239

WEEKLY NEBRASKA STATE JOURNAL FRIDAY MAY 22 1891 [11?]

Kinney that Sunday morning in the jail, in which Monday referred to Mrs. Sheedy's "lover," and told how she had invited him to watch her take an evening walk with that lover, young Walstrom It also revealed the fact that Monday had taken the cane to the Sheedy residence at about 5 o'clock on the evening of the assault and left it there with Mrs. Sheedy to await his return.

Believed It Was Due To Morphine.

Dr. H. M. Casebeer was called, had lived in Lincoln five years and practiced for sixteen years; graduated from the medical department of the university of Michigan in March, 1876: was present at the Sheedy autopsy with Drs. Beachley, Mitchell, Coroner Holyoke. coroner's jury and one or two others whom witness did not know; witness performed the autopsy, assisted by Dr. Beachley.

The witness explained how the examination had been performed; gave a detailed description of the bones of the [hene?] and face, and located and described the wound inflicted by the blow. He said that the examination had extended to the lower part of the medulla oblongata, the portion lying at the base of the brain with which the spinal cord connects; the medulla oblongata controls the nerves of respiration. A blow upon another portion of the skull might affect the medulla oblongata, but the injury would be apt to be revealed in the autopsy. There was no fracture of the skull revealed in the autopsy.

"Now assuming," said Mr. Lambertson, "that John Sheedy was a man about six feet and over in height, apparently a man of strong physical ability and apparently living in good health, but in fact being affected somewhat with fatty degeneracy of the heart, and in the condition revealed by the autopsy at which you were present, and the brain being affected as revealed by the autopsy: that he was on or about the 11th day of January struck with a blunt instrement which produced a wound such as you have described; that it was dressed and the patient put to bed; that it was not thought at the time to be a severe wound; that he was given at first ten grains of sulfonate, which he vomited; at a later period tens grains more which he vomited, and at a still later ten grains more in a cup of coffee, which he retained, that he then sank into some kind of a sleep, which continued until about 3 or 4 o'clock the following morning, about nine hours after he was struck, at which time he was breathing heavily, only five or six times a minute, the breathing being what is characterized in medical parlance as "heavy or stertorous;" that his pulse was up to 140; the pupils of his eyes being normal; that swallowing or deglutation as it is called, was impossible; that his body was paralyzed; that his kidneys and bowels were torpid, and the urine had to be drawn off with a catheter; that he continued in this profound state of coma, the pulse alternating or changing from time to time, running down some hours before his death to 95, and at times even lower, if not altogether stopping, until about 10 o'clock on the night following the blow, consciousness not having been resumed during the period between 4 o'clock, at the time he went into the comatose condition and the time of his death, and that at 10 o'clock he died, what in your opinion was the cause of his death?"

"Well, I believe that the symptoms foregoing his death are more nearly like shoes of poisoning from opium than anything else, and for the reason that no other cause was discovered for his death, I believe it was due to poisoning by some drug."

"Now if morphine was administered hypodermically, would traces of it be found in the stomach?"

"No, I think not."

Where would you expect to find it?"

"Well, in the circulation and in the urine."

"So that if none were found in the stomach, it would not be evidence that none had been given?"

"No, sir."

The witness explained that a poisonous or toxic dose of morphine was from a quarter of a grain upwards.

The heart was found to have been affected with fatty degeneration, and the other organs were in the condition shown in the testimony of Dr. Beachly. He thought that if death had been the result of the effects of the blow upon the condition of Sheedy's heart, it would have been instantaneous.

"Did you ever hear of a portion of the brain known as the 'arbor vitae?' " asked Mr. Philpott.

The physician reflected long and earnestly as he replied:

"Don't recall having read of any such name for a portion of the brain."

"You never read of the 'arbor vitae,' which is known as the center of life?"

The witness had never encountered it.

"Did you never read Wilson's anatomy, wherein is mentioned an organ of the brain located near the medulla oblongata and called the arbor vitae because it looks like a little tree and was supposed to be the center of life?"

And the gleam of triumphant intelligence that beamed o'er the face of the colonel as the witness admitted his remissness in that respect was the feature of the morning session.

"I studied medicine two years myself," explained the attorney subsequently, still perspiring over his triumph whom court adjourned.

The witness explained in the cross-examination that the bladder which had been buried with the body and not forwarded with the stomach for analysis, would have been more likely to have contained evidence of the poison than the kidneys which were sent.

"How long is the medulla oblongata? Is it two or three inches."

