Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-07-08 | Page 8 | Defense Rests in the Orpet Murder Case

DEFENSE RESTS 11 THE OflPET MURDER CASE Mrs. Margaret Youker Rebuts Re-buts Testimony of Her Sister, Witness for Accused, ADMITS DRAFTING A DECOY LETTER Dr. Ralph W. Webster En. gages in Long Verbal Duel With Lawyers Defending De-fending Student. WA UK EG AN, 111., July 7. .Dr. Ralph I W, Webster, toxicologint, engaged in a prolonged" rluol of verbal thrusts today with Ralph F. Potter, who, with James H. WiJkerson, is defending William H. Orpet, a college student, against a uhargo of murdoriiir; Marion Lambert, a high school girl, with potassium eyauide on February 9 last. The defonso rested its case during the forenoon and rebuttal began. Mrs. Margaret Youker rebutted the testimony of her sister, Dorothy Mason, who tes- , tified for the defense, and the rest of the day Dr. Webster was engaged in defending de-fending the testimony which he gave for tho prosecution early in the trial. Hours were consumed in the most delicate deli-cate play of words and phrases. Mr. Potter was trying to get the witness to admit that he did not ' know ' ' abso- I lutely when he testified that poison j found in tho Orpet ash can heap was ! cyanido of potassium. Calculation Wrong. The technical point involved was the sufficiency of the analysis on which Dr. Wvbster based his statement that the substance was t9 per cent potassium cyanide. Ho analyzed for cyanide and found it. Also he found a truce of potassium. IIo ascertained by analysis tho quantity of cyanido, and from that merely calculated the amount of potassium. potas-sium. The calculation proved wrong, according to testimony of three chemists introduced yesterday ny the defense. Dr. Webster did not look for sodium in the substance, but they did, and they found that it was really cyanido of sodium, so-dium, with onlv a trace of potassium. "i had no interest in whether there was potassium or sodium ; I was uu-alyzing uu-alyzing for cyanide," said the witness. ' What I testified to as a state's witness wit-ness w a s what I knew then: what I knew then and what I may believe now are two different things."' Hypothetical Question. 1 Answering a hypothetical question in which the annlysis of the defense chemists was assumed to be correct, witness said that to get the cyanide ox , potassium which was fonud in Marion's stomach she would have had to have taken more than two pounds of the substance sub-stance 'taken from the Orpet ash heap or to have drunk a two-quart solution mado of it. Mrs. Youker admitted having aided in an attempt by state's Attornev Dady and 1 li s associate. David R . J o si y n , to trap Orpet in a confession shortlv after his arrest. She is married to a brother of -M iss Cries tia Youker, with whom Orpet test if ied lie had an understanding understand-ing in the nature of an engagement. Decoy Letter Drpffed. Attorney Joslyn, she admitted, drafted a letter to Orpet. It was copied with little change ny (elestia, who signed her name, and dispatched it by Mrs. Youker to Orpet at the Waukegan jail. The letter requested him for the good of all concerned, if he were guilty, to make a clean breast of it. Orpet replied, as iollows: 'Dear Celestia: Your letter is all lunik.' Whatever Joslyn says is a d j He. T am awfullv sorry you fell for it. Even if your faith is not enough to counteract the state's attorney's story, I can still fight it out alono. Goodbye, Good-bye, then. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused you and I'm glad you have showed mo this now. Don't come here. I've got enough to stand without with-out having von drained into the papers. I have told' the truth." 1 Contradicts Sister. j On direct examination Mrs. Youker ' testified as to a conversation between! Marion and the witness 1 sister, Doro- thv Mason. Dorothy, when a defense witness, quoted Marion as saying, upon l hearing that Oipet was engaged to Co- j lestia Youker, that "Sometimes I think i that life is not worth living.'' i Mrs. Youker testified that Dorothy I repeated the dialogue to H. J. Carlin, an I investigator for the defense, in her pros- j enco. and at that time she quoted Marion ns saving that life was not worth living' ' ' for an old woman like that. ' ' This, ! she said, referred to a cri pple whom ; Marion and Dorothv had noticed during' their talk. " ; Mr. Carlin. Mrs. Youker asserted, told Dorothy that she could elaborate the : first part as the quotation and could treat the reference to the old woman as unimportant. : t