ARTHUR.T Stories ----A Murder Conspiracy[4] ----IX---Page 50

The doctor answered in the affirmative.

That night Mr. Rice slept quietly until eight o'clock Sunday morning.

Dr. Curry called and found him in excellent condition, having eaten a

hearty breakfast. His heart was a trifle weak, but it was sound. His

organs were all working normally; he felt no pain. The doctor left

without prescribing any medicine, stating that he would not return

unless called, and expressing his opinion that the patient would

recover. This was about eleven o'clock, and Jones immediately hastened to Patrick's house and reported the conversation.

It was clear that Rice's death would not occur before Monday morning. He
might live to pay over the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; long
enough to give further testimony in the Holt litigation, and thus expose
the whole fraudulent scheme of pretended settlement and of friendly
relations with the lawyer, and finally, perhaps, even to make a new
will. The success of the conspiracy demanded that Rice should die that
night. Did he die naturally? Was his death caused by any further act of
the conspirators? Did Jones kill him by means of chloroform?

Jones's story is that Patrick supplied him with some oxalic acid which

was to be mixed with powdered ammonia and diluted in water, on the

theory that it was preferable to chloroform since it would not require

Jones's presence in the room at the moment of death. Jones said that he
endeavored to administer the mixture to the old man, but that he refused
to take it. Jones had already procured the chloroform from Texas, as has
been stated, and had turned it over to Patrick. He says that that
afternoon he procured this from Patrick, who told him how to administer
it. This was a few moments after six o'clock. Rice was sleeping soundly.
The colored woman who did the housework was absent for the day and the
rooms were deserted. He saturated a sponge with chloroform, constructed
a cone out of a towel, placed the sponge in the cone, put the cone over
the sleeping man's face and ran out of the room and waited thirty
minutes for the chloroform to complete the work. Waiting in the next
room he heard the door bell ring, and ring again, but he paid no
attention to the summons. In point of fact he was never quite sure
himself whether the bell was not the creation of his own overwrought
brain. At the end of half an hour he returned to the bedroom, removed
the cone from Rice's face and saw that he was dead, then after burning
the sponge and the towel in the kitchen range he opened the windows,
straightened the rooms out, called the elevator man, asked him to send
for Dr. Curry, and telephoned to Patrick that Rice was dead.

Jones had no sooner telephoned Patrick that Rice was dead than the
lawyer hastened to Dr. Curry's, and within forty minutes appeared with
him in Rice's apartments, assuming complete charge. Summoning an

undertaker and having the cremation letter at hand, he gave orders for

speedy cremation. But he now discovered the principal mistake in his

calculations. He had omitted to investigate the length of time required

to heat the crematory. This he now discovered to his horror to be

twenty-four hours. But the body must be destroyed. The undertaker

suggested that the body might be embalmed while the crematory was being heated, and Patrick at once seized upon the suggestion and gave orders
to that effect, although the cremation letter sets forth specifically
that one of the reasons why Rice desired cremation was his horror of
being embalmed. The body was embalmed at the apartments that night, Dr. Curry innocently supplying the certificate of death from "old age and
weak heart," and "as immediate cause, indigestion followed by
collocratal diarrhoea with mental worry."

Having arranged for the cremation at the earliest possible moment, Jones and Patrick rifled the trunk in which Rice kept his papers, and stuffed
them in a satchel which Patrick bore away with him.

The funeral was to be held early Tuesday morning and the ashes conveyed by Jones to Milwaukee, to be interred near the body of Rice's wife,
while the relatives should not be notified until it should be too late
for them to reach New York.

The next step was to secure the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars

which Rice had on deposit. Patrick had already forged Rice's name to

blank checks on Swenson and the Fifth Avenue Trust Company. Early Monday
morning Jones, with Patrick looking over his shoulder and directing him,
filled out the body of the checks, which covered all but ten thousand
dollars of Rice's deposits. These consisted of one for twenty-five
thousand dollars and one for sixty-five thousand dollars on Swenson, one
for twenty-five thousand dollars and another for one hundred and
thirty-five thousand dollars on the Trust Company. They were all made
payable to the order of Patrick and dated September 22d, the day before
Rice's death. One of the drafts on the Fifth Avenue Trust Company was
cashed for him by a friend named Potts early Monday morning, and was
paid without suspicion.

But now came the second error, which resulted in the exposure of the
conspiracy and conviction for murder. Jones, in filling out the
twenty-five thousand dollar check on Swenson, had in his nervousness
omitted the "l" from Patrick's Christian name, so that the check read
"Abert T. Patrick," and Patrick in his excitement had failed to notice
the omission or attempt to obviate it by extra indorsement. This
twenty-five thousand dollar Swenson check was intrusted to David L.
Short for presentation to Swenson & Sons for certification. When he
presented it, Wallace, the clerk, recognized Jones's handwriting in the
body of it, and thought the signature looked unnatural. He took it to a
rear office, where he showed it to Wetherbee, who was the person whom

Jones had approached nine months before with a request that he join the

conspiracy to manufacture a bogus will. Wetherbee compared the signature
on the check with genuine signatures in the bank, and returned it to
Short without any intimation that he regarded it as irregular, but
assigning as the reason the defect in the indorsement. Short thereupon
returned the check to Patrick, who supplied the necessary supplementary
indorsement and telephoned to Jones what had occurred, instructing him
to say that the check was all right in case the Swensons should
inquire.

