A poisonous family | ,

NN. all murder cases end satisfactorily. Alas, there are

many which pose more questions than they answer.
Come along if you will back through the years to 1885.

San Francisco, Calif., was to be the locale from which Dr.

J. Milton Bowers dominated the front pages of dally

newspapers for over four long years. Z

@ good doctor was quite a character. Born In Balti-
more In 1843, he became a full-fledged general practi-
tloner at the age of 20, Shortly thereafter, he met, wooed,
an the altar, a Miss Fannie Hammond, Fannie
was a winsome lass but, unfortunately, lacked the stam-
ina to remain Mrs, Bowers for long. To be blunt, after a
brief illness, she died.

Not one to let mourning interfere with romance, the
doctor took another bride. Young Teresa Sherek, an
actress who, at 18 years of age, was completely
enthralled with the cool doctor, was to remain his wife for
a full seven years. She went to her great reward on Jan.
28, 1881, after a brief Illness.

Four months later, still grieving over Teresa's
untimely demise, Dr. Bowers married once more. The
third object of his affection was 29-year-old Cecelia
Benhayon Levy. Now Cecelia was another cup of tea. She
was no rookie in the altar business, having been married
twice before. She had a daughter, Tillie, as well as an
annoying brother, Henry. Four years later, yes,. you
guessed It, Cecelia took ill suddenly and departed

is world. Dr. Bowers fainted at the funeral.

Secret spoilsport

Now some spoilsport got into the act and ruined
everything. Someone, who was to forever remain anon-
ymous, dropped a note to the coroner's office,snidely
hinting that all was not kosher in the matter of the last

irs. Bowers’ illness. :

An inquest was held, and it was decided to exhume the
lady's body. An autopsy revealed death had been
due to phosphorus poisoning. At approximately the same
time, some exacting little men from insurance com-
panies put their heads together and came up with a figure

of $17,000. This was the total amount of insurance loot the .-

doctor stood to collect from his wife’s death. he
Two days after these startling revelations, Dr. Bowers
was formally charged with murder. Four months later,
on March 9, 1886, he stood trial. The prosecution claimed
that Cecelia had been given phosphorus, while the
defence claimed she had died of natural causes. Both
sides produced experts tc support their arguments,
Henry Benhayon swore thai
allow members of the immediate family to see Cecelia

» ant
out in the middle

array of informative, if puzzling, items: A bottle o!
chloroform liniment, a half-full bottle of whiskey, a bottle
of cyanide of potassium.

Beside the tightly corked bottles were paper, pen, and
nk, and a ielter ‘addressed to the coroner, Here is that

etter: :
“The history of the tragedy commenced after my sister

married Dr. Bowers. I had reasons to believe that he -

would leave her soon, as they always quarrelled.and on
one occasion she told me that she would poison him
before she would permit him to leave her.* Rey:

“They both joined several lodges, and I got the stuff
ready to dispose of him, but my sister would not listen to.
the proposition and threatened to expose me. After my
sister got sick I felt an irresistible impulse to use the stuff
on her and finish him afterward. I would then. become
administrator for my little niece, Tilly, and would have
the benefit of the insurance. Sh

“I think it was Friday, November 24, 1885, that I took
one capsule out of her pill box and filled it with two kinds
of poison. I didn't think Bowers would get into any kind of
tiouble, as the person who gave me the poison told me it
would leave no trace in the stomach.””

Well, now, what do you think of that! .Dr. Bowers
thought it was wonderful. There was a catch, though. The

Dr. Bowers. would not -

rosecuting attorney stated that he thought Benhayon

ad been lured to the room and then murdered. He had a
point. Consider some strange facts: *

Is it normal to put the cork back on a bottle of poison
-after you have administered it to yourself? The pen and
ink.on thé night table appearedin mint condition. It
is doubtful {f they had been used to write the incriminat-
ing letter. Acquaintances, familiar with the dead man's
handwriting, swore. the fetter wasn't written by Ben-

on. *

How could Bowers commit murder while confined to a

only: that, bi
identified

Dimmig had the distinctly unnerving experience of see-
ing a pharmacist point a bony finger at him from a

witness stand and say: ‘That's the man who bought the
cyanide from me.” Experts could not agree as to whether

Benhayon had written the confession letter. or not. -

ahe jury became-hopelessly deadlocked, and was dis-
missed, 5 fe:

On Dec. 10, 1888, Dimmig stood trial for murder a
second time. The same evidence was presented, This
time around Dimmig was found not guilty and released.

