Celebrated trials of all countries, and remarkable cases of criminal jurisprudence / Selected by a member of the Philadelphia bar [i.e. J.J. Smith].

  • John Jay Smith
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Celebrated trials of all countries, and remarkable cases of criminal jurisprudence / Selected by a member of the Philadelphia bar [i.e. J.J. Smith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    94/612 (page 84)
    him very shortly. I had gone into my parlour below. I came into the passage. I met my son in the passage, at the foot of the stairs; he told me that he had been very sick, and had brought up his dinner. I found his eyes exceedingly swollen; very much indeed. I said I thought it very extraordi- nary. I was taken ill myself in less than three minutes afterwards. The effect was so violent, I had hardly time to go into my back yard before my dinner came up. I felt considerable heat across my stomach and chest, and pain.—Q. Was the vomiting of the common kind ? A. I never experienced any before like it; for violence before: it was terrible indeed.—Q. How soon after did you observe any other of the family ill 1 A. It was not more than a quarter of an hour when my apprentice, Roger Gadsden, was very ill, in a similar way to myself.—Q. Was your son sick also? A. He was.— Q. And while you and your son were sick, and Gadsden were sick, where were you ? A. I was repeatedly in the parlour and the back yard. My son was up and down-stairs at intervals. Gadsden, I believe, was in the kitchen below.—Q. Did you observe the prisoner ? Did she give you any assistance ? A. Not the smallest. We were all together alarmed. It was discovered that she did not appear concerned at our situation.—Q. I take it for granted that you had suspicion of arsenic] A. I had; I made a search the next morning.—Q. You expected it was poison ? A. I did.—Q. Did you observe the brown dish or pan in which the dumplings had been mixed ? A. I did on the next morning, on the Wednesday morning.—Q. Did you find any thing remaining in that pan that appeared to be the leavings of the dump- lings ? A. I did; it stuck round the pan. I put some water into the pan, and stirred it up with a spoon, with a view to form a liquid of the whole. I found, upon the pan being set down for a moment or two, or half a minute, upon taking it slowly and in a slanting direction, I discovered a white powder, at. the bottom of it. I showed it to several persons in the house. I kept it in my custody.—Q. Did you show it to Mr. Marshall? A. I kept it in my custody for that purpose; I locked it up until Mr. Marshall came. No person had access to it.—Q. Had any arsenic been kept in any office in the house ? A. It had.—Q. In what place? A. In a drawer in the office, fronting the fire-place in the office.—Q. What was it in ? A. In two wrappers, tied round very tight: the words Arsenic, deadly poison, wrote upon it.—Q. Do you hap- pen to know whether the prisoner can read ? A. I believe she can both read and write.—Q. [To Mrs. Turner.'] Is that so, Mrs. Turner? A. Yes, she can read and write very well.—Q. Mr. Turner, was that drawer locked or open ? A. It has always remained open: any person might have access to it.—Q. Who lit the fire, do you know? A. It was the prisoner's duty to do so.—Q. Would she probably resort there for paper to light the fire with ? A. She might resort to that drawer for loose paper that was kept in that drawer: she might properly resort to it to light a fire.—Q. Had that parcel of arsenic been missed before that time ? A. I had seen it there on the 7th of March ; not since that time. Before the 21st March, I heard of its being missed about a fortnight.—Q. Did you make any observation about the appear- ance of the knives and forks? A. I did, which we ate the dumplings with. I have two of them in my pocket now, to show; they have been in my custody ever since. I saw them with that blackness upon them the next day; it appeared upon them then; there is some little rust upon them now.—Q. Did you, either on the day that this took place, or afterwards, speak to the prisoner about these yeast dumplings—what they were made with ? A. I did the next day. I asked the prisoner how she came to introduce ingredients that had been so prejudicial to us ? She replied, it was not in the dumplings, but it was in the milk that Sarah Peer brought in. I had several discourses with her that day upon this subject; during the whole of which she persisted that it was in the milk, as before described.—Q. What had that milk been 1 A. The sauce only. The prisoner made the dumplings with the refuse of the milk that had been left for breakfast.—Q. Did the prisoner tell you what use