THE TIMARU POISONING CASE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 770, 3 December 1886, Page 19

THE TIMARU POISONING CASE.

HALL CHARGED WITH MURDER.

Timaru, November 25. Thomas Hall, now undergoing a life sentence for the attempted murder of his wife, will be charged at the Resident Magistrate’s Court, at Timaru, on Monday next, at 11 a.m., with the wilful murder of Captain Cain. In addition to, the evidence brought; forward at the inquest, the police have’ secured additional important evidence which; they are now prepared to produce; hence the charge of wilful murder preferred against Hall. The accused will be brought down to Timaru on Saturday. Timaru, November 29. The Magisterial inquiry into the charge preferred against Thomas Hall for the, murder of Captain Cain was commenced in the Timaru Courthouse this morning. Mr White appeared to prosecute, and Mr C. T. H. Perry defended. At the request of Mr Perry all the witnesses were ordered to leave the Court. • , , After Mr White gave a sketch ot the case,; he called Arthur Steadman, manager of the} Bank of New South Wales, who deposed as follows : —I knew the firm of Hall and Meeson. In January, 1885, the account was overdrawn by £BOOO, including discounts. and kept up the same average to August, 1886. In June, 1885, Hall produced a promissory note from *‘E. H. Cameron ” for discount, and I discounted it; also about September 23rd, 1885, he produced a note from Mr Fraser forj£l4ofor discount; and on December sth Hall produced a promissory note from Michael Mitton for discount, and I discounted it, and Wall gave me a transfer of a mortgage (produced) as security. I believe the signature in the book produced (Gunn’s poison-book) is in prisoner’s handwriting. | Mr Black, manager of the National Bank, said: In January, 1885, the account was generally overdrawn something over £IOO, and remained in much the same state up to September 14th, when it was over £lB3. This overdraft increased, and on November 19th it stood at £263. From that date till April 14th, 1886, the account was in credit. Up to May 29th there was a small fluctuating overdraft, and on that day the account was overdrawn £6OO. Mr Davidson, insurance agent, then proved to Hall’s insuring his wife’s life in two policies for £3OOO each. M. J. Knubbley said : I was Captain Cain’s solicitor. The prisoner-married Captain Cain’s stepdaughter on May 26, 1885. Captain Cain told me about the time of the wedding that he and Hall were not on good terms. I believe they were on good terms in September and October of the same year. Captain Cain complained to me concerning Hall’s treatment of him in regard to certain accounts. He told me this was the cause of the difference. On December sth I prepared a deed of covenant to which the parties weie Captain Cain, Mr F. LeCren, Mrs HalJ, and Mrs Newtown. The covenant was a mutual one, and the effect was that Captain Cain was to receive all the income from the trust estate from December 31, 1885, and to pay all outgoings from the estate up to that time. He was to receive an annuity of £3OO a-year from January 1, 1886, and to have the free occupation and use of Woodlands and about nine acres attached during his lifetime. The gross income of the estate was about £IOOO a-year, and the outgoings about £3OO. That income would be divided between Mrs Hall and Mrs Newton subject to the trust of several deeds. The furniture at Woodlands at the time of Captain Cain’s death was worth about £370, and belonged to Captain Cain. That was the amount at which it was valued after his death. Captain Cain also left a section of land valued after his death at £l4O. F. Le Cren then gave evidence similar to that at the inquest respecting Hall’s desire to get hold of his wife’s trust money. Arthur Ormsby, solicitor, proved to making Mrs Hall’s will, leaving everything to the prisoner. Wm. Montague Sims, accountant _ in Timaru, deposed : I am one of the liquidators appointed by the creditors in the estate of HaU and Meason. After allowing for. all available assets I find a deficiency of £5765 3s 9d up to the 4th September. The statement now produced is taken from the book. The books of Hall and Meason show that the firm held trust moneys, and that' they have been misappropriated. I find that Wigley’s trust account In the ledger shows £755 183 due to the trust; in E. Hi Cameron’s account I find the snm of £962 11s lOd due to the trust; and in Michael Mitton’s account I find £325 16s to his

