POISON DRAMA

Otago Witness, Issue 3555, 2 May 1922, Page 18

POISON DRAMA

JUDGE’S PRACTICAL TEST. LONDON, April 9. The appearance of experts in the Hereford Court, after five days of painstaking investigations, promises to make the trial of H. R. Armstrong, a Welseh solicitor, on a charge of wife murder, the cause celebre of poisonings. The evidence of famous experts such as Mr Spilsbury and Sir W: H. Willcox was so emphatic that it bordered on the sensational. Mr Spilsbury rejected all the theories of the defence, and insisted that a.large dose had been taken within 24 hours of death, and the others within the week while the deceased was helplessly bedridden. Sir William Willcox asserted that suicide was quite out of court and “quite impossibl e.” ■Mr Webster, the analyst, said he had never found a larger amount of arsenic in any body. The' Judge took the lead in asking questions. A sensational development was that in which the defence announced that Armstrong’s solicitor had found Armstrong's arsenic in his bureau after the police had completed the search. The police superintendent roundly asserted that it was impossible that the arsenic could have been overlooked. He had searched every inch of the bureau. Mr Justice Darling staged a dramatic practical test in order to elucidate the mystery of the packet of arsenic. He ordered that the bureau concerned in the case should be placed under an armed guard in an empty room. Armstrong must enter the room alone and put a packet where he says he put the arsenic packet removed by "the solicitor, Mr Matthews, who will also enter alone and put a packet where he says he found Armstrong’s. Counsel’s speech for the defence stated that Mr Matthews found the packet in February in a back drawer, where it had been caught, and added: “I would remind you that Mr Matthews is a respected member of an honourable profession.” [Armstrong was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to death.]

The distance of the earth from the} sun is now stated to be between 92,822,000 | and 92,897,000 miles. 1

During 1920, motor-cars to the number of 7005, valued at. ahout £2,000,000, were stolen in New York State.