quinn and McKnight were assigned by the chief to the case. Others will be assigned to the task this morning.
An analysis of the poisoned candies made by Coroner A. J. Davis of Wyandotte county after 6 o'clock yesterday evening disclosed a white powder inserted with the chocolate covering the bonbons.Labels: Armourdale, children, Death of Ruth Miller, detectives, Kansas City Kas, murder, poison, West bottoms February 1, 1908 DRANK CYANIDE OF POTASSIUM.
J. H. Lipton Had Used It for Clean- ing Furniture.
J. H. Lipton, 39 years old, of 1001 Wyandotte street, learned last night that cyanide of potassium is a deadly poison. A mixture containing the poison was fixed up to experiment in taking stains from furniture. Some of the cyanide was left in a glass. Lipton became thirsty and drank out of the glass. He had no sooner done so than he fell to the floor unconscious. He was taken to the emergency hospital in the police ambulance. After a couple of hour of hard work, Drs. Ford B. Rogers and George Dagg declared Lipton out of danger. He will get well.Labels: doctors, emergency hospital, poison, Wyandotte street October 9, 1907 WHISKY SAVED HIS LIFE.
Aconite Failed to Take Effect on Lawyer William Grady.
Aconite failed to kill William Grady, an attorney, yesterday noon, because whisky is an antidote for the poison. Dr. G. A. Dagg, with the Walnut Street police ambulance, was called to the Grady home, 1627 Cottage, and found the young attorney had taken several ounces of aconite, supposedly with suicidal intent. It had only failed to kill because the man's system was heavily charged with alcohol. Patrolman Prewitt, who accompanied the ambulance, brought a stretcher into Grady's presence to carry him to a hospital, and the patient's condition improved quickly. A family doctor who arrived then agreed to take full charge of the patient, and as the doctors agreed that the poison's power had been offset, he was allowed to remain home.Labels: alcohol, attorney, Cottage street, doctors, poison, Suicide, Walnut street police station October 8, 1907 DOGS POISONED BY WHOLESALE.
City Counselor's Neighborhood Has Suffered from Poison Fiend.
Dr. Walter M. Cross, city chemist, yesterday found arsenic in great quantity in meat samples furnished him by the city counselor, E. C. Meservey. When Mr. Meservey went to his office yesterday morning he sent for the chemist.
"Here are some samples of meat that has been thrown around in my neighborhood. It has killed a dozen or more dogs."
The meat was tested for strychnine, but no trace of the drug was found, but in a very few minutes arsenic showed plainly. The result of the examination will be referred to the police department.Labels: animals, City Chemist Cross, poison September 13, 1907 VALUABLE DOGS POISONED.
Wholesale Destruction of Canines in Northeast Part of Town.
Poisoners have been killing dogs by the wholesale in the district centering about 500 Olive street the past two days. More than thirty canines, some of them valuable, have died from what appears to be arsenic poisoning. Within one block on Minnie street three dogs were found dead yesterday morning, one of them being an imported butt terrier belonging to Frank J. Lyngr, a policeman, living at 2116 Minnie.
Most of the animals killed were valueless street curs, but a few were dogs of pedigree and breeding. One Scotch collie valued at $125 was among the victims.Labels: animals, Northeast, Olive street, poison September 5, 1907 WAS IT MURDER OR SUICIDE?
Indian Territory Mystery Has a Kan- sas City End.
An Indian Territory tragedy developed a Kansas City end yesterday when Dr. Willliam Cross made out a certificate to the effect that he had found poison in a stomach which had been sent him from Kiowa, I. T.
Dr. Cross had in bottles on his shelves the stomach, brains and liver of "a female, 21 years old, married, fullblood Indian," and excepting that the extraordinary consignment had been made to him by H. P. Ward, a merchant in Kiowa, he knew nothing more.
"I suppose there has been a murder down there," said Dr. Cross. "Two weeks ago I got three bottles by express, together with a note saying that poisoning was suspected. I was asked to make an analysis for strychnine. The final instructions came yesterday, and I took the stomach of the Indian woman into my laboratory. I found it reeking with strychnine.
