Press enter after choosing selection

The Nichols Murder

The Nichols Murder image The Nichols Murder image
Parent Issue
Day
23
Month
December
Year
1898
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

THE NICHOLS MURDER

Ascher Puts in No Testimony for His Defense

WAS SEEN ON THE BRIDGE

Coming From the Scene of the Nichols Murder

His Story Told to the Detectives as to His Whereabouts Knocked to Pieces_Arsenic Found in Nichols' Body and Ascher Bought Arsenic

In the Ascher-Nichols tragedy Thursday, the prosecution received what was deemed a bad blow from the testimony of Hugo Pudrith, the undertaker's assistant, who testified that he had embalmed the body, using a preparation of arsenic This was a surprise to the prosecuting attorney. Pudrith, however just as he was leaving the court room, was called back and testified that the body was embalmed after the post mortem and the prosecution breathed easier. Undertaker Marshall testified positively that the body was not embalmed until after the post mortem.

Dr. Henry George, county physician, took tip nearly all Thursday afternoon with his testimony. He said that he had noticed the wound in Niohols' head the evening of Aug. 18, and that on the next day he and County Physician Johnson had made the post mortem examination. He did not notice any incision or cut in the dead man 's stomach and he thought the immediate cause of Nichols' death was drowning.

"What did you find in the lungs during the post mortem? Robison asked in the cross-examination.

"I found a fluidly liquid which was water," he answered.

' Was there any liquid in the body which wasn't a fluid?" asked the attorney.

"No, sir,."

"The water found its way into the pleural cavity, didn't it?" the lawyer asked.

The witness said it did.

"How was that?"

"I don't know, sir, as I wasn't there."

After a short recess the witness said he had recovered a little and thought he could answer the question better. He was of the opinion that he might have punctured the lungs in removing them and that the water had run into the cavity in that way.

"In the police court," said Mr. Robison, "you stated that the water might have soaked into the cavity. Might not that have been the case?"

"There are different kinds of soaks," said the doctor immediately.

"Well, do you think the water might have got into the cavity by any kind of a soak?"

"Yes, think it might."

Dr. George went on to tell in detail his method of examining the stomach and other organs to see whether they contained any poison. To Mr. Robison the doctor said that he had found no trace of any kind of poison, although he had made tests for four different kinds, including arsenic. After he had used up part of the 'stomach in making the examination, he put the remains in a fruit jar.

"How did you seal it?" asked Mr. Robison.

''By screwing down the cover," was the reply.

The doctor had the fruit jar in his possession till the last of August or the first part of September.

The cross-examination of Dr. George was continued Friday morning.

"If arsenic has been introduced into a human body, would not the stomach be inflamed?" Mr. Robison asked. 

' Yes, ' ' the doctor replied.

"Was the stomach of Mr. Nichols inflamed in any way?"

"Not in the slightest degree. "

"Did it present any appearances found in arsenical poisoning?"

"No."

The witness was positive that no arsenic or other poison bad been administered to Nichols.

In the Ascher murder trial in Detroit Friday, County Physician Johnson corroborated Dr. George's testimony, with the exception of the absence of arsenic for which he had made no test. He thought Mr. Nichols was unconscious when put in, the water probably from the blow on the head.

The letters which the medium Lang had written Nichols on spiritualistic matters were identified by Andrew Ziebold as Ascher's handwriting. He testified to attending seances and to being told by the defendant that he was a medium. The witness had given up trying to be a medium. He paid Ascher $3, $1 for a sitting and $2 for a belt to wear in order to develop his late writing powers. But the belt did not succeed. There was a powder in the belt. The belt was to be fastened with buttons, but he tied it with strings. The attorneys said that this spoiled it. Ascher himsslf wore a belt. At the last seance he attended with Ascher, a slate message was received stating that the reason Ziebold was not successful was because his belt was not strong enough.

