Chenango Telegraph & Chronicle, Norwich, NY, August 15, 1866
The inquest on the body of John Moore, which was postponed to procure the attendance of Mrs. Moore and also an analysis of the contents of the tea pot, was resumed last week Tuesday and closed on Wednesday. It resulted in a finding by the jury that Moore came to his death by swallowing a solution of corrosive sublimate from a tea pot; that the sublimate was put in it by his wife, but whether done so with intend and purpose to kill, or from an impression that it was an innocent and harmless medicine, the Jury were unable to determine.
The testimony in the case is very voluminous. This is a brief abstact. Moore was a laborer, living at Preston Corners [Chenango Co., NY], 47 years old and a drinking man. His wife was 27, industrious, prudent and kind. They had no children. Moore came home from Norwich on Saturday night July 2d, drunk. About 4 o'clock Sunday morning Mrs. Moore called up Dr. Dwight to visit her husband who she said was sick and accused her of poisoning him. the Doctor went and found Moore in bed vomiting freely. Moore said "his wife, the d....d bitch, had poisoned him - had put it in the tea pot and set it by the bed - that he believed it was in the spout and he took two or three swallows and got the whole charge." He complained of burning in his throat all the way down. The Doctor made proper prescriptions in the case and put the contents of the tea pot in a bottle which Mrs. Moore got for him. In a conversation with Mrs. Moore as to what she had given him, she said it was a powder she got from a traveling Doctor to make him get over his drinking, and she detailed the circumstances. On the next day, Monday, Mrs. Moore left him publicly and went to her father's in Otsego County, telling Dr. Dwight and others the reason, that she could not stand his brutal treatment any longer. Moore was "up and down" and outdoors during the week, with no appearance of danger, but died on Saturday, protesting to the last that his wife had poisoned him. The body was opened and the stomach removed by Doctors Dwight and Avery. Mrs. Moore wrote back two letters to friends in Preston wanting to know if John was going to follow her and was apprehensive he would come after her and try to get her back. She did not learn his death until the Coroner went for her as a witness. The contents of the stomach and tea pot were taken to Dr Mosher, the accomplished Professor of Chemistry in the Albany Medical College, who attended as a witness. He testified to having made a Chemical analysis of the contents of the tea pot by various scientific tests all of which he detailed with particularity and precision, which demonstrated unmistakably the presence of more than a hundred grains of the deadly poison of corrosive sublimate, sufficient to kill 40 men. He had not yet found time to analyze the stomach, but an examination of it showed inflammation such as might be produced by irritant poison, and he pronounced the symptoms of Moore to be such as accompany poisoning by this sublimate.
Mrs. More was then put on the stand. She testified that Moore came home much intoxicated on that Saturday night, about half past eight. He abused her and while she was getting his supper she dropped the cover to the kettle, and he grabbed her arms and pushed her into the bed room where he kicked her several times. After supper he chased her with his gun that was loaded and threatened to kill her "because she worked for the neighbors." She ran out and went to Janes' Hotel for safety. After a while Dr. Dwight and two men accompanied her home. Moore went to bed about 11 o'clock. She did up her work and sat a while, and then took the tea pot and put it on a chair by his bed as she was accustomed to do. He always wanted cold tea when he woke up in the night after he had been drinking. Before she placed it there she went to her trunk and took a powder from a little paper box, and put it in the tea pot. About 4 o'clock John called for some water which she carried to him. he called her a cursed wretch and charged her with having poisoned him. He vomited and complained of having sensation in his throat. At his request she went for Dr. Dwight who came as before stated. She said the powder was given her by a traveling peddler or Doctor, when they lived down on the river near the Halfway House, three years ago. He came into the house one day when John was in a drunken spell and was bad off, "perfectly crazy." The peddler said to bet he had met with men full as bad off as he was before, and had given them that would quiet them down and he would give him some if she said so. She answered she didn't care if she could only get some rest. The peddler laid out three powders and she gave one to John in some water. It made him some sick and he vomited up the liquor and went to sleep and got over it. A year ago last spring she gave him another of the powders while he was on a drunken spell, in cold tea, and it worked on him as it did before. When she gave him the second powder she saw the other one in the same box where she kept them. She saw the powder the last time this last spring. She never bought any powder or medicines in her life at a Druggists. About four years ago she sent ten cents by her uncle for some corrosive sublimate at Norwich for bed bugs. she put almost all of it in a bottle of water and what she didn't' use of the solution, she threw away. there was some left she didn't put in the bottle. This she wrapped up and laid on the top shelf of the buttery. she never took it down or saw it afterwards. They have moved twice since then and their things were packed and unpacked. The peddler had a horse and wagon. She had never seen him since that she knows of. She supposed she was giving John the powder that she got from the peddler. She had black and blue marks on her limbs and arms from John's beating, which she had shown to Mrs. Barr. When she went away she had no idea but what John would be all right in a day or two, and she was afraid he'd follow her.
The good character enjoyed by Mrs. Moore among her neighbors for good behavior, and her patience and forbearance under the habitual ill ways of a dissipated husband, all worked to her favor at he inquest. She is a simple minded woman and her story brought tears to the eyes of a listening audience who almost unanimously approved the verdict.
D.L. Follett Esq., and Capt. Stanton attended as Counsel for Mrs. Moore at the Examination. The District Attorney represented the People.
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