credit, but this includes his promissory notes for £225. , , , , .• The Court then adjourned till 110 clock to-morrow morning. , , • , Timaru, November.4o. ■■;-> ■ The murder case was resumed to-day. The evidence was mostly a repetition of that adduced at the inquest. Mitfcon, Belfield, and Cameron proved the promissory notes forgeries. The evidence of the domestics was taken. Bridget Wren’s and Denis Wren’s examination-in-chief was the same as at the inquest. Bridget Wren, who was examined by iylr Perry, said : During Captain Cain’s first illness he vomited one day. He was only in bed a few days during that illness. He was a good while bad with his foot. The whiskey was kept in a liquor stand with three bottles in the sick-room. Ido .not remember the stand being taken out of that room, but if anybody, came to the house and wanted, whiskey they obtained ■it from the stand in the sick-room, During Captain Cain’s illness I noticed that his hands were very much swollen. I cannot say if Hall saw Captain Cain every time he called. He could have seen him unknown to me. I have seen champagne in the sick room, and it was drawn by means of a champagne tap which was bored through the cork.

< Denis Wren’s cross-examination was unimportant. i After Miss Houston had repeated the evidence given at Captain Cain’s inquest, Mrs Ostler was examined. Her evidence, which was most important, was as follows: — I remember -dining at Woodlands before Christmas. Mrs Newton, Captain Cain, Hall and myself were present. At dinner Hall was going to help Captain Cain to some liquor from the spirit stand on the table when Captain Cain said that it made him siek. Hall then went to the cupboard, and poured out something into a glass, which he took from the table. Hall stooped down to the cupboard. I did not see what he poured the liquor from, as the door of the cupboard hid bis hands. I could Bee his body. Hall then put the tumbler by the side of Captains Cain, and some water poured in from a green jug on the table. I did not take notice whether Captain Cain drank from the glass or not. Soon after the captain became very sick, and vomited in the room and left the table. . This was before the dinner was over, and Mrs Newton and I helped him from the room. I did not hear him complain, but he was too ill to say anything at the time, and the doctor was sent for. Shortly before Captain Cain’s death I heard Hall asking Mrs Newton whether it would not be right of the doctor to give him something to make him die easier. Two or three times I heard Hall say that the Captain could not recover. On one occasion when Hall said that Captain Cain should have something to make him. die the more easily he said he could not recover. Cross-examined by Mr Perry : Hall sent me a letter on June 30 asking me not to go again to see Mrs Hall, but he never quarrelled with me. The letter told me not to go to the house again. I was not annoyed, as I knew the reason why the letter had been sent. Re-examined by Mr White : The letter produced is the one sent to me. The unpleasant thing mentioned in the letter referred to my having told some ladies that I / thought Hall was poisoning his wife. I told/ Mrs Newton my suspicions that Mrs Hall was being poisoned. I thought at the time I received the letter that Hall had left off poisoning his wife, and was as frightened as I was. , ?. The examination was interrupted by the adjournment of the Court till to-morrow, at II o’clock. *

Timaru, December 1. The murder case was resumed to-day. W. A. Meason repeated the evidence given at the inquest. George Kaye, of Timaru, deposed : I went to Woodlands to nurse Captain Cain in. January last, and remained until hi 3 death. Hall came to the house every day. He used to come at night sometimes, about 6 o’clock, but did not remain long on these oecasions. I left the room whenever Hall came in. The Captain was very often sick.. I used to find him sick after I had given him his cough mixture. The mixture was kept on a side table with the grog and the wine. I sat up with the Captain the night before he died, and I saw no difference in him till about 2 o’clock. I saw a change in him then which I took for death. Mr Stubbs was Bitting up with me that night. I do not remember seeing Hall there when the Captain vomited. He used to say, “ Botheration; can’t the doctors give me something to stop this ? ” Jowsey Jackson, blacksmith, deposed : I made an invalid bedstead for Captain Cain. I took the bedstead to the house about 1 p.m. on the 15bh, and George Kaye gave me a glass of champagne, which was taken out of the room that had been occupied by Captain Cain up to that day. F. W.' Stubbs, agent: I knew tbe late Captain Cain for many years. JL went to see him on 13th January, which was my first visit daring his tickness. I was there on the evening of the day the invalid bed came. Hall was at the house. I asked him how he thought the Captain was, and he replied, “Very bad indeed.” He also remarked that the doctor gave no hopes of him, and that he could not get over it. I thought Captain Cain was better than on the day before.