The Nichols murder trial in Detroit Saturday afternoon brought out more witnesses as to Lang or Ascher's spiritualistic seances. John Kupiron, of Louisville, Ky. , identifled Ascher as the man he had known as Lang. He had seen him several times, once in the Louisville jail, where Ascher was confined. He was advised by Ascher to wear a belt into which he placed 12 $5 gold pieces, Ascher assisting to wrap them up. When he opened the belt he found 12 nickles instead of the gold pieces. Ascher had tried to get him to borrow money of his mother-in-law, but he didn't do it. He never saw Lang after he discovered the nickles.

Mrs. Alice L. Nichols, widow of the murdered Valmore O. Nichols, testified at the trial of Ascher, alias Lang, in Detroit Monday. At times her emotions overcame her and she wept bitterly.

"The last time I saw my husband alive was on the 10th day of August, in the morning, " she testified. "He then went to Detroit and never returned alive. When he went away he wore a belt of unbleached muslin, containing money. I took him down to Ypsilanti in the buggy and the last I saw of him alive was when the boarded the 10 o'clock car for Detroit. " The witness said that her husband had made the belt himself , and was in the habit of wearing it all the time. One night, when he was asleep, she felt for the belt and for the first time knew that it contained money, whether it was gold or silver she did not know. A portion of the money he had borrowed of a friend, Chas. Roberts. The rest of it came from his bank account. When he left for Detroit he went to see a man named Robert Lang. Lang was an alleged medium, with whom her husband had had considerable correspondence.

"My husband was an investigator, " tearfully stated the witness. "He had been quite a believer in spiritualism since 1896. He had corresponded with Lang to some extent, and I read some of the letters that Lang wrote him, I saw them in his desk. When my husband went away he packed them together in a bundle. After his disappearance I searched diligently for them but could not find them. My husband did not tell me of many of the letters that he received, for I was not a believer in spiritualism. They were all in Robert Lang's (Ascher's) handwriting."

One of the letters making an appointment with Nichols was produced. Mrs. Nichols stated that shortly after this letter was received another came. An extract from it is as follows :

"Use the slates according to direction. Wear the gold belt all the time and tell nobody about it. ' '

When this letter came some slates came by express. "They cost my husband $10.50," sobbed the witness.

Two slates were introduced in evidence by Prosecutor Frazer and were identified by the witness as the slates sent to her husband. They were ordinary five cent school slates.

Mrs. Nichols identified the spectacles, tobacco pouch, cuff buttons and watch chain of her husband. When Nichols returned from his frequent visits to Medium Lang, he would often be sick, hungry and dizzy. When he left Pittsfield the last time to see Lang, he had $20 besides the money in the belt.

John Hauvlick, an employe of the Belle Isle boat house, testifled that on the night of Aug. 10, two men rented a boat and that he shoved the boat off the shore for them. One of them was a big, heavy man and the other was smaller.

 The smaller man was about the size of him," pointing to Ascher.

The defendant did not move a muscle, bat stared fixedly at the witness.

"The boat was No. 6 and went out at 7 :45 p. m. , returning at 8 :45 p.m. , and there was only one man in it. He was the smaller man. The man hurried away and when I called to him and asked what number the boat was, he called back that it was No. 6."

Edmund F. Hulbert stated that on the night of Aug. 10, he hired a canoe at the Belle Isle boat house. There he saw two men in a row boat, a large man and a small one. The large man (presumably Nichols) wore a dark felt hat and dark clothes. He had a sandy mustache. Here the witness identified photographs of Nichols as the man he saw that night.

"I passed their boat quite closely,' said he, "I was only about 10 feet from it. The large man was sitting in the stern and the small man was rowing. The small man faced me as I was passing them and I could see that he had a dark mustache and wore a brown derby hat and brown clothes."

"How does this man compare with the smaller man?" asked Mr. Frazer, pointing to the defendant.

"He resembles the small man as closely as any man I have seen since. I have seen no one who resembled him so much. "

Tuesduy morning Chas. E. Roberts, of Pittsfield, testified that he loaned Nichols $280 on Aug. 3.

Peter W. Carpenter, teller of the Ypsilanti Savings Bank testified to Nichols' getting $420 in gold and some silver out of the bank Aug. 3.

