Trial of Mrs. Hannah Kinney for the alleged murder of her husband, George T. Kinney, by poison : before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, Judges Shaw, Putnam, and Wilde, present : sitting at Boston, from Dec. 21st to Dec. 26th, with the arguments of counsel, and the charge of the chief justice fully reported : counsel for the prosecution, J.T. Austin, attorney general, and S.D. Parker, commonwealth's attorney : for the prisoner, Franklin Dexter and George T. Curtis / by a member of the bar.

Kinney, Hannah

Date:: 1840

Credit: Trial of Mrs. Hannah Kinney for the alleged murder of her husband, George T. Kinney, by poison : before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, Judges Shaw, Putnam, and Wilde, present : sitting at Boston, from Dec. 21st to Dec. 26th, with the arguments of counsel, and the charge of the chief justice fully reported : counsel for the prosecution, J.T. Austin, attorney general, and S.D. Parker, commonwealth's attorney : for the prisoner, Franklin Dexter and George T. Curtis / by a member of the bar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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that her husband had been poisoned, and does not know that any one else had suggested it to her, she told him at that time that there were a great many stories about, and, among the rest, that she had poisoned Mr. Kinney. She then said the people at the funeral kept pointing her out, and saying, '■there she is,—there is the woman who poisoned her husband.' She ex- pressed no griek, shed no tear. She wished the certificate of the doctor, as she said, in con- sequence of the reports, and as she was going, as she said, to visit his friends. Not getting a certificate, she afterwards in a day or two sent Miss Collins to Dr. Storer for one, but he of course, gave none. On the next Sunaay morn- ing, the 16th of August, a week after Mr. K's death, Dr. Storer and Dr. J. B. S. Jackson call- ed on her, and reported to her, for the first time, that arsenic undoubtedly and certainly was the cause of his death. She then shed no tears, expressed no surprise, shew no emotion : only said, INDEED ! Dr. Storer then asked her if she thought he had taken it himself? She said, 'No, George would never have taken it himself.' After a few minutes the doctors left her. Her subsequent conversations on that Sunday morning are very remarkable. The contents of Mr Kinney's stomach were analysed by Dr Martin Gay ; the post-mortem examination was made by Drs. Bigelow, Storer, and J. B. S. Jackson. Further accounts of the last hours of Mr Kin- ney, and of his symptoms and sufferings will be given to you by William F. Goodwin, Mary T. Smith, Lucretia Bears, and Elmira W. Collins; and Miss Collins will also relate to you many particulars in the conversations and conduct of the prisoner before and after the death of Mr Kinney, and during the two last days of his life ; conduct and conversations, from which I think you will draw most important inferences in the close of this interesting trial, when they are con- sidered in connexion with a great many other parts of the testimony. Much of the circum- stantial evidence of her guilt will be derived from those sources Mrs Kinney had living with her a daughter named Dorcas Freeman, about twelve years old. On Wednesday after Mr K's death, she was sent to Vermont. On Thursday morn- ing, the next day, some unusual occurrences took place before and at breaktast in Mrs. Kin- ney's house. They will be related to you by Hannah Varney, and by Miss Collins. Mrs. Kinney, (a very unusual circumstance) herself, prepared some apple-sauce for that breakfast, and the persons who sat down to breakfast were Hannah Varney and her little son, Miss Collins and Mrs Kinney—Dorcas had been sent away. All of them were taken sick, and vomited not long after breakfast, except Mrs. Kinney, who also complained of being sick, but I believe no- body saw her vomit, or saw her sick in any way. Hannah Varney went after breakfast into the sink room, and lookinforsome pape rs to kindle the fire, found one piece of paper, among a par- cel of waste papers there, on which was written the word poison. That paper and these Thurs- day morning events, will open much discussion before you, and probably will be much comment- ed upon by the learned counsel who address you upon the evidence in the case. There wen cucumbers and warm bread on the breal table, as well as the apple-sauce, but (lie apple- sauce was the uncommon and now very suspici- ous article on that table. It was the Sunday morning, a week alter Mr. Kinney's death, that Doctors Storer and Jack- son called and informed the prisoner of the ar- senic found in her husband's body. Her extra- ordinary conduct and conversations on that Sun- day after the Doctors left her, will be related in Miss Collin's testimony, who was her friend, and slept with her after Mr K's death, and had many other conversations with the prisoner, which it is supposed will much influence your decision upon several of the important questions now to be decided. On Friday of that week, that is, about twelve days after the funeral of Mr Kinney, who was buried with military honors on Monday, the tenth day of August, the prison- er left Boston, and went to Thetford,in Vermont by the way of Lowell. This was a few days be- fore the Coroner's inquest was taken. The public journals teemed with allusions to Mr K.'s death, and the Coroners seemed compelled by public opinion to institute an inquest. The conduct and conversations of the prison- er at Thetford, her inconsistency and contradic- tions, we think, were very extraordinary, and we shall ask your careful attention to them when Mrs Harriet Hosford and Mrs. Frances Kend- rick are under examination. They will probably be relied upon by the Attorney General as indi- cations of guilt, and the learned eounsel for the prisoner will endeavor to explain them as not inconsistent with the hypothesis of her inno- cence. The absence of ordinary grief, the change in her conduct, conversations and repre- sentations of the character of Mr K.; her denial and subsequent charge of his having commit- ted suicide, and many othor things are truly as- tonishing. Upon the subject of the procurement of the arsenic, some evidence will be offered to you, but not perhaps of a very satisfactory na- ture. Upon the question whether Mr Kinney com- mitted suicide, we shall offer you the testimony of Mr John Barnes, his most intimate friend and foreman, who will detail many facts and circum- stances in Mr Kinney's conduct, conversation, arrangements, business, habits and character, which will have a tendency to disprove that sup- position or charge. Evidence upon this point will also come from various other sources, as well as the prisoner's own declarations. In the course of the trial many incidents and other circumstances will be proved, too numer- ous now to be recapitulated, but of sufficient im- portance to be put into the scale of evidence. Should you arrive at the conclusion that the ar- senic was administered to Mr Kinney by his wife, I believe it will not be contended on the other side that it was given to him through any accident or mistake. I have never yet heard that suggestion made. If administered by pre- I meditated design and it caused his death, the of-

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