By now Bowers had spent almost four years in jail. His

attorneys were successful in obtaining a new trial for .

him. On Avg. 16, 1889, the district attorney a: to
dismiss the charges against Bowers. He belleved it would
be impossible to obtain a conviction, considering that
another man had confessed to the murder, Dr. Bowers
was released and resumed practicing medicine in San
Francisco. F :

As I said earlier, not all murder cases come to
satisfactory conclusions. Did Dr. Bowers kill his wife
Cecelia? There.are those who believe he killed wives
number one and two as well. Did Benhayon kill himself,
or did Dimmig kil him and fake the suicide? We will
never know. :

Dr. Bowers moved to San Jose, where he married for
the fourth time. He died of natural causes on March 7,
1904, at the age of 61.

Don’t even think such nasty thoughts. Of course, his
fourth wife survived him. . ;

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omic’ growth,’ wages, | and.
tandard of; living, Kendall
B. “lace th ol rsa Canada
is created more employment
than’ anyother industrialized

pretty well thrust upon him and

‘it's clear in what direction the

people are going.”
The Liberal candidate says

~ he finds it unfortunate that he

ore’s -¢ many
- entering the labor force,’

ulation. “dropping. out of
Erez early.We have a large
senumber of people under 25 who
gare unemployed and a large
number of women. Even though
“we keep creating an enormous
number of jobs there's still an
elght to 10 per cent unemploy-
ment’ rate,” i
: He agrees supporting Pier-

‘re Elliot. Trudeau's leadership
is ‘an unpopular stand to take,
but points out strongleadership
is important iri a strong central
- government’ to deal with the
national ‘unity issue.

2 “He'll be ‘gone in a few
years. Let him finish with the
Quebec problem. I want Canada
to'stay one country and I don't
want to make special conces-
sions to Quebec.”

And the existing Tory lead-
er has not displayed the tough-
ness which is crucial in the-

. ¢ national unity issue, Kendall
+} says. 5

“If- Trudeau's government

and Joa. Clark gets in: with a
minority government, he's not

reporters to talk to him. Wait
until all the business people, all

the union people. want: to talk
with him.” sh
¢ . “So.it'l be the Liberals

s.again,” he. predicts, .-
_s.: Noting previous voting pat-

. Sterns in Kootenay West, he
{says the PCs have probably °

bsorbed most of the Liberal
vote in the past,

“A’\lot' of. the: left-wing |

{Liberal vote sees itself as being

could represent the area better
as government MP. than the
other two! candidates could as
opposition’ members.

“ “I don't like that-aspect of
Canadian politics, that if you
are in the government you
probably are a little closer to
where the incentives are’ going
to go,” he says,

“There's ‘more attention
paid to your area. I think the
Progressive Conservative MP
or the NDP MP should get just

rin Gs

{doesn’t get eleited this, time -

going to be able to handle the ©
Job. They don't even want the

: PETER KENDALL
«+ Tunning for Liberals

as much money into a riding a8
the Liberal MP, but probably I
would be able to serve it
better.”

In addition, says Kendall,
“I can pay attention and I can
learn quickly.” Rather than
continuing Brisco's practice of
mailing newsletters on a quar-
sterly basis, he says, he would
issue newsletters “12 times a
year and I'll pay for it myself.”

“T.want .the people’ to

;.) become informed, I. want them
to pay attention,” he explains.

SUihers!' government programs,

Stoo smooth and besides that
{voting for him just might make
‘Joe Clark the next prime
iminis i

ter.”
{. “I find that Brisco is very
-wareful,” he says, elaborating
von his assessment of the incum-
nt.
}) “He comes in on an issue
after it’s pretty clear about
gwhere the pubiic stands on it,”
Kendall continues. “He doesn't.
‘come in when the public's upset

“It's tha only way the govern-
ment can serve them properly
is by them paying attention to
it, demanding more of it, being
constructively critical of it.”

.. “We're a rather insular,
independent community here,”
he says. “I want to bring

, national issues to the people,”

‘Uranium’ exploration and
mining, he says, are. among
those issues which require
more critical scrutiny,

* “If we could stop the whole
nuclear industry there wouldn't

, be arreagon to take the uranium.

out of the ground,” -Kendail
says, “The federal government.
has control of experts, so we
would stop exporting uranium
for those Candu reactors out-
side the country.”