George W. Alban, of Ypsilanti, swore to being on the car with Nichols from Ypsilanti to Detroit, Aug. 10. Nichols left the car at Griswold st. and Michigan ave. Charles E. Roberts, recalled, told of going to Ascher's in search of the missing farmer, Aug. 13. Ascher told him that the last he had seen Nichols was on the Saturday previous. That he was expecting him to call or to hear from him by letter. There was some more conversation and Ascher corrected himself by saying that he had seen Nichols on the Wednesday before, giving him a sitting which lasted over an hour and a half.

"How did Ascher appear when yon made these inquiries?" Mr. Frazer asked.

"He blushed." replied the witness.

C. A. Yates, who visited Ascher with Roberts, corroborated Roberts' testimony.

Oscar Walsh,an Ypsilanti grocer, testified to receiving a telephone message from Nichols between 3 and 4-o'clock on Aug. 10, asking him to tell his people that he would not be back until the next day.

Fred E. Clougb, of the Detroit Telephone exchange, testified that Ascher was not the man who sent the telephone message.

Miss Frances Nichols, daughter of the murdered man, corroborated her mother's testimony that when her father returned from his visits to Detroit he was invariably ill ; that he had a great thirst, was dizzy, could not eat and complained of headache.

Daniel Gates and his wife Mrs. Hattie Gates, of Ypsilanti, testified to Nichols' coming home sick after visiting the Detroit medium. On one occasion he had lain down at their house and they had taken him home.

Johu G. Patterson, hardware dealer, sold some copper wire Aug. 10 to a man whom he did not know, for 12 cents.

Ed. S. Grece, the populist attorney, had known Ascher under the name of Lang. He met him at Island Lake, Aug. 14. In reply to the question "Did you have any conversation with him," Grece said:

' ' Yes. He came to me one day and asked me whether I knew a man by the name of Nichols, who used to come to Donovan's. He described him as a smooth-faced, short, heavy -set man, and said that he was missing and that his relatives were looking for him. The idea had been conveyed to him that he was drowned and he expected the newspapers to publish something about the matter. ' '

Ascher, he said, searched the Detroit papers diligently to see if they said anything about Nichols, Describing the spiritualist camp meeting at Mand Lake, the witness said that he heard trumpet sounds and guitar music in the air; that the instruments floated in the air. All this took place during a seance at night. The witness said that his most distinct recollection was a good supper.

"Spiritual?" asked Attorney Robison.

"No; material," replied the witness.

"That was in the light, was it not?" said the attorney.

The witness replied that it was. The testimony showed that Ascher had given the name of Schultz when he bought his new suit of clothes on Aug. 12, and that he paid for it with a $20 gold piece.

Detectives Larkins aud High who arrested Ascher at Island Lake testified that a man by the name of Brown let his party into the hotel where the defendant was stopping and that when they stepped on either side of Ascher and told him he was wanted in Detroit, he slid back to the bed and muttered, "For that?"

"Were you present when Ascher was searched?" asked Frazer.

"I was," said Larkins. "It was at police headquarters the morning we made the arrest.

"How much money was on him?"

"Fifty-eight dollars and 10 cents."

Capt. McDnonell, of the detective bureau, said that on the morning of Ascher's arrest, he in company with Mr. Frazer and Detective Sadler had talked with their prisoner. Ascher had then told him that he saw Nichols Aug. 10, about 1 or 1 :30 o'clock in the afternoon, that he had been with him for an hour or an hour and a half, and that he was sure he had not been on Belle Isle that same evening. According to the captain 's story of what Ascher had told him, the defendant had gone to supper at about 6 :30 o'clock, had spent the evening with the Schultz family at 124 Lafayette ave., and between 10 and 11 o'clock had gone to his home. He said he knew nothing of any belt.

Detective Sadler corroborated what his captain had said and Mr. Robison stated that his client had told him the captain's statements were substantially correct. Detective Dillon was recalled and described the copper wire found fastened to Nichols' feet.

