People v. Vanderhoof

• Decision Date: 11 July 1888
• Citation: 39 N.W. 28,71 Mich. 158
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: PEOPLE v. VANDERHOOF.

39 N.W. 28

71 Mich. 158

PEOPLE v. VANDERHOOF.

Supreme Court of Michigan

July 11, 1888

Appeal from circuit court, Berrien county.

Indictment against Elizabeth Vanderhoof for the murder of her husband William Vanderhoof. Defendant was convicted, and appeals.

Moses Taggart, Atty. Gen., for the People.

MORSE J.

The defendant was accused, and convicted in the Berrien circuit court, of the murder of her husband, William Vanderhoof, by administering to him arsenic on or about the 1st day of December, 1883. The evidence showed conclusively that William Vanderhoof, from the winter of 1882 and 1883, and especially in the spring and summer of 1883, was not a healthy man. He was ill, and had spells of distress and burning in his stomach, and pain about the heart, with trembling of the body. His nerves were affected, and he was troubled at times with a coldness and numbness of his lower extremities. He also had dizzy spells, and thought his heart was affected; would have a feeling of suffocation, and could not lie upon his left side. The physician who attended him in his last illness treated him for erysipelas in September 1883, at which time he complained of a pain about his heart. He had made occasional complaints of heart trouble to this same physician for three years before his death. This physician, Dr. Levi Mann, treated him from the 5th day of October, 1883, almost regularly until the time of his death. On the 5th of October, he complained of numbness in his arms and body, and nervousness. On the 13th of the same month had pain in the lungs. During the time from this date up to the last of November, with some intermissions of slight fever his principal trouble and complaint was nervous spells, numbness, "dizzy and falling spells," pain about the heart, and difficulty in breathing. Dr. Mann saw no symptoms indicating arsenical poisoning up to the 29th of November. On that day, about 9 o'clock in the morning, he found the patient's pulse raised to 140, and, by pressing his finger upon the radial artery, he discovered, as he thought, a failure of the heart's action. "The pulse was very irregular, very quick and weak, and almost imperceptible at the wrist, and a little fear of regurgitation." The week before he died, Vanderhoof had some diarrhea,-four or five passages a day. On the morning of the 29th, the tongue was of a slimy appearance. There was no complaint of burning in the stomach or bowels, and no pain in the stomach or bowels. The bowels moved without pain. On the 30th, the patient, in the language of the physician, "was in a pulseless condition. His tongue had a slimy appearance, and had been for nearly a week. There was no complaint of burning in the stomach. He never complained of burning anywhere about his body." There was no complaint about his bowels that indicated arsenic, and they were not bloated. On the 29th, the doctor says he was unable to assign any other cause for the condition of Vanderhoof than failure of heart action. There was no altered expression of his countenance on that day, but on the 30th there was a change; "he had a white marble appearance, and a cold, clammy surface." The raising of the pulse from 80 up to 140 was the symptom which, in Dr. Mann's opinion, might have indicated arsenical poisoning, and the only one he observed, and he testifies that he could not tell whether this was the result of arsenic or of a weak heart. The slimy tongue was not a symptom of arsenical poisoning, but of indigestion. Vanderhoof called on Dr. Henderson, who examined him in August, 1883. He said to Henderson, at that time, that he had taken medicine which did him no good, but made him worse. He said: "I want you to give me something to do me some good. If you can't, I don't want you to give me anything." Dr. Henderson testifies: "He was restless, crossing his feet, moving his hands; seemed to be in a nervous condition generally. His eyes were in motion. There was every indication of nervousness. I examined him carefully, and gave him some medicine. He said that oftentimes in eating a meal, and especially dinner, he would go out to work, and he would feel all right for a while; but, when his stomach would be empty, he would have a sensation of uneasiness in his stomach, and he would have trembling spells, and he would have to sit down, and there was a burning and a heat in his stomach. I examined him for organic trouble. I could not discover any. I examined his urine, but there was nothing I could see. I gave him calomel and quinine. I told him I could not tell what was the matter with him. I told him to come back. He said he had been sick for some time. He did not say a word about his heart. I examined his heart and his lungs. I listened over the beating of the heart, and could hear it. His pulse was a little rapid from the nervousness. His heart was a little rapid; might have been organic, slightly, from the nervous trouble; but no organic affection of the heart that I could discover. If there was any lesion, I could have detected it. I examined his lungs casually. He had an unusual look about his face. Features were somewhat sunken, and he seemed rather emaciated in the face. He seemed so; it might have been his natural appearance. I don't remember that he complained of thirst. His bowels were constipated at the time he called on me. His bowels were bound up. I don't remember whether he said he had diarrhea or not. He spoke of this trembling. He said that was frequent, and numbness. After his stomach began to get empty, after eating, he would then experience a sensation of nausea, and would begin to feel bad in his stomach. His stomach would burn, and he would have to sit down, and a sweat would break out upon him."

