POISON MYSTERY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1013, 31 December 1910, Page 14

POISON MYSTERY.

' MILLIONAIRE AND MAIDSERVANT. '. The wife of'a millionaire meat packer, Mr. John O. 1 Schenckj was recently arrested at Wheeling, West Virginia, on a charge of attempting to poison her husband, who lies in a critical condition in hospital. The case (sayS the "Daily Mail" of November 12) is tho sequel to a strauge romance which resulted in the accnscd woman leaving tho] humble occupation of. a., servant", maid in order to bocoinc, tho wjfe of the millionaire. Tho case'is,'complicated; by family feuds; arising-, from Stlie 'hatred •. .of 'Mr. Schenck's relatives toward the prisoner, who, they assert, entrapped him into a misalliance. The arrest of Mrs. Schenck was effected in- tho magnificent residence of her husband,' after tho analysis of somo dozen bottles of inineral water had, it is alleged, disclosed the presence in them of arsenic. The marriage between tho millionaire and tile maidservant had until recently seemed most happy. Tho couple returned from Paris in June, when tho iron constitution of Mr. Schenck, who until then had never had a day's illness, suddenly broke down. Ho was attacked by an illness which defied all the remedies of tho locaU doctor. Seven weeks ago he was removed to a private hospital, whero the resident physician diagnosed the case as one of poisoning. When informed by the doctor of his suspicion's, Mrsl.Schenck immediately summoned another medical adviser, who had the invalid taken to the North Wheeling Hospital, where his relatives installed a . woman detective as nurse. Every day Mrs. Schenck visited her husband, on whom'sho lavished affectionate ' attention. • The "nurse's" suspicions resulted .in' the sending of o number , of half-consumed bottles of lithia water to tho chemists of the University of Virginia. Upon the receipt of the chemists' report Mrs. Schenck was arrested and imprisoned. Her imprisonment has divided Virginia into two camps, the friends of the prisoner urging that she is utterly incapable of the crime attributed to" her, and arguing that the accusations are the results of the bitter hostility concoived against her by the relatives of. . her'husband. ! Among the ' ■ allegations which her trial will clear up is one to I the effect that the prisoner offered a chauffeur £200 to drive her husband over an embankment in a motor-car. Detectives who months ago were in-. in Mr. Schenck's household in the guise of . servants will give'testimony ' on behalf of the prosecution. Meanwhile Mr. Schenck lies in hospital at the i poiht of death.