Dr. S. P. Dnffield, the ex-health officer of Detroit was put upon the stand Wednesday morning :

"Are you  a chemist, doctor?" asked Mr. Jarzer,

"Yes. sir. ''

' ' Since when have you been a chemist, doctor?"

"Since 1858, I graduated at the University of Giessen, Germany. ' '

"Did you make a chemical analysis of the stomach and contents?"

"I subjected the contents of the bottle to treatment for mineral poison and detected arsenic. "

"You made a quantitative test?"

"Yes, sir. "

"How much arsenic did yon find?"

"I found 50-100 of one grain of arsenic in the one and one-half ounces of fluid in the body."

The doctor then described his method of finding the poison.

The evidence for the prosecution will probably be concluded today.

The arsenic, the doctor said was present in the stomach, contents, liver and blood. Four little glass tubes were shown to the jury. Upon the glass of the little vials the metallic arsenic had been precipitated, appearing to the naked eye as dark steel gray mirrors. By laborious, delicate methods the doctor obtained all the poison that was in the matter given him. He found in the stomach 1.267 grains of arsenic; in the liver, 1.447; in the contents, 0.150, and in the blood 0.002, or a total of 2.884 grains of arsenic. This, however, does not give the exact quantity of the poison extracted. The piece of liver the doctor analyzed weighed 75 grains, and in arriving at his figures the doctor estimated on the entire, normal liver. Nor does the quantity of arsenic found by Dr. Duffield represent the entire amount of poison, the effects from which Nichols suffered. Drs. Johnson and George had used up part of the contents of the stomach in making their "analysis," and the kidneys and other organs were not examined at all. Dr. Duffleld had the entire poison - besides that shown in the vials- with him. It was precipitated on other chemicals. Dr. Duffield stated that a fatal dose would be from one to two and one-half grains, that the effects would not show in the stomach or other organs before a half hour. Dr. Duffield gave it as his opinion that in Nichols case it was acute, arsenical poisoning, but that he was thrown into the water before the poison had killed him. The doctor swore that arsenic would produce effects similar to those described as having been manifested by Nichols on his return home after his visits to this city. The quantity the doctor had found in the stomach was sufficient to kill a man.

Frank A. Meade testified that he sold Edward Ascher a quantity of arsenic the night of the murder. He explained that he was a clerk in a drug store at 113 Michigan ave. The night of Aug. 10, a man whom he then identified as Ascher came into the store and bought either five or ten cents worth of the poison. When he asked the customer what he was going to do with it, he was told that he was going to send it to a friend in Canada.

"What else did he say?"

' ' He said that he guessed that he would smoke one of his brotber's cigars and asked for one of "Wellington Bouquet" brand, which is sold by Louis Ascher. I then knew that this man was an Ascher, but paid no particular attention to it at the time."

Prosecutor Frazer showed a photograph of Ascher to the witness, and he said :

"That is the man to whom I sold the arsenic, ' '

Miss Matide Schultz, Ascher's sweetheart, testified that Ascher was with her Aug. 10, until about 6 o' clock and that she did not see him again until the next afternoon. This contradicted the storv told by Ascher to the detectives that he had spend the evening with Miss Schultz.

Mrs. Elizabeth Schultz corroborated her daughter's testimony. Ascher had used her parlors to entertain his company. Nictols came there of ten to see Ascher and called to see Ascher the day of the murder.

Abijah J. Whitmore said he had known Ascher since he was born. He had lived next door to the Aschers. He saw the defendant at about 9 o 'clock the night of Aug. 10, coming over the Belle Isle bridge .

The prosecuting attorney then announced that the people's case was closed.

The biggest surprise in the Ascher murder trial occurred yesterday when, without putting in any defense at all Attorney Geo. F. Robison startled the court and prosecution by the announcement :

' ' We rest, your honor. ' '

This declaration indicates Mr. Robison's conviction that the people had not made out a case against Ascher.

The prosecution was completely taken by surprise.

"We are somewhat startled," Mr. Frazer spoke up, addressing the court, "and I would ask your honor for time for a short recess to counsel with Mr. Mandell, my assistant. ' '