ART OF THE POISONER.

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13797, 6 February 1917, Page 3

ART OF THE POISONER.

I ATTEMPTED MUEDEB OF SENSATIONAL EVIDENCE. .i< t \ ■ i ■ ii, ■' (Per AasociPlion—Oopyrigbt.} • / (Australian and N.Z, Cable, Assn.) LONDON, Ecbiuaiy 4. ,v; At':tli6: poisoning conspiracy trial at; Derby the Attoruey-Generul, ■ proseeuting, said the- prisoners were, dangerous; ami . desperate people, - bitterly hostile to Entain, -wJio had sheltered fugitives from t)ie. army. The hm;i was a * chemist- of'considerable tkill, and had specially studied poison. Tlu Government employed an agent, who tho nfimc of; Gordon, and- who ingraliatod himself with.-Mrs -WheeUoiir A'u--1 other agent named Booth p'rebadeil that ■ heitras a 'fiigitive from the aniiy avuj a member 'of the ; Independent Worker.! of the Woi'i'd. ' Mrs Wheeldon told ■ them ' that poison' co'Wd' be propped into articles to be used, and added: ''When .1 liand.ithe poison.to you I wa?h myjiajids : and will deny' ever • having ■ given' 'it.'' ; Mi's Wheeldoii also said she had.plauued that, when .-Mr 'Lloyd' George wai staying hiitel to drive nails dipped ; in poison into, his boots;] but 'his' departure to; France thwarted the scheme. She ( . also.intended '' doing Mr McKenna in,'' by driving a ;poisoned needle into, his skull. Mason had agreed ito provide a particularly, rare poison for the purpose. ' • ■ Counsel further stated that the poison was contained iu r four phials. Two, wero -.hydro-chloride*, of strychnine liud one the American poison • curare, used 1 by ' th'e natives,in poisoning arrows. When ' Booth,and Gordon called on Mrs Wheeldon oil January .Ist, she indulged in blasphemous languago about Mr Lloyd George and Mr Henderson, and expressed the hope that both would soon be dead. She said ; that Mr Lloyd George had been the means of millions of lives , being sacrificed, while Mr Henderson ;.was a traitor to the people. Mr Asquith was the brains of the party, but lie was neither good enough for heaven iior bad>enough- for hell. Mfs Wheoldon apparently-'intended to get-Gordon to commit the actual crime. Her denunciations included the King.. Booth asked her how she intended to .carry out lidr plot, and she replied: ',' We have' plans; the Suffragettes have spent- £3OO to-poison them." When the phials arrived from Southampton, complete, in-, structions for-their use accompanied them.