"I should judge it was between two and three inches. I haven't posted up on the minutia."

"Isn't it a fact that it never exceeds an inch and a half in length, and that when you said it was between two and three inches, you said so just because I had given those figures?"

"I don't think it is a fact."

"Did you ever know of a case where it was over an inch and a half in length?"

"It was over an inch and a half in this case," replied the doctor.

Colonel Philpott gleamed sardonically at the witness as he arose and hunted a seat at the rear end of the table, murmuring to himself:

"There never was such a case. No such medulla oblongata was ever put on record, and none ever existed unless the big Missouri girl, Ella Ewing, had it stored away in her cranium. I have studied medicine some myself."

Before he got through with Colonel Philpott, Dr. Casebeer also recalled the fact that there was an arbor vitae, composed of white matter in the form of a tree dipping into the grey matter, but said it was of no special importance.

Mr. Strode then took the witness and had him explain the difference between the symptoms of compression of the brain and concussion of the brain. He did so and Mr. Strode pulled a medical authority upon him, wherein he had the witness read to learn that there was no difference in such symptoms. But the doctor didn't find it so. He found that the medical work did say something about cases of "alight" compression resembling concussion.

Mr. Lambertson objected to this method of examining the witness and suggested that the defense should offer its authorities in evidence, instead of badgering the witness with them.

Mr. Strode contended that this could not be done, as the supreme court had repeatedly held.

The court thought otherwise, and after half an hour was spent in hunting authorities Judge Field finally held that such medical works might be introduced. Mr. Strode didn't desire to introduce them, preferring to keep them, and each time the witness attempted to tell the respective symptoms of compression and concussion of the brain and morphine poisoning, he pulled them out loaded to the hilt. The witness gave the respective symptoms of the three, and Mr. Strode pulled authorities upon him to show that the symptoms might easily be confounded. The witness testified that fatal concussion of the brain would leave some effect upon the brain which could be detected with the naked eye in a post mortem examination, and Mr. Strode jerked out a work on medical jurisprudence wherein it was taught that a man could die from concussion in a case where the skull was not fractured and no apparent trace was perceptible in the brain.

The fatty degeneration of the heart, the witness said, lessened the man's vitality and rendered it therefore the more easy for a shock to affect him.

"If a stomach were full of bile, or whisky, or beer, it might take two hours for the symptoms of morphine poisoning to become manifest, but generally it is perceptible in from five to twenty minutes."

"Do you think that a toxic dose of morphine could be given to a patient who had vomited twice in two house and not manifest itself in less than three hours?"

"Possibly. I have had cases where the stomach was full of bile orl liquor where the poison' was inert for that long.:

"If the stomach was full of food it would hardly lay there a half hour without manifesting itself."

"A toxic does is a dose that will kill."

The defense was right after Dr. Casebeer, who was on the stand over three hours, and if he had testified that black was black, Mr. Strode would have pulled an authority to show that black was sometimes unquestionably white.

Monday Did Call Next Day.

D.G. Courtnay was sworn and took the stand at 3:30. Was a warm personal friend of John Sheedy; was near Eleventh and P on the night of the assault; heard the shots and was at the house outside of ten minutes; when he went in Dr. Hart and Dr. Everett were dressing the wound; stayed there about an hour; went away and returned again in an hour or an hour and a half; the doctor said when he first arrived that the wound was slight; it appeared to witness to be a slight wound; witness, Dr. Hart and Mrs. Sheedy put him to bed; she wasn't crying, but was agitated.

Witness conversed with him after he had gone to bed; asked him to describe the person who struck the blow; Sheedy said it was a thick set person and had on a short coat; before Sheedy went to bed [white spot on scan?] own the cane and asked if he could [white spot on scan... maybe "testify"?] it; he said there were many [shoes?] like that. Sheedy asked if any of the shots he had fired had taken effect; witness remarked that the policemen had said that they had found blood on the sidewalk: at that Sheedy had said, "I'll go down town with you; I'm all right and I'll go down." Dr. Hart and Mrs. Sheedy assured him that he needed rest and he went to bed.

In recounting the occurrences of the day following the assault the witness related the symptoms as heretofore described and said that he had then remarked that they reminded him of morphine poisoning. He had seen two cases of death from that cause within a few months prior to the murder and Sheedy's condition reminded him of them.

"Did you on that day see Monday McFarland?"

"I did."

"Just state where."

