THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF DR. ---- IN THE CARLYLE W. HARRIS CASE
The records of the criminal courts in this country contain few cases
that have excited so much human interest among all classes of the
community as the prosecution and conviction of Carlyle W. Harris.
Even to this day--ten years after the trial--there is a widespread
belief among men, perhaps more especially among women, who did not
attend the trial, but simply listened to the current gossip of the day
and followed the newspaper accounts of the court proceedings, that
Harris was innocent of the crime for the commission of which his life
was forfeited to the state.
It is proposed in this chapter to discuss some of the facts that led up
to the testimony of one of the most distinguished toxicologists in the
country, who was called for the defence on the crucial point in the
case; and to give extracts from his cross-examination, his failure to
withstand which was the turning-point in the entire trial. He returned
to his home in Philadelphia after he left the witness-stand, and openly
declared in public, when asked to describe his experiences in New
York, that he had "gone to New York only to make a fool of himself and
return home again."
It is also proposed to give some of the _inside_ history of the
case--facts that never came out at the trial, not because they were
unknown at the time to the district attorney, nor unsusceptible of
proof, but because the strict rules of evidence in such cases often, as
it seems to the writer, withhold from the ears of the jury certain
facts, the mere recital of which seems to conclude the question of
guilt. For example, the rule forbidding the presentation to the jury
of anything that was said by the victim of a homicide, even to witnesses
surrounding the death-bed, unless the victim in express terms makes
known his own belief that he cannot live, and that he has abandoned all
_hope_ or expectation of recovery before he tells the tale of the manner
in which he was slain, or the causes that led up to it, has allowed many
a guilty prisoner, if not to escape entirely, at least to avoid the full
penalty for the crime he had undoubtedly committed.
Carlyle Harris was a gentleman's son, with all the advantages of
education and breeding. In his twenty-second year, and just after
graduating with honors from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in
New York City, he was indicted and tried for the murder of Miss Helen
Potts, a young, pretty, intelligent, and talented school girl in
attendance at Miss Day's Ladies' Boarding School, on 40th Street, New
York City.
Harris had made the acquaintance of Miss Potts in the summer of 1889,
and all during the winter paid marked attention to her. The following
spring, while visiting her uncle, who was a doctor, she was delivered of
a four months' child, and was obliged to confess to her mother that she
was secretly married to Harris under assumed names, and that her student
husband had himself performed an abortion upon her.
Harris was sent for. He acknowledged the truth of his wife's statements,
but refused to make the marriage public. From this time on, till the day
of her daughter's death, the wretched mother made every effort to
induce Harris to acknowledge his wife publicly. She finally wrote him
on the 20th of January, 1891, "You must go on the 8th of February, the
anniversary of your secret marriage, before a minister of the gospel,
and there have a Christian marriage performed--no other course than this
will any longer be satisfactory to me or keep me quiet."
That very day Harris ordered at an apothecary store six capsules, each
containing 4-1/2 grains of quinine and 1/6 of a grain of morphine, and
had the box marked: "C. W. H. Student. One before retiring." Miss Potts
had been complaining of sick headaches, and Harris gave her four of
these capsules as an ostensible remedy. He then wrote to Mrs. Potts that
he would agree to her terms "unless some other way could be found of
satisfying her scruples," and went hurriedly to Old Point Comfort. Upon
hearing from his wife that the capsules made her worse instead of
better, he still persuaded her to continue taking them. On the day of
her death she complained to her mother about the medicine Carlyle had
given her, and threatened to throw the box with the remaining capsule
out of the window. Her mother persuaded her to try this last one, which
she promised to do. Miss Potts slept in a room with three classmates
who, on this particular night, had gone to a symphony concert. Upon
their return they found Helen asleep, but woke her up and learned from
her that she had been having "such beautiful dreams," she "had been
dreaming of Carl." Then she complained of feeling numb, and becoming
frightened, begged the girls not to let her go to sleep. She repeated
that she had taken the medicine Harris had given her, and asked them if
they thought it possible that he would give her anything to harm her.
She soon fell into a profound coma, breathing only twice to the minute.
The doctors worked over her for eleven hours without restoring her to
consciousness, when she stopped breathing entirely.
The autopsy, fifty-six days afterward, disclosed an apparently healthy
body, and the chemical analysis of the contents of the stomach disclosed
the presence of morphine but _not_ of quinine, though the capsules as
originally compounded by the druggist contained twenty-seven times as
much quinine as morphine.
