Second Day Of Hearing Of Auckland Murder Charge

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27640, 22 April 1955, Page 5

Second Day Of Hearing Of Auckland Murder Charge

(i»eu Zealand Press Associattm)

AUCKLAND. April 21. Evidence that arsenic had been found . the organs of the dead woman was ten when the hearing of a charge of against James Wilson, aged 56. 'garage attendant, was continued in Magistrate's Court to- £ Wilson is alleged to have mur-i-ed his wife. Maude Constance ElizaJh Wilson, aged 56. on August 31. L. G. H. Sinclair, S.M., is on < Bench. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr r S. R- Meredith) and Mr G. D. height are appearing for the Crown. Sson is represented by Mr L. P. -aary. Q.C.. and Mr B. Sinclaire. The first witness today. Vivian Allen ■aurent. a factory hand, the brother < Mrs Wilson, said that Wilson had old him the police had found weedjiler under the dead woman’s bed. Laurent said that on September 3. jj e day after Mrs Wilson s funeral, ae accused was staying at Laurent’s jome. Wilson got up early, saying the rlice wanted him at his own home st thing in the morning. witness said that he went to yilson’s home about 11 a.m. and found Filson sitting at the kitchen table. He ras very agitated. Wilson said the police had not been yet. but he would <ait till the detectives arrived because jte “wanted to get it all cleaned up.” The witness told him that his (Wilc®’s) sister intended to return to Wellington. and Wilson said: “What’s she -oing back for? I hope she doesn't iink I did it.” The witness said that ie renlied: "We don’t know what to JdnK.” The witness said that he reinmed to his own home about i3O pm. and found Wilson there. Ie asked Wilson whether the police found anything, and Wilson said bey found "a dirty black jar under faude’s bed with some weedkiller in L” “Serious Quarrel” To Mr Speight, the witness said that e was aware of a serious quarrel beween his sister and her husband bout January. 1954. Mrs Wilson maintained she was not going back to he garage any more and Wilson told he witness he did not want her back, jfrs Wilsor. returned to the garage about a week later. Mr Speight asked the witness riether he had ever been ill after a seal at the Wilson home. The witness: Yes. I think it was early - December. 1953. He added that he breakfasted with *e Wilsons one Sunday morning, and a the way home had violent pains s the stomach. When he reached home he was in severe pain and lay e the lawn wondering what was rrong.

He said that he concluded it was ie liver they had eaten. An hour ier he was sick, and felt a little better. but was not well for the rest of *e day or the next. His sister later told him she had been ill all Sunday ari the next day. The witness said he asked Wilson nether it affected him and Wilson sad: “No. apart from a slight rumbfe! of the stomach.” The witness said that his sister had ether similar attacks. Once he found is sitting in the kitchen quite ill. Si said she had had a terrible night. She told him it was “the same old ing—gastric ’flu, she called it—biliousness and diarrhoea.” Constable E. T. Martin said that on September 2 a statement made by the reused was read to him in the form of evidence at the inquest. Wilson aid it was correct and sisned it.

At Wilson’s request the Coroner sided the following words: “The prescription for my wife was for infaenza.”

In reply to Mr Leary, the witness aid that he was present at both postmortem examinations performed by Dt F. J. Cairns. At the post-mortem examination after Mrs Wilson’s body

was exhumed, Senior-Detective Finest an oJ 3r th D ; J ’ D °y le were als ° present On that occasion certain specinvere J ake n from the body, fingernails, and toenails, as well as some bone specimens. Graham Leitch Phillip, aged 17, who worked for the accused from February wli. year y nt .’i two wee ks before Mrs w ? i death - said he noticed that Mrs Wilson was off colour soon after he started work there. She would get Petter after having what she described as a baa turn, then she would “get f roo K a § ain ” P ll the se occasions she would stay at home for a while. On her return to work at the service station her face would be blue. About a month before he left, the witness said, he had a cup of tea in the office with Mrs Wilson while Wilson was away. He noticed her hands and legs were “vibrating.” Her face was purple unaer the eyes. To Mr Speight the witness said that once or twice the Wilsons had an argument, but he did not know what it was about Mrs Wilson used to drink a lot of water after she had been sick. Gardener’s Evidence

Samuel Giles Josephs said he had done gardening for Mrs Wilson for about a year. He used arsenate of lead to spray the trees. Wilson had one tin, and the witness had a tin of his own he sometimes used.

Cross-examined by Mr Sinclair, the witness said that the arsenate of lead w r as marked poison. He last used it about a year ago. and about lin to Bin was left in the tin.

Re-examined by Mr Speight, the witness said he left the tin in the shed w’hen he last used it. Dr. D. M. Nash said that he was called to Wilson’s garage on January 15 last year. Mr and Mrs Wilson both complained of becoming ill, with abdominal pains, vomiting, and diarrhoea, and they thought the illness resulted from food poisoning. He notified the Health Department. John Wark, chief health inspector at Auckland, said that an inspector was sent to investigate and reported he was unable to trace anything to cause food poisoning. Dudley Ward Mowlem, a chemist, said that he prescribed a bromide mixture for Mrs Wilson to calm her. It was not a sedative. It would just have a “calming” effect. From memory he supplied about four 12oz bottles and two 6oz bottles at intervals. “The medicine contained no arsenic, and there is not the remotest chance that arsenic got into the bottle before leaving the chemist's shop,” said the witness. Douglas Albert Piggott, a salesman, said he had known the Wilsons for about five years. Their marital relationship was not happy. He had seen a lot of bickering between them. Mrs Wilson never gave any indication she would take her own life. Analyst’s Findings Gordon Walter Stace, assistant Government analyst in Auckland, said that parts of Mrs Wilson’s body were handed to him by the police for examination. Mr Speight: Did you find traces of arsenic in a number of these specimens? The witness: I did. The witness said he examined the contents of three medicine bottles handed over by the police. In one of them there was 8.4 per cent, of arsenic present in the form of sodium arsenite, and in another 1 per cent. of arsenic, also in the form of sodium arsenite. Medicine obtained from Mrs Wilson the day she died had no arsenic in it. nor did a glass examined by him, said the witness. However, another glass he examined had 7 per cent, of arsenic in it in the form of sodium arsenite. The witness calculated the amount of arsenic in the organs of Mrs Wilson he examined at 1.52 grains. The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.