Witness stated that so many people were coming to they house during the day that he locked the door. A few minutes later Monday McFarland came to the door and said he wanted to see Mrs. Sheedy on business. Andy Bayliss was already in there crying, and as witness thought that was what Monday wanted to get in for he wouldn't let him in. IN a short time he found him trying to get in at another door which the girl had opened. He told witness that he wanted to see Mrs. Sheedy on business, and witness told him that Mrs. Sheedy was at the bedside of her husband, that the latter was dying, and that he couldn't get in.

Witness related how Mrs. Sheedy had employed him to look after her affairs. Mr. Lambertson wanted to ask him about what she had said to him after that, but Mr. Courtnay declined on the ground that, as they were said to him as her attorney, he didn't feel at liberty to testify to what was said, but didn't wish to leave the impression that there was anything damaging to her.

Mr. Strode whispered briefly with Mrs. Sheedy and told the witness that he might reveal anything that was said.

He said that on the Sunday afternoon of her arrest, when he went into the house, she remarked that he looked at her as if he thought she was guilty, and asked him if he did so think.

"What was your reply," asked Mr. Lambertson.

The defense objected, but after another whispered conversation with his client the objection was withdrawn by Mr. Strode.

The witness said he could not say positively what he had replied.

"Didn't you reply," asked Mr. Strode, "that 'As I love my wife and little girl I believe you innocent?' "

"No, sire; I did not."

"Didn't you reply 'Yes, I believe you are?' " asked Mr. Lambertson.

"I don't remember. It was all in a general conversation."

Witness told how he had advised Mrs. Sheedy to have herself appointed administratrix of a part of the estate to preserve her interests, as his impression was at that time that Dennies Sheedy wanted to gobble the whole business. Mrs. Sheedy informed him that Dennis proposed that Mr. Fitzgerald should be made administrator of the whole estate, but he advised her that there was likely to be a big lawsuit in the matter and for her own safety she had better be appointed administratrix.

Some $550 was found to be available. Of this $500 was found in the shape of checks for rent and $50 was found in an inside pocket of Sheedy's vest. Mrs. Sheedy had the coat and was washing the blood from it, when he cautioned that she had better not do that. She said that she had found no money in it. Witness knew that it had formerly been Sheedy's custom to carry about with him in his pockets several hundred dollars. That was some time before.

Upon cross-examination witness stated that Sheedy had told him during the night after the assault that he suspected George Bradeen. Mose Smith, Alex Jetes and Frank Williams.

He also testified that Sheedy had employed detectives to watch him and preserve him from a possible assault by his enemies.

The Cadaver in Court.

Dr. Winnett, one of the physicians present at the autopsy, was sworn. He said he was a graduate of Long Island College hospital. New York, in 1870; saw Sheedy on Monday after the assault; he was unconscious, his reservations were about twelve times to the minute; his pulse was 90; his pupils were normal in size; but insensible to light; the body was completely paralyzed. The first impression of the witness from the symptoms was that Sheedy had had an overdose of morphine, but when assured that he had had no morphine witness thought it was due to compression. Was at the autopsy, and would say that the brain was normal; no blood at the base of the brain; didn't think the medulla was quite all removed with the brain.

"Now, then, from the symptoms as you found them and the conditions as revealed by the autopsy, what would be your opinion as to his then condition and suffering?"

"I believe it to have been from the effects of morphine."

The witness gave in detail the symptoms of morphine poisoning. In relation to the pupils of the eye he said that in some cases they remain unchanged in morphine poisoning and cases are reported where one pupil was contracted and one dilated.

The usual time required for manifestations of morphine poisoning was from twenty to fifty minutes, but cases are reported where many hours were required. He had read of a case where in fourteen hours the first manifestations were shown. Would say that three hours was uncommonly long. If the stomach was full the effect would be delayed.

The witness explained at length the difference between symptoms of concussion and compression of the brain and the symptoms of the brain.

"The pupils of the eyes are not so liable to be affected if the morphine is given with atrophine. Atrophine is used to counteract some of the unpleasant symptoms of morphine."

"In some instances a half a grain of morphine is a toxic dose, but I should say generally a grain."

"A dose of sulfonal is from twenty to thirty grains. Ten grains would not be dangerous."

"I would say from the autopsy that there was no compression of the brain. There was not any concussion indicated by anything I saw."

The witness described the wound at length, and while he was doing so Mr. Lambertson was noticed to be tugging away at the unwilling contents of a pasteboard box.

A moment later he handed to Dr. Winnett a skull with the crown neatly sawed off. The doctor held it up in full view of the audience.