Half an hour later Short returned to Swenson's, where the check was

examined by one of the firm. Rice's apartments were then called up, and
Jones said that the checks were all right. But this did not satisfy Mr.
Swenson, so he instructed Wallace to call up the apartment again and
insist on talking to Mr. Rice. Jones delayed replying to Wallace and in
the afternoon called up Patrick on the telephone, inquiring what he
should say. Patrick replied that he would have to say that Rice was
dead. And in accordance with this Jones informed Swenson that Rice had
died at eight o'clock the previous evening. It was thus clear to Swenson
that although the maker of the check was dead, Patrick, a lawyer,
cognizant of that fact, was seeking to secure payment upon it. For Jones
had told Swenson that he had reported Rice's death to the doctor and to
Rice's lawyer, Patrick.

Patrick, accompanied by Potts, went immediately to the bank, where Swenson informed him that the check could be paid only to the
administrator. Patrick replied that there would be no administrator; that Rice had left no property in this State, and informed Swenson that he had an assignment by Rice to himself of all Rice's securities with Swenson. He also invited Swenson to the funeral.

Later in the day Patrick attempted to obtain possession of Rice's

securities in the Safety Deposit Company and in the Fifth Avenue Trust
Company, by presenting forged instruments of transfer and the orders
heretofore referred to; but after some delay the trust companies
declined him access. The conspiracy had begun to go to pieces. The two
mistakes and the failure to secure funds placed Patrick in a dangerous
position.

Two o'clock on Monday afternoon, eighteen hours after the death, Jones, at Patrick's direction, began to notify the relatives that Rice had died
the evening before, and that the funeral would take place the following morning. The telegrams to Baker and to Rice, Jr., in Texas, were in the following extraordinary form:

Mr. Rice died eight o'clock last night under care of physicians.

Death certificate, "old age, weak heart, delirium." Left

instructions to be interred in Milwaukee with wife. Funeral 10 A. M.

to-morrow at 500 Madison Avenue.

It is significant that care was used to convey the information that the death was a natural one with a physician in attendance; that the body was to be interred in Milwaukee, without reference to the cremation. This may well have been so that if any suspicions of foul play should arise, the recipients, realizing that they could not reach New York in
time to arrest matters there, might hasten to Milwaukee to intercept the body, where they could be met by Jones with the cremation letter in his pocket and his urn of ashes under his arm.

But the telegram did arouse suspicion, and Baker and Rice immedately wired Jones as follows:

Please make no disposition of Rice's remains until we arrive. We leave to-night, arrive New York Thursday morning.

Baker also instructed N. A. Meldrum, a Texan then in New York, to co-operate with Jones in preserving everything intact.

In the meantime, however, Swenson had notified his attorneys, who in

turn had informed the police and the District Attorney's office, and

that evening at about eleven o'clock James W. Gerard, accompanied by a
detective, who posed as the lawyer's clerk, interviewed Patrick at his
home. Patrick informed Gerard that he had an assignment of all Rice's
property and also a will of Rice's of which he was executor. This was
the first reference to the will of 1900. He also informed Gerard that he
would not receive a cent under its provision. To have explained the real
terms of the will would, under the circumstances, have excited too much
suspicion. Yet he was eager to let the Swensons know that as executor
he was in a position to control the profitable banking business that
would arise from the settlement of the estate. In the meantime four
Headquarters' detectives, representing themselves as lawyers, visited
the apartments.

Patrick hurried to 500 Madison Avenue, where he learned of Meldrum's

presence in town. Things were turning out far from the way in which he

had expected. He then hastened to his office down-town, which he reached
about half-past one in the morning, and, alone, destroyed great
quantities of paper, attempting to dispose of them through the toilet
bowl, which was so clogged that the water flowed out upon the floor,
necessitating an apology to the janitor. In the silence of the night
misgivings came upon him. He lost his nerve, and at two o'clock in the
morning called up the undertaker and revoked the signed order for
cremation which he had given. Leaving the office at about five in the
morning he first visited Meyers, thence proceeded to his own
boarding-house, and from there went to the apartments, which he reached
at eight o'clock. Here he found the detectives who had been on guard

since early morning to forestall any attempt to remove the body.

At the funeral itself he attempted to conciliate adverse interests and

to win witnesses for his purpose. He had begun to do this the very

night that Rice had died, when he told the elevator man that he was

remembered in Rice's will. He had also informed Wetherbee that he had a five thousand dollars' legacy. At the funeral were Blynn, one of Rice's
nephews, who had come on from Massachusetts, and two ladies, to each of whom he stated that they had legacies which would soon be available
provided there was no contest of the will.