"My information is that four doctors had attended the woman during her illness of twenty-four hours, and that they had reported her convulsions due to natural causes. The citizens took the matter up, bottled these parts of the remains, shipped them up here and instructed that the analysis be made.
"I do not know whether it was murder or anything else, but there is plenty of strychnine in that bottle to account for one."Labels: City Chemist Cross, murder, Native Americans, poison September 2, 1907 HEADACHE POWDER DID IT.
Wilson Took the Drug and His Skin Turned Blue as Indigo.
The conjecture of the emergency hospital that the unknown man found unconsciuos at Eighth and Wyandotte streets was subject to acetanilid poison from headache powders was later found to be correct when he recovered consciousness last night. After almost twenty-four hours of intense suffering, durning part of which time his skin turned as blue as indigo from the poison, the man recovered consciousness long enough to tell his name and the cause of his illness.
His name is given as John Wilson, a brakeman in the employ of the Burlington railroad. His home is in St. Louis, where he has a wife, but he had been in Kansas City several days. He says he had a severe headache Saturday morning, and that he applied to a physician for relief. The doctor gave him some kind of powders, which he swallowed. The next he remembers was regaining consciousness in a ward of the emergency hospital. It was thought by attending physicians last night that a mistake had been made in the presecription given the man, and that he had been allowed to take an overdose of acetanilid.
Mr. Wilson was very faint last night and his recovery is not certain. It was stated at the hospital last night that he had a good chance for recovery.
One hundred and eighty gallons of oxygen, costing $70, was used Saturday night by physicians at the emergency hospital to save the life of Wilson.Labels: Eighth street, emergency hospital, illness, poison, St Louis, visitors, Wyandotte street August 22, 1907 AFTER A QUARREL, POISON.
Barton Thought Wife Drank Florida Water; She Is Dead.
When Mrs. Mildred L. Barton, 15 West Fifteenth street, drank carbolic acid before her husband, William Barton, last night, he thought it was Florida water. They had quarreled and she soon after started to a drug store, as she said, to buy Florida water. At 7:30 o'clock she re-entered the room and swallowed the contents of a a two-ounce bottle.
The Walnut street police ambulance, half a block away, was called and Dr. G. R. Dagg gave the woman emergency treatment as the team galloped to the city hospital, but she died ten minutes after being placed in the operating table.Labels: doctors, Fifteenth street, hospitals, poison, Suicide July 24, 1907 WOMAN BITTEN BY WORM.
Faints After Knocking Wooly Crawler From Her Neck.
Mrs. C. F. Thompson, 1626 Washington street, was bitten on the left side of the neck by a worm yesterday afternoon, and immediately a place about the wound swelled to almost the size of a baseball. Mrs. Thompson had been in her yard caring for her flowers and walked into her kitchen, when she felt a sharp stinging sensation on the neck.
She placed her hand to her neck and felt a woolly worm about an inch in length. Knocking it from her neck, she fainted. Dr. George F. Berry, 609 West Sixteenth street, was summoned. The worm that bit Mr. Thompson is believed to be what is known as a fever worm, and its bite, though not necessarily fatal, is said to be of a poisonous character.Labels: doctors, health, poison, Washington street June 27, 1907 DRANK IT LIKE A TOAST.
Woman Who Forsook Husband for Another Man Takes Poison.
After warning Frank Palmer, of 920 Bell street, Kansas City, that he would never again receive a dinner from her hands, Mrs. Inez Others, of St. Joseph, Mo., at noon yesterday raised a two-ounce vial of carbolic acid to her lips and drank it like a toast.
The tragedy happened directly underneath the front entrance of the Fowler packing house, and just as the laborers were filing out to receive their lunches from the hands of children and wives who were bringing them. A dozen men where standing about Mrs. Others when she took the poison, but none of them noticed anything extraordinary in her action. They said they thought she was only joking.