This astounding discovery led to the theory of the prosecution: that
Harris had emptied the contents of _one_ of the capsules, had
substituted morphine in sufficient quantities to kill, _in place of_ the
4-1/2 grains of quinine (to the eye, powdered quinine and morphine are
identical), and had placed this fatal capsule in the box with the other
three harmless ones, one to be taken each night. He had then fled from
the city, not knowing which day would brand him a murderer.
Immediately after his wife's death Harris went to one of his medical
friends and said: "I only gave her four capsules of the six I had made
up; _the two I kept out will show that they are perfectly harmless. No
jury can convict me with those in my possession; they can be analyzed
and proved to be harmless._"
They _were_ analyzed and it was proved that the prescription had been
correctly compounded. But oftentimes the means a criminal uses in order
to conceal his deed are the very means that Providence employs to reveal
the sin that lies hidden in his soul. Harris failed to foresee that it
was the preservation of these capsules that would really convict him.
Miss Potts had taken _all_ that he had given her, and no one could ever
have been certain that it was not the druggist's awful mistake, had not
these retained capsules been analyzed. When Harris emptied one capsule
and reloaded it with morphine, _he had himself become the druggist_.
It was contended that Harris never intended to recognize Helen Potts as
his wife. He married her in secret, it appeared at the trial,--as it
were from his own lips through the medium of conversation with a
friend,--"because he could not accomplish her ruin in any other way." He
brought her to New York, was married to her before an alderman under
assumed names, and then having accomplished his purpose, burned the
evidence of their marriage, the false certificate. Finally, when the day
was set upon which he _must_ acknowledge her as his wife, he planned her
death.
The late recorder, Frederick Smyth, presided at the trial with great
dignity and fairness. The prisoner was ably represented by John A.
Taylor, Esq., and William Travers Jerome, Esq., the present district
attorney of New York.
Mr. Jerome's cross-examination of Professor Witthaus, the leading
chemist for the prosecution, was an extremely able piece of work, and
during its eight hours disclosed an amount of technical information and
research such as is seldom seen in our courts. Had it not been for the
witness's impregnable position, he certainly would have succumbed before
the attack. The length and technicality of the examination render its
use impracticable in this connection; but it is recommended to all
students of cross-examination who find themselves confronted with the
task of examination in so remote a branch of the advocate's equipment as
a knowledge of chemistry.
The defence consisted entirely of medical testimony, directed toward
creating a doubt as to our theory that morphine was the cause of death.
Their cross-examination of our witnesses was suggestive of death from
natural causes: from heart disease, a brain tumor, apoplexy, epilepsy,
uremia. In fact, the multiplicity of their defences was a great
weakness. Gradually they were forced to abandon all but two possible
causes of death,--that by morphine poisoning and that by uremic
poisoning. This narrowed the issue down to the question, Was it a large
dose of morphine that caused death, or was it a latent kidney disease
that was superinduced and brought to light in the form of uremic coma by
small doses of morphine, such as the one-sixth of a grain admittedly
contained in the capsules Harris administered? In one case Harris was
guilty; in the other he was innocent.
Helen Potts died in a profound coma. Was it the coma of morphine, or
that of kidney disease? Many of the leading authorities in this city had
given their convictions in favor of the morphine theory. In reply to
those, the defence was able to call a number of young doctors, who have
since made famous names for themselves, but who at the time were almost
useless as witnesses with the jury because of their comparative
inexperience. Mr. Jerome had, however, secured the services of one
physician who, of all the others in the country, had perhaps apparently
best qualified himself by his writings and thirty years of hospital
experience to speak authoritatively upon the subject.
His direct testimony was to the effect that--basing his opinion partly
upon wide reading of the literature of the subject, and what seemed to
him to be the general consensus of professional opinion about it, and
"_very largely on his own experience_"--no living doctor can distinguish
the coma of morphine from that of kidney disease; and as the theory of
the criminal law is that, if the death can be equally as well attributed
to natural causes as to the use of poison, the jury would be bound to
give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt and acquit him.
It was the turning-point in the trial. If any of the jurors credited
this testimony,--the witness gave the reasons for his opinion in a very
quiet, conscientious, and impressive manner,--there certainly could be
no conviction in the case, nothing better than a disagreement of the
jury. It was certain Harris had given the capsules, but unless his wife
had died of morphine poisoning, he was innocent of her death.
