Norfolk Virginian, March 27, 1889

THE TAYLOR POISONING CASE.

Moral -- Murder

Resumption of the Trial of Mrs. Taylor for Murdering Her Husband.

[Special Dispatch to the Virginian.]

ONANCOCK, Va., March 26. -- The trial of the Taylor case was resumed this morning promptly at 10 o'clock.

It was proven by witnesses for the Commonwealth that Mrs. Taylor had remarked prior to the death of her husband that she could get along without him, and on one occasion, while her husband was away, when asked when he would return, replied that she did not know, and did not care if he never returned, that she was improperly intimate with Dix, alias Townsend, the man employed as a hand upon her husband's farm, and that the deceased remonstrated with her concerning it. That she purchased strychnine from the store at Temperanceville in the month of October, a neighboring village; that she was very much agitated when making the purchase; that in the early part of December her husband complained that some medicine given him by his wife had made him drunk; that on or about the 13th of December Mrs. Taylor administered a dose of medicine to him which threw him into convulsions; that these convulsions were similar to the symptoms of strychnine poison; that medicine was administered to him several times by Mrs. Taylor and that shortly after each dose Taylor was thrown into a succession of convulsions; that on Saturday, the 16th day of December, Mrs. Taylor gave her husband a dose of medicine, which contained a large quantity of substance resembling sugar; that shortly afterwards deceased was seized with violent twitching, which led to violent convulsions and shortly afterwards culminated in his death; that Mrs. Taylor seemed to take it very coolly; that several days after his burial the suspicions of her neighbors were aroused and that an outcry was demanded, that Mrs. Taylor violently opposed it; that she asked Dr. Bowdoin if he could tell positively whether or not her husband was poisoned, and upon his replying in the negative, she consented having a post mortem examination held; that the result of the coroner's investigation was such as to lead the coroner to believe that the deceased had been poisoned by strychnine.

State Chemist Taylor testified that he analyzed a part of the stomach, and found in the part analyzed one-thirtieth of a grain of strychnine. He stated upon cross-examination, that he was satisfied that Taylor came to his death by strychnine poison.

Dr. Taylor was subjected to a very rigid cross-examination. Immediately upon his getting through with his testimony, the court adjourned until to-morrow morning. The court room was again packed today.