"Doctor, whose skull are you holding in your hand?"

"It is the skull of John Sheedy."

Mrs. Sheedy made a nervous movement, raising her handkerchief to her eyes, but in an instant resumed her composure and with the utmost fearlessness contemplated the ghastly object held up a few feet in front of her. Monday's eyes were also turned in the same direction.

"State from the examination you have made of the skull of John Sheedy, whether or not in your opinion the blow that administered at that time was sufficient to produce death."

"I think so."

"Doctor, was the blow that was administered to John Sheedy and the wound inflicted upon him sufficient in your opinion to account for the symptoms that you saw in his last illness?"

"No, sir."

The witness then explained that an examination of the skull after it was cleaned, revealed the fact that there were three slight fractures in the vicinity of the wound, which was sufficient to alter the opinion he expressed at the time of the autopsy.

WEEKLY NEBRASKA STATE JOURNAL FRIDAY MAY 22 1891 [11?]

Kinney that Sunday morning in the jail, in which Monday referred to Mrs. Sheedy's "lover," and told how she had invited him to watch her take an evening walk with that lover, young Walstrom It also revealed the fact that Monday had taken the cane to the Sheedy residence at about 5 o'clock on the evening of the assault and left it there with Mrs. Sheedy to await his return.

Believed It Was Due To Morphine.

Dr. H. M. Casebeer was called, had lived in Lincoln five years and practiced for sixteen years; graduated from the medical department of the university of Michigan in March, 1876: was present at the Sheedy autopsy with Drs. Beachley, Mitchell, Coroner Holyoke. coroner's jury and one or two others whom witness did not know; witness performed the autopsy, assisted by Dr. Beachley.

The witness explained how the examination had been performed; gave a detailed description of the bones of the [hene?] and face, and located and described the wound inflicted by the blow. He said that the examination had extended to the lower part of the medulla oblongata, the portion lying at the base of the brain with which the spinal cord connects; the medulla oblongata controls the nerves of respiration. A blow upon another portion of the skull might affect the medulla oblongata, but the injury would be apt to be revealed in the autopsy. There was no fracture of the skull revealed in the autopsy.

"Now assuming," said Mr. Lambertson, "that John Sheedy was a man about six feet and over in height, apparently a man of strong physical ability and apparently living in good health, but in fact being affected somewhat with fatty degeneracy of the heart, and in the condition revealed by the autopsy at which you were present, and the brain being affected as revealed by the autopsy: that he was on or about the 11th day of January struck with a blunt instrement which produced a wound such as you have described; that it was dressed and the patient put to bed; that it was not thought at the time to be a severe wound; that he was given at first ten grains of sulfonate, which he vomited; at a later period tens grains more which he vomited, and at a still later ten grains more in a cup of coffee, which he retained, that he then sank into some kind of a sleep, which continued until about 3 or 4 o'clock the following morning, about nine hours after he was struck, at which time he was breathing heavily, only five or six times a minute, the breathing being what is characterized in medical parlance as "heavy or stertorous;" that his pulse was up to 140; the pupils of his eyes being normal; that swallowing or deglutation as it is called, was impossible; that his body was paralyzed; that his kidneys and bowels were torpid, and the urine had to be drawn off with a catheter; that he continued in this profound state of coma, the pulse alternating or changing from time to time, running down some hours before his death to 95, and at times even lower, if not altogether stopping, until about 10 o'clock on the night following the blow, consciousness not having been resumed during the period between 4 o'clock, at the time he went into the comatose condition and the time of his death, and that at 10 o'clock he died, what in your opinion was the cause of his death?"

"Well, I believe that the symptoms foregoing his death are more nearly like shoes of poisoning from opium than anything else, and for the reason that no other cause was discovered for his death, I believe it was due to poisoning by some drug."

"Now if morphine was administered hypodermically, would traces of it be found in the stomach?"

"No, I think not."

Where would you expect to find it?"

"Well, in the circulation and in the urine."

"So that if none were found in the stomach, it would not be evidence that none had been given?"

"No, sir."

The witness explained that a poisonous or toxic dose of morphine was from a quarter of a grain upwards.

The heart was found to have been affected with fatty degeneration, and the other organs were in the condition shown in the testimony of Dr. Beachly. He thought that if death had been the result of the effects of the blow upon the condition of Sheedy's heart, it would have been instantaneous.

"Did you ever hear of a portion of the brain known as the 'arbor vitae?' " asked Mr. Philpott.