When Mrs. Others reached the center of the Fifth street car tracks, however, she was een to fall. A policeman who happened to be riding on a westbound car had it stopped and an ambulance was called to take her to No. 2 police station, where she died a few minutes later. Her body was then removed to Porter & Gibson's undertaking rooms.
Mrs. Others four weeks ago left a husband, Walter Others, in St. Joseph, Mo.
Palmer is now being held at No. 2 police station pending investigation. He said yesterday that he, like the other men who were standing about when Mrs. Others committed suicide, thought the act was only to deceive him, and that the contents of the bottle was water. He said they had quarreled in the morning, and that she had then declared her intention of killing herself, but that he had not paid much attention to the threat as she had once before drank what she claimed to be poison, but which had no effect on her.Labels: Bell street, Fifth street, No 2 police station, poison, St.Joseph, streetcar, Suicide, undertakers April 10. 1907 FROM TAKING HEART TABLETS.
Awning Hanger, Found Unconscious in His Room, in Hospital.
Richard J. Wilson, an awning hanger living at 829 East Missouri avenue, was found unconscious in his room about 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon. He was at once removed to the emergency hospital in an ambulance from police headquarters, where Dr. W. A. Shelton worked over him for two hours. After he had revived, Wilson said that he had been taking tablets for heart and that he had never taken any of them before. Dr. Shelton said that the tablets contained digitalis, belladonna, nitro glycerin and stropanthus, all heart stimulants, but any one poison if taken in sufficient quantity. Wilson was left at the emergency hospital last night, as he is still very week.Labels: doctors, emergency hospital, hospitals, illness, poison, police headquarters April 7, 1907 LEFT BED TO TAKE POISON.
Hicks Had Asked His Wife to Get His Breakfast at 4:30 a. m.
Mrs. Geneva Hicks and her husband quarreled most of Friday night in their home at Seventh and Penn streets. At 4:30 yesterday morning he wanted her to get up and cook his breakfast. Then there was another little misunderstanding, and Mrs. Hicks refused. While in a melancholy mood over their troubles, Mrs. Hicks arose and drank an ounce of laudanum.
Dr. Ford B. Rogers arrived promptly with the ambulance and in a short while left Mrs. Hicks thoroughly reconciled to her husband. She said she was willing to cook at any old time now. She is 27 years old.Labels: doctors, Penn street, poison, Seventh street March 23, 1907 TO A BEAUTY DOCTOR AT 74.
Death of Mrs. N. R. Stripe Was From Natural Causes
Dr. Frank Hall held an autopsy yesterday upon the body of Mrs. N. R. Stripe, of Parsons, Kas., who died here at the German hospital Thursday afternoon. After the body had been removed to Stone's morgue, Coroner George B. Thompson received a message from H. G. Stripe, a son in Parsons, notifying him that Mrs. Stripe had died of poisoning and demanding an autopsy and an inquest.
"We found death to have been due to natural causes," said Dr. Thompson last night. "It was plain to be seen that myocarditis, a form of heart disease, had caused her death."
Dr. Thompson said that a son from New York and A. M. Glick, a son-in-law, living here at 1012 East Twelfth street, were present at the autopsy and were satisfied with the result. Another son, the doctor said, suspected something wrong and asked that one of the prosecutors be present, as he feared an attempt would be made to "whitewash" someone.
"The woman is 74 years old," continued Dr. Thompson, "and she came here to be treated by a beauty doctor -- to have wrinkles removed. Some cosmetics had been given her to use on he face, and when she was taken ill about a week ago she became delirious and scratched the skin where the cosmetics had been used.
"That caused a skin eruption, and the children here became suspicious that the mother was being slowly poisoned. It would have been impossible, however, for poison to have had an effect that way. We talked with the doctor who treated her and are satisfied that everything was all right, so far as being poisoned is concerned."
Mrs. Stripe, after a short service, was buried in Elmwood cemetery at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. All of her children and the son-in-law are stage people.Labels: cemetery, Coroner Thompson, death, doctors, German hospital, poison, Twelfth street |