The cross-examination that follows is much abbreviated and given partly
from memory. It was apparent that the witness would withstand any amount
of technical examination and easily get the better of the cross-examiner
if such matters were gone into. He had made a profound impression. The
court had listened to him with breathless interest. He must be dealt
with gently and, if possible, led into self-contradictions where he was
least prepared for them.
The cross-examiner sparred for an opening with the determination to
strike quickly and to sit down if he got in one telling blow. The first
one missed aim a little, but the second brought a peal of laughter from
the jury and the audience, and the witness retired in great confusion.
Even the lawyers for the defence seemed to lose heart, and although two
hours before time of adjournment, begged the court for a recess till the
following day.
_Counsel_ (quietly). "Do you wish the jury to understand, doctor, that
Miss Helen Potts did not die of morphine poisoning?"
_Witness._ "I do not swear to that."
_Counsel._ "What did she die of?"
_Witness._ "I don't swear what she died of."
_Counsel._ "I understood you to say that in your opinion the symptoms of
morphine could not be sworn to with positiveness. Is that correct?"
_Witness._ "I don't think they can, with positiveness."
_Counsel._ "Do you wish to go out to the world as saying that you have
never diagnosed a case of morphine poisoning excepting when you had an
autopsy to exclude kidney disease?"
_Witness._ "I do not. I have not said so."
_Counsel._ "Then you have diagnosed a case on the symptoms alone, yes?
or no? I want a categorical answer."
_Witness_ (sparring). "I would refuse to answer that question
categorically; the word 'diagnosed' is used with two different meanings.
One has to make what is known as a 'working diagnosis' when he is called
to a case, not a positive diagnosis."
_Counsel._ "When was your last case of opium or morphine poisoning?"
_Witness._ "I can't remember which was the last."
_Counsel_ (seeing an opening). "I don't want the name of the patient.
Give me the date approximately, that is, the year--but under oath."
_Witness._ "I think the last was some years ago."
_Counsel._ "How many years ago?"
_Witness_ (hesitating). "It may be eight or ten years ago."
_Counsel._ "Was it a case of death from morphine poisoning?"
_Witness._ "Yes, sir."
_Counsel._ "Was there an autopsy?"
_Witness._ "No, sir."
_Counsel._ "How did you know it was a death from morphine, if, as you
said before, such symptoms cannot be distinguished?"
_Witness._ "I found out from a druggist that the woman had taken seven
grains of morphine."
_Counsel._ "You made no diagnosis at all until you heard from the
druggist?"
_Witness._ "I began to give artificial respiration."
_Counsel._ "But that is just what you would do in a case of morphine
poisoning?"
_Witness_ (hesitating). "Yes, sir. I made, of course, a working
diagnosis."
_Counsel._ "Do you remember the case you had before that?"
_Witness._ "I remember another case."
_Counsel._ "When was that?"
_Witness._ "It was a still longer time ago. I don't know the date."
_Counsel._ "How many years ago, on your oath?"
_Witness._ "Fifteen, probably."
_Counsel._ "Any others?"
_Witness._ "Yes, one other."
_Counsel._ "When?"
_Witness._ "Twenty years ago."
_Counsel._ "Are these three cases all you can remember in your
experience?"
_Witness._ "Yes, sir."
_Counsel_ (chancing it). "Were more than one of them deaths from
morphine?"
_Witness._ "No, sir, only one."
_Counsel_ (looking at the jury somewhat triumphantly). "Then it all
comes down to this: you have had the experience of one case of morphine
poisoning in the last twenty years?"
_Witness_ (in a low voice). "Yes, sir, one that I can remember."
_Counsel_ (excitedly). "And are you willing to come here from
Philadelphia, and state that the New York doctors who have already
testified against you, and who swore they had had seventy-five similar
cases in their own practice, are mistaken in their diagnoses and
conclusions?"
_Witness_ (embarrassed and in a low tone). "Yes, sir, I am."
_Counsel._ "You never heard of Helen Potts until a year after her death,
did you?"
_Witness._ "No, sir."
_Counsel._ "You heard these New York physicians say that they attended
her and observed her symptoms for eleven hours before death?"
_Witness._ "Yes, sir."
_Counsel._ "Are you willing to go on record, with your one experience in
twenty years, as coming here and saying that you do not believe our
doctors can tell morphine poisoning when they see it?"
_Witness_ (sheepishly). "Yes, sir."
_Counsel._ "You have stated, have you not, that the symptoms of morphine
poisoning cannot be told with positiveness?"
_Witness._ "Yes, sir."