Vanderhoof died at about 7 o'clock on the morning of December 1, 1883. Samuel Chapman, Frank Batton, Thomas Vanderhoof, father of the deceased, Tryphena Vanderhoof, wife of Thomas, and step-mother of William, John Chapman, the respondent, and her children were in the room when he died. Batton testified that, from about midnight until the time of Vanderhoof's death, he stayed in the room all the time. While there, Vanderhoof "was thrashing around, grasping the bed quilts and one thing or another. He hallooed to open the door, and give him air; that he was smothering." He was "flouncing around with his feet and legs" while lying upon the bed. The witness does not recollect of his complaining of anything, "only a smothering with heat." "His hands and arms were numb. He got up several times during the after-part of the night. He claimed to have the diarrhea. His eyes were bloated; his face was swelled; his eyelids, upper and under, were bloated,-kind of a pale yellow. His face was a kind of yellow. He changed his bed a short time before he died, may be 15 or 20 minutes. He got up off from one bed, and got over onto the other. The beds were about two feet apart. Do not recollect of his asking for anything. Question. Did he ask for any person? Answer. Yes, sir; he kept calling for his wife during the night. They would tell him she was there. He called for his father several times during the night. I don't recollect that he said anything else. His father was present when he was asking for him. His father would say, 'William, what will you have?' and he would not say anything. He would just speak up for his father and his wife, and they would answer him, and that was the end of it. During the last twenty minutes before he died he was flouncing around with his feet, legs, arms, and hands. It was impossible to keep a blanket on him." This witness further testified, on cross-examination, that Vanderhoof did not complain of any pain in the head. "Don't remember whether he asked for water or was thirsty, and recollect no vomiting. He complained he could not get his breath, and seemed to be suffocated; complained of his heart." Mrs. Tryphena Vanderhoof swears that he complained of his heart and stomach during first part of the night, but didn't complain of anything that she knows of in the latter part of the night. He asked for a drink several times in the forepart of the night, and said he was thirsty. She gave him two medicine powders before Dr. Mann came, which was about midnight. He did not retch or vomit after drinking.

The body of Vanderhoof, on the 8th day of January, 1884, was removed from the grave and coffin, and an autopsy held thereon in the town hall at Galien, conducted by Drs. Bonine and Buhland. They testify that the lungs, heart, liver, and other vital organs seemed to be in a normal condition, but it is evident that they conducted the examination more with an idea of securing certain organs for chemical examination to detect poison than to observe whether or not any vital organ was affected by disease that might have caused death. They placed the following organs, or portions thereof, in hermetically sealed jars, to-wit, the heart, the right lobe of the liver, the left kidney, the stomach, a portion of the spleen, and the right half of the brain. These jars were subsequently conveyed by Dr. Bonine to the university, and the contents there examined by certain professors. Drs. Palmer, Hendrix, and Bonine examined the heart and stomach and spleen. They found the spleen moderately enlarged, and the stomach gave evidence of having been somewhat congested. Dr. Palmer testifies that the heart was rather large heart in outline, as if it was the heart of a large person. It "was rather flabby. It did not stand up as many hearts do; and the walls of the heart, although the outlines of the heart were rather large, were not thick, but the walls of the left ventricle were thinner than is usually the case in a heart of that size. The muscular tissue was thinner. There was not as much of it as there...