[Illustration: Four forged signatures of W.M. Rice, which bisected and

rearranged haphazard fit exactly, thus showing that they were made from the same model. This would be an utter impossibility in the case of four genuine signatures.]

[Illustration: Forged assignment of vault at the New York Safe Deposit Co. from Rice to Patrick.]

The detectives now informed Patrick that he was wanted at Headquarters,
and Patrick invited Potts to accompany him, informing the latter that
the police suspected that there was something unnatural in the cause of
death, but that he could explain satisfactorily. As a matter of fact no
such intimation had been made to him by the police or anyone else. At
Police Headquarters after an interview with Inspector McClusky he was
permitted to go his way.

Patrick returned to Rice's apartments, sent for Short and Meyers, and

conferred with them there. He took this occasion to tell Maria Scott,

the colored woman who worked in the apartment, that she was suspected of having poisoned Rice, and that she had better say nothing about his
death. Jones told her that she was remembered in the will and that it
would be worth her while to stand by himself and Patrick, who would see
that she was taken care of. Meanwhile the coroner had sent the body to
the morgue for autopsy.

The autopsy was performed on Tuesday, forty-three hours after death
occurred, by Dr. Donlin, a coroner's physician, in the presence of Dr.
Williams, also a coroner's physician, and of Professor R. A. Witthaus,
an expert chemist. The two physicians testified at the trial that the
organs of the body, except the lungs, were normal in condition, save as
affected by the embalming fluid. They and Professor Witthaus agreed in
their testimony that the lungs were congested. Dr. Donlin spoke of their
being "congested all over"; while Dr. Williams characterized it as "an
intense congestion of the lungs--coextensive with them." Outside of the
lungs they found no evidence of disease to account for death, and beyond
the congestion these showed nothing except a small patch of consolidated
tissue about the size of a twenty-five cent piece. They testified, in

effect, that nothing save the inhalation of some gaseous irritant could
have produced such a general congestion, and that the patch of tissue
referred to was insufficient to account for the amount of congestion
present. Dr. Donlin could not testify what the proximate cause of death
was, but was firm in his opinion that no cause for it was observable in
the other vital organs. In this Dr. Williams concurred. He was of the
opinion that chloroform would act as an irritant upon the lungs and
cause precisely that general congestion observable in the case of the
deceased. Professor Witthaus testified that his analysis revealed the
presence of mercury, obtained as calomel, and while the amount was not
sufficient to cause death, its presence indicated that a larger quantity
had existed in life. The embalming fluid had contained no mercury, and
he and Dr. Donlin agreed that the embalming fluid would have no effect
upon the lungs beyond a tendency to bleach them. In other words, the
People's evidence was to the effect that no cause of death was
observable from a medical examination of the body save the congestion
stated to exist in the lungs, and that this might have been caused by
chloroform.

Thursday morning Mr. Baker and F. A. Rice, the brother of the deceased,
arrived in New York. Patrick showed them the cremation letter, and,
inasmuch as they took a neutral position in the matter, ordered the
cremation to proceed, and accordingly it took place that very day. He
also endeavored to win the confidence of Baker, but succeeded in
accomplishing little. He finally gave the latter a copy of the 1900 will
and the original will of 1896. He also informed Baker that he had taken
a large number of papers from Rice's apartments, and turned over to him
a considerable number of them. He also surrendered on Friday the two
Swenson checks.

After considerable discussion Baker told Patrick flatly that he would
never consent to the probate of the 1900 will; that he was satisfied
that the '96 will was the last will of Rice, and that he would insist
upon its being probated, to which Patrick replied, that so far as he was
concerned he did not know but that the probate of the '96 will would
suit him just as well as the probate of the 1900 will; that it was a
matter of indifference to him, and that so far as the Rice Institute was
concerned he was prepared to give Baker from three to five million
dollars for it, or any other sum Baker might name. These negotiations
and conferences continued until the fourth of October, Patrick yielding
step by step, until he had divested himself of all control of the
documents and securities.

Meantime sufficient evidence having been secured, Patrick and Jones were arrested on a charge of forgery and held for the Grand Jury. Bail was
fixed at ten thousand dollars each, but was not forthcoming.

On October 21st, Mr. House, Patrick's lawyer, visited Patrick and Jones

in the Tombs. Jones says that after Patrick had talked to Mr. House the
former called Jones to one corner of the room and told him that House
insisted on knowing definitely whether a crime had been committed and
directed Jones to tell House that a murder had been committed, but that
he (Patrick) was not concerned in it. This Jones declined to do without
implicating Patrick. The two prisoners then returned to House and Jones
says that he informed House that he had killed Rice by chloroform, and
gave him the "same story which he told on the witness stand." After this
Jones apparently lost his nerve and told Patrick that he intended to

commit suicide. This idea Patrick encouraged, agreeing that they should both do it at about the same time.