Horrible Depravity—A Whole Family (eight persons) Poisoned—Resulting in Death

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Horrible Depravity—A Whole Family (eight persons) Poisoned—Resulting in Death

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Transcription and image contributed by Judy Simpson 16 Jul 2004
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The Western Star dated 27 July 1849 (obtained from Ohio Historical Society microfilm #19249
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It is our painful duty to chronicle some of the incidents of a crime perpetrated in this city, than which the annals of human depravity scarce furnish a more revolting record.

We shall endeavor to give but the general outlines of the case, as it will, of course, undergo judicial investigation, but even what our duty requires us to state, will sicken the hearts of the public.

The family of Capt. J. Blair Summons, the well-known and popular steamboat commander in the mail line between Cincinnati and Louisville, residing in this city on Sixth street, between Main and Sycamore, being at tea on Friday evening last, a child was suddenly seized with retching and vomiting at the table, and soon after others were attacked in like manner. It was at first apprehended that they were all attacked by cholera, and it was some hour or two before any suspicion of poisoning arose. The entire family who sat at table, however, being attacked in the same manner, suspicion was necessarily aroused, and, horrid to relate, circumstances pointed with painful certainty to the son of Capt. Summons, Mr. James Summons, aged 25 or 30 years, as the author of the dreadful crime.

The persons poisoned are Capt. Summons and his wife; Mr. Armstrong and his wife, (son-in-law and daughter of Capt. Summons) and their child, a boy three years old; William Summons, son of the Captain, 18 years old; Paul Huston, engineer; and Mrs. Rives, a seamstress in the family—eight persons in all. Mrs. Rives died on Saturday morning; and at the time we write (5 o’clock Saturday afternoon) the state of affairs reported to us at the house, by a physician, was that Mr. Armstrong was out of danger, that his child was in great peril, and that all the rest were in a critical condition, mortification having supervened.

We attended the Coroner’s inquest upon the dead body of Mrs. Rives, and will now proceed to give a general summary (by no means a detail) of the evidence submitted to the jury.

It was proved by the clerk of Backaus, druggist at the corner of Main and Seventh, that he sold a man, on Friday afternoon, who called for “rat poison,” an ounce of arsenic; and the same clerk, on Saturday morning, positively identified James Summons as the purchaser. The cook of Capt. Summons testified that, a little before the family sat down to tea on that evening, James Summons came into the kitchen, and, as she had stuck a nail in her foot, advised her to apply a piece of bacon to the wound. She stepped out of the kitchen for the bacon, and, returning soon, found James Summons employing both hands in agitating the tea kettle, which she left boiling on the stove. Immediately she was

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called from the dining room to bring in the tea. She poured the hot water from the tea kettle into the tea pot and carried it to the table in the dining room, where the family (all but the Captain) were already seated, from which they were served with tea. The child, at the table, first commenced vomiting. Mrs. Rives drank more tea than any other. Some of the others did not even exhaust their cups and saucers. Capt. Summons coming in, Mrs. S. remarked that something was the matter with the tea and she would make him some fresh; and she made him a drawing of green tea, while the other was black tea. She used water from the same tea kettle.

Mr. Burdsal, druggist, a neighbor, being sent for as a friend, had his suspicions aroused from some circumstances, and he immediately secured the contents of both the pots, (the black and green) together with those of the cups and saucers, bottling them separately, and he also bottled the vomit of the sick. He traced James Summons to and from the store of the druggist mentioned, and learned from the clerk that he had bought arsenic. He is a chemist himself, and subjected the two descriptions of tea and the vomit to analysis, and detected the presence of arsenic, by conclusive tests, in each. He gave portions of each to another chemist, (Dr. Ray, if we remember correctly) who reported a precisely similar result.

The verdict of the Jury was that Mrs. Rives came to her death by poison administered by James Summons!

On Saturday morning, James Summons was arrested and put in custody, to await a judicial examination, not examined, as stated in the evening papers of Saturday, before either Mayor or Justice. He will probably be examined to-day or to-morrow.

We forbear for the present any commentary on this extraordinary, unnatural and tragical event, further than to say that it is understood that James Summons has for some time led a profligate and abandoned life, a victim of intemperance, separated from his wife, and disowned by all but his kind-hearted family who still protected him in the hope of his reformation. He was an inebriate in the house, and still drinking liquor Friday night, while his father, mother, brothers, sisters and friends were enduring agonies worse than death. The worst motive we have heard ascribed to him was the hope of immediate succession to his father’s estate; and the greatest palliation, that inebriation had dethroned his reason. Of these things, however, he will be put on “God and his country” for trial; and we leave him to their mercies.
—Cincinnati Chronicle, 23d

Another dead.—The son of Robert Armstrong, four or five years of age, one of the eight persons poisoned, died about two o’clock on Monday morning. The other six appeared better last evening, and they will recover in all probability. The situation of Mrs. Summons is the most precarious.
—Cin. Gaz. 24th

 


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This page created 16 July 2004 and last updated 16 June, 2004
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