_Counsel._ "You said you based that opinion upon your own experience,
and it now turns out you have seen but one case in twenty years."
_Witness._ "I also base it upon my reading."
_Counsel_ (becoming almost contemptuous in manner). "Is your reading
confined to your own book?"
_Witness_ (excitedly). "No, sir; I say no."
_Counsel_ (calmly). "But I presume you embodied in your own book the
results of your reading, did you not?"
_Witness_ (a little apprehensively). "I tried to, sir."
It must be explained here that the attending physicians had said that
the pupils of the eyes of Helen Potts were contracted to a pin-point, so
much so as to be practically unrecognizable, and _symmetrically_
contracted--that this symptom was the one _invariably_ present in coma
from morphine poisoning, and distinguished it from all other forms of
death, whereas in the coma of kidney disease one pupil would be dilated
and the other contracted; they would be unsymmetrical.
_Counsel_ (continuing). "Allow me to read to you from your own book on
page 166, where you say (reading), 'I have thought that inequality of
the pupils'--that is, where they are not symmetrically contracted--'is
proof that a case is not one of narcotism'--or morphine poisoning--'but
_Professor Taylor has recorded a case of morphine poisoning in which it_
[the unsymmetrical contraction of the pupils] _occurred_.' Do I read it
as you intended it?"
_Witness._ "Yes, sir."
_Counsel._ "_So until you heard of the case that Professor Taylor
reported, you had always supposed symmetrical contraction of the pupils
of the eyes to be the distinguishing symptom of morphine poisoning, and
it is on this that you base your statement that the New York doctors
could not tell morphine poisoning positively when they see it?_"
_Witness_ (little realizing the point). "Yes, sir."
_Counsel_ (very loudly). "_Well, sir, did you investigate that case far
enough to discover that Professor Taylor's patient had one glass
eye?_"[25]
_Witness_ (in confusion). "I have no memory of it."
_Counsel._ "That has been proved to be the case here. You would better
go back to Philadelphia, sir."
There were roars of laughter throughout the audience as counsel resumed
his seat and the witness walked out of the court room. It is difficult
to reproduce in print the effect made by this occurrence, but with the
retirement of this witness the defendant's case suffered a collapse from
which it never recovered.
[25] The reports of six thousand cases of morphine poisoning had
been examined by the prosecution in this case before trial, and
among them the case reported by Professor Taylor.
* * * * *
It is interesting to note that within a year of Harris's conviction, Dr.
Buchanan was indicted and tried for a similar offence--wife poisoning by
the use of morphine.
It appeared in evidence at Dr. Buchanan's trial that, during the Harris
trial and the examination of the medical witnesses, presumably the
witness whose examination has been given above, Buchanan had said to his
messmates that "Harris was a ---- fool, he didn't know how to mix his
drugs. If he had put a little atropine with his morphine, it would have
dilated the pupil of at least one of his victim's eyes, and no doctor
could have deposed to death by morphine."
When Buchanan's case came up for trial it was discovered that, although
morphine had been found in the stomach, blood, and intestines of his
wife's body, the pupils of the eyes were not symmetrically contracted.
No positive diagnosis of her case could be made by the attending
physicians until the continued chemical examination of the contents of
the body disclosed indisputable evidence of atropine (belladonna).
Buchanan had profited by the disclosures in the Harris trial, but had
made the fatal mistake of telling his friends how it could have been
done in order to cheat science. It was this statement of his that put
the chemists on their guard, and resulted in Buchanan's conviction and
subsequent execution.
Carlyle Harris maintained his innocence even after the Court of Appeals
had unanimously sustained his conviction, and even as he calmly took his
seat in the electric chair.
The most famous English poison case comparable to the Harris and
Buchanan cases was that of the celebrated William Palmer, also a
physician by profession, who poisoned his companion by the use of
strychnine in order to obtain his money and collect his racing bets. The
trial is referred to in detail in another chapter.
Palmer, like Harris and Buchanan, maintained a stoical demeanor
throughout his trial and confinement in jail, awaiting execution. The
morning of his execution he ate his eggs at breakfast as if he were
going on a journey. When he was led to the gallows, it was demanded of
him in the name of God, as was the custom in England in those days, if
he was innocent or guilty. He made no reply. Again the question was put,
"William Palmer, in the name of Almighty God, are you innocent or
guilty?" Just as the white cap came over his face he murmured in a low
breath, "Guilty," and the bolts were drawn with a crash.