Patrick Mclntyre deposed : I am a duly qualified medical practitioner at Timaru. I began to attend Captain Cain in July, 1885. I visited him on the 9th and 10th of J uly, on tbe 31st of August, sth of September, 3rd and 7th of November, and from the 17th to 31st December inclusive daily. I visited Captain Cain almost every day from the end of December till his death. H© was suffering from kidney disease and dropsy, and also general debility of the system, continuing from his previous illness. I first prescribed for the vomiting on the 24th December, and 1 did not know of its existence before that date. In my prescriptions there was nothing to produce vomiting. I also prescribed stimulants, spirits and tonic; at one time champagne, at another claret and Australian wine, and probably port. I would not expect any of these stimulants to cause vomiting. None of my prescriptions contained atropia, colchicum, or antimony, or any preparation of these things. Captain Cain ; once complained to me of his whiskey ruak-

ing him sick. This was a few weeks before his death. I last saw Captain Cain the day before his death. He was then much worse than he had been for some _ weeks before* The administration of atropia, colehlcum, or antimony to anyone in Captain Cain's position would certainly accelerate death. Cross-examined by Mr Perry : Cain was suffering from chronic kidney disease daring his last illness, and probably Bright’s disease. Could not examine him thoroughly to see. The legs and body, particularly the left hand, were much swollen during thelatter part of the illness. I only remember one sore on the body, a small ulcer, and there was a small deep hole in the sole of one of his feet, but his legs had not gangrened. I considered his recovery hopeless throughout the last illness, and I told the members of the family that he might die at any moment or live for •weeks or months. My prescriptions during Captain Cain’s last illness were palliatives, to a certain extent curative. The medicines given for the kidney disease and the dropsy were palliative, and toreducethedropsy. Idid not expect to cure either the kidney disease or the dropsy. The symptoms at the beginning of Captain Cain’s last illness were general debility, with increasing dropsy, particularly of the legs, and afterward extending up to the lower parts of the body. There was also dropsy of both hands, most marked in the left hand. He also suffered from chronic bronchitis and vomiting. For the latter I first treated him on the 24th December. I also treated him for diarrhoea during the last month of his illness. Dropsy acting on the heart was not in my opinion the immediate cause of death. It was kidney disease, and dropsy in a constitution already enfeebled through impaired heart action. I never told Hall that dropsy would soon reach Captain Cain’s heart, and death would immediately follow. Richard Bowen Hogg deposed : I am a duly qualified medical practitioner. I remember holding a post mortem examination with Dr Ogston at the Timaru Hospital on September 27th. We removed the stomach, a portion of the small and large intestines, the bladder, a portion of the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys. There was also some liquid put into the bottles taken from the chest and from the bladder, and from the peritoneal cavity. The analysis was commenced on the night of our arrival in Dunedin, by myself, Professor Black, and Dr Ogston at the University laboratory. We discovered antimony in all the organs. I should not expect to _ find traces _of colchicum or atropia in. a body nine months buried if such poisons had been administered during life. In one suffering from heart disease and dropsy it would certainly have the effect of accelerating death. Cross-examined by Mr Perry: We. did not test for atropia or colchicum. The urinous fluid in the bottle containing the bladder was tested. In the bottle containing the bladder and the urine were probably the kidneys and some liquid from the peritoneal cavity. In another bottle were the stomach and the portion of the small bowel, and in a bottle there was another portion of the stomach and portion of the liver and spleen. A separate analysis was made of part of the contents of each bottle. There was no difficulty in getting results, although the analysis took a considerable time. The Court adjourned till to-morrow morning. __