‘The whole nuclear industry
“is the wrong direction to
take,” according to the Koote-
nay West Liberal candidate,

“It looked promising and in
large part was.an honest mis-
take, but to continue in: that
direction is just to compound
the problem,” he says. “There

‘isn’t even that much uranium

that we can ‘keep on going

. indefinitely with reactors, And

the prices to mothball the
bloody- things after they've

served their 30 years of usa is: ’

enormous,” 4
* He says he wants to make
uranium mining a’ major:con-
cern among Kootensy West
voters because their tax money
‘is going into the Candu reactor
system. The tax revenue would
be better spent on’ rénewable

golng ‘out, I'm worried about
where the money's going, just
who's collecting at the top; The
heroin trade is.a drop-in o

bucket compared tomarijuana.” *

“Let people grow it just
Uke they would grow lettuce,”
he says, “People are not going
to stop, It’s been going on for 12
years now and moat young
people, if they drink, smoke
marijuana," Y

“But B.C.‘ not, it’s holding out,
The federal government is
having a difficult time’ making
an agreement with B.C.";
‘Outlining his approach to
developing socondary industry,
Kendall cites the products of
more complete forest resource
use and of*\Cominco's lead
smelter as examples of: raw
materials produced here which
could be used in manufacturing.

, And more - lab
operations making better use of
forest resources ‘also deserve
serious Kendall

was telling,
me the other day it’s getting to
the point where a woodworker

says:
“Machine-intensive’ forest-
ry doesn't do a very good job,”
he says. “There needs to be
more manpower. We need to
have more tree-thinning, prun-
ing and more reforestation.”

' “It. costs hardly anything
to get a guy set up to go out
there and plant or prune trees,
It costs $60,000 to buy a skidder
to get’a man on it.”

“Our forests are precious

“and we should be taking better

care of, them,” he ,continpes,

) "Right now they throw away a
- "great, amount of wood'and just

burn‘it. We could be making
solid wood furniture out of a lot

‘of the wastewood. Yew wood, a”

woodworker's delight, is” just

burned here.” .

B.C., have formed an‘ agree-.
ment with the federal govern- :

ment and‘are getting a lot of
funding towards research ‘and

he sug-

“« "They fund 20 per cent of
the cost of the changeover, plus
you can write off the rest of the
cost as a tax incentive and you’
get free energy,” he says, “That
waste wood right now is just
being wasted and is left on the
ground, ‘

Yet another waste of tax -

money is federal government
expenditures on apprehension
and prosecution of Canadians
for possessing small amounts of.
marijuana. In: addition to eli-
minating the cost of sending
“helicopters ‘
infra-red” equipment to track:

“them down, Kendall said, de-

criminalizing the cultivation
and possession of small amounts

country.

“Most people say ‘holy
cow, you cant talk. about that,”
but it’s time,” he says, “It’s
very expensive to the Canadian

. people to have this money

Earl’s Private Poolsix.

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equipped with .

:of marijuana would reduce. fe ert
flaw of money out of “tHe.

solid wood furni-

ss scorns qienes
iri eevee cone prose ssf

‘ lot of different, cultures and .

political systems,”

“I don’t have to think that I
must win this election or I'll be
finished,” he says. “Til go back
and plant trees and milk my.
cows and carry on, whereas
other people I think have got a

-Breat deal invested in being |

elected and in mgintaining the

posltion if they, do get elected,

because what would they do

otherwise?” R

: inte ie ready to serve,
think I could do a really good

job and I'm not afraid to take a

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Located at the Kootenay’ Doukhobor ‘¢|

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fo grants,” he ‘Bays. ,

ture can compete with that’ ‘atand either.”

factory stuff you ‘get in the
store with the plywood and the
veneer over it’and the card-
board bottoms to the drawers,”
he says. Sa
“And I was talking toa guy
who said’ they; shouldn't have |
had that chainsaw plant (Trail
Manufacturing,’ relocated to.
Ontario several ‘months’ ago):
They should have had a battery
plant. Everybody needs - bat-.;
teries for their cars and lead is:
what Cominco makes’ anda:
battery's 90-per-cent lead.” ’
Kendall, who also callg;for:
more Uscale : :
and cottage industry incentives‘:

in Kootensy West,. saidi his “9 > (-)
Lighting

. En e
|| ead
commence: | LIGHT GALLERY

a: therapist and’ done. hard - + Fi ey
physical labor * tree-planting. 908 Rossland Ave. i’ TRAIL B.C.

Tve travelled widely and seena .

First Come — First Served!. :
OFF All :

[1 Anew Denticare program oe
L) Home-owner grant increased .
$100thisyear;
L] 2nd lowest income taxin Canad
L] Record-spéiiding on health care...
28% of the B.C. budget.
_] Lower insuranee.rates for.
_ youngdrivers.
C] In-home éaré for senior citizens.
[_] Increased hospital
_ construction. —
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From small. busin to trade union

Social Credit candidates are people from all walks of life...
united in their belief that Social Credit is best for BC. ,

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