SWOPE POISON MYSTERY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13059, 29 April 1910, Page 5

SWOPE POISON MYSTERY.

TRIAL OF DR. HYDE. Cyanide and Typhoid Germs. Press Association-—ToWrapTiCofivrisr'it KEW YORK. April 28. Brecklin, a druggist, and three assistants produced hooks which testified that Dr Hyde bought capsules of cyanide of potassium in September or December. .Brecklin once telephoned and asked Hyde to verify the order. Hyde replied that he wanted the poison to kill dogs. Dr Stewart, bacteorologist, testified that he supplied Hyde with cultures of typhoid germs in November and Decomer. After the evidence Hyde was removed in custody, the Court refusing. to allow further bail.

The trial of Dr Hyde is expected to bo one of the most engrossing in the annals of American crime. It is charged that Dr Hyde, who was held in great esteem locally aa a physician “who kept abreast of the times,” took typhoid germs and placed them in water, and,'by administering them, tried to lull various members of the Swops family, with whom he was allied by marriage, and from whom h© expected to inherit money. Ho is accused of poisoning old Colonel Swope and Christman Swope, and by means of typhoid germs he tried, it is alleged, to murder eight other members or friends of the Swope household. Colonel Swope was buried without the suspicion of four play arising, the medical certificate being given by Dr Hyde. Then came the establishment of a scries of inquiries .by one of the executors, who caused the bodies to bp exhumed-. The outcome was the arrest of Dr Hyde and his release on bail. The Coroner’s jury disagreed, but the police wont ahead with their case against the doctor. Mrs Logan Swope, mother of Mrs Hyde, while being examined before tho Grand Jury, with the tears coursing down her cheeks, repeatedly rose fi'om tho witness-chair in her excitement. She told the story of the courtship of Dr Hyde, and how she had tried to like him as her son-in-law, of her belief that ho had attempted to murder her relatives, and at one time tried to poison her. “On December 12th last he brought me a glass of water that tasted bitter,” said Mrs Swope. “I drank some, and, noticing the peculiar taste, asked him ■where he got it ‘Out of the water-cooler,’ he replied. ‘Ho is trying to poison you, mother,' said ono of my daughters., I . demanded that he should give me an emtic, and tliis probably saved my life. Dr Hyde married my daughter for her money. He followed her like'a hawk would follow a hen. She was his prospective prey.” Dr Hyde keeps remarkably cool, and says ho is absolutely innocent, and, so far from trying to murder tho Swopes, he declares humorously that the Swopes were trying to “swipe” him.