The physician reflected long and earnestly as he replied:

"Don't recall having read of any such name for a portion of the brain."

"You never read of the 'arbor vitae,' which is known as the center of life?"

The witness had never encountered it.

"Did you never read Wilson's anatomy, wherein is mentioned an organ of the brain located near the medulla oblongata and called the arbor vitae because it looks like a little tree and was supposed to be the center of life?"

And the gleam of triumphant intelligence that beamed o'er the face of the colonel as the witness admitted his remissness in that respect was the feature of the morning session.

"I studied medicine two years myself," explained the attorney subsequently, still perspiring over his triumph whom court adjourned.

The witness explained in the cross-examination that the bladder which had been buried with the body and not forwarded with the stomach for analysis, would have been more likely to have contained evidence of the poison than the kidneys which were sent.

"How long is the medulla oblongata? Is it two or three inches."

"I should judge it was between two and three inches. I haven't posted up on the minutia."

"Isn't it a fact that it never exceeds an inch and a half in length, and that when you said it was between two and three inches, you said so just because I had given those figures?"

"I don't think it is a fact."

"Did you ever know of a case where it was over an inch and a half in length?"

"It was over an inch and a half in this case," replied the doctor.

Colonel Philpott gleamed sardonically at the witness as he arose and hunted a seat at the rear end of the table, murmuring to himself:

"There never was such a case. No such medulla oblongata was ever put on record, and none ever existed unless the big Missouri girl, Ella Ewing, had it stored away in her cranium. I have studied medicine some myself."

Before he got through with Colonel Philpott, Dr. Casebeer also recalled the fact that there was an arbor vitae, composed of white matter in the form of a tree dipping into the grey matter, but said it was of no special importance.

Mr. Strode then took the witness and had him explain the difference between the symptoms of compression of the brain and concussion of the brain. He did so and Mr. Strode pulled a medical authority upon him, wherein he had the witness read to learn that there was no difference in such symptoms. But the doctor didn't find it so. He found that the medical work did say something about cases of "alight" compression resembling concussion.

Mr. Lambertson objected to this method of examining the witness and suggested that the defense should offer its authorities in evidence, instead of badgering the witness with them.

Mr. Strode contended that this could not be done, as the supreme court had repeatedly held.

The court thought otherwise, and after half an hour was spent in hunting authorities Judge Field finally held that such medical works might be introduced. Mr. Strode didn't desire to introduce them, preferring to keep them, and each time the witness attempted to tell the respective symptoms of compression and concussion of the brain and morphine poisoning, he pulled them out loaded to the hilt. The witness gave the respective symptoms of the three, and Mr. Strode pulled authorities upon him to show that the symptoms might easily be confounded. The witness testified that fatal concussion of the brain would leave some effect upon the brain which could be detected with the naked eye in a post mortem examination, and Mr. Strode jerked out a work on medical jurisprudence wherein it was taught that a man could die from concussion in a case where the skull was not fractured and no apparent trace was perceptible in the brain.

The fatty degeneration of the heart, the witness said, lessened the man's vitality and rendered it therefore the more easy for a shock to affect him.

"If a stomach were full of bile, or whisky, or beer, it might take two hours for the symptoms of morphine poisoning to become manifest, but generally it is perceptible in from five to twenty minutes."

"Do you think that a toxic dose of morphine could be given to a patient who had vomited twice in two house and not manifest itself in less than three hours?"

"Possibly. I have had cases where the stomach was full of bile orl liquor where the poison' was inert for that long.:

"If the stomach was full of food it would hardly lay there a half hour without manifesting itself."

"A toxic does is a dose that will kill."

The defense was right after Dr. Casebeer, who was on the stand over three hours, and if he had testified that black was black, Mr. Strode would have pulled an authority to show that black was sometimes unquestionably white.

Monday Did Call Next Day.

D.G. Courtnay was sworn and took the stand at 3:30. Was a warm personal friend of John Sheedy; was near Eleventh and P on the night of the assault; heard the shots and was at the house outside of ten minutes; when he went in Dr. Hart and Dr. Everett were dressing the wound; stayed there about an hour; went away and returned again in an hour or an hour and a half; the doctor said when he first arrived that the wound was slight; it appeared to witness to be a slight wound; witness, Dr. Hart and Mrs. Sheedy put him to bed; she wasn't crying, but was agitated.

Witness conversed with him after he had gone to bed; asked him to describe the person who struck the blow; Sheedy said it was a thick set person