34. New York Herald, March 26, 1916. Waite called the apartment of Dorothy Von Palmenberg.
35. Direct testimony of Arthur Swinton, People v. Waite. This was the day that Arthur Swinton ran into Waite and his “nurse” in the restaurant of the Plaza Hotel.
36. Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916.
37. On January 1, 1907, the New York State Health Department banned the use of arsenic, as well as other poisonous alkaloids, in embalming. The ban stemmed from a criminal case in which the defendant, Albert T. Patrick, accused of poisoning William Marsh Rice, tried to deflect blame by contending the arsenic found in Rice’s remains resulted from embalming, not murder. By the time of the Waite trial, Michigan had also banned the use of arsenic in embalming.
38. New York Tribune, March 29, 1916. Cimiotti gave this account to Swann.
39. New York World, March 25, 1916. A few days later, Catherine Peck issued a statement rejecting the possibility of suicide.
40. New York Tribune, March 23, 1916.
41. Ibid., March 24, 1916. This assertion caused reporters to compare the Peck case with the Maybrick case.
42. Direct examination of Arthur Warren Waite, People v. Waite.
43. Margaret contradicted herself on this point. She told reporters that Waite responded, “You know I didn’t.” She later testified that he admitted it.
44. New York Herald, March 26, 1916. Margaret Horton later claimed that she didn’t know Waite signed them into the guest registry as “Dr. and Mrs. A.W. Walters,” but this note suggests otherwise.
45. Sun (New York), May 23, 1916.
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46. The five men stayed in room 431 under the names of F.X. Mancuso (not fictitious), H.A. Barnard, A.N. Hubbard, J.A. Brown and Guy T. Gibbons (who stayed in a separate room).
47. Grand Rapids Herald, March 24, 1916.
48. Ibid., March 25, 1916.
49. Sun (New York), March 28, 1916. Mancuso gave a lengthy statement to the press, in which he detailed the discoveries he made in Grand Rapids. Mancuso suggests that Waite went trawling for victims when he returned to the United States, but the letters Waite and Clara exchanged while Waite worked in Africa suggest that he may have targeted her family before he returned to Michigan.
50. New York Tribune, March 29, 1916.
51. Percy discussed this suspicion in his statement published in the Grand Rapids News, March 27, 1916.
52. The statement of the anonymous friend is quoted in the March 29 edition of the Grand Rapids Herald.
53. Grand Rapids Herald, March 23, 1916.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Clara was twenty-seven in March 1916.
57. Marie Dille, “Mrs. Waite Made Will Recently in Husband’s Favor, Says Relative,” Grand Rapids Herald, March 23, 1916.
58. Grand Rapids Herald, March 24, 1916. Hillier testified at the Grand Jury Hearing, but her testimony is not part of the extant record. She also did not testify at Waite’s trial. In the portion of the trial transcript devoted to jury selection, there is a reference to the possibility that she might testify, but for unknown reasons, she never appeared as a witness.
59. Grand Rapids Herald, March 24 and March 26, 1916; Sun (New York), March 25, 1916; New York Tribune, March 24, 1916.
60. Grand Rapids Herald, March 24, 1916.
61. Waite played on courts around New York with his friend, Cornell tennis star Abraham Bassford. Waite, who was known as a crafty player who excelled at net shots, won the Metropolitan Indoor Championship in February 1916 when he defeated Bassford.
62. Grand Rapids Herald, March 24, 1916.
63. This portion of Mancuso’s statement is from the Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916.
64. Grand Rapids Herald, March 24, 1916. Curiously, Schindler does not give much credit to either Dr. Wishart or Dr. Schurtz. Schindler, according to some sources, tended to play up his role in investigations, so it is best to keep this in mind when considering his account of the Peck case.
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65. Grand Rapids Herald, March 24, 1916.
66. Ibid., March 25, 1916, contains the wording of the note in its entirety. The note contradicts many published accounts that, upon reading about Margaret Horton, Clara’s faith in her husband began to crumble. The Waites left Grand Rapids Friday morning. While en route, Arthur made his confession to Swann. Thus, it is more likely that Clara lost faith after reading news accounts of Arthur’s confession.
67. Evening World (New York), March 25, 1916.
68. Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916. She gave Waite money to invest in three installments: $5,000 on October 1, 1915; $30,000 on December 15, 1915; and $6,000 on January 17, 1916.
69. Grand Rapids Herald, March 26, 1916. The press characterized the nature of these relationships as “wholly social.” According to some accounts, the box contained Waite’s diary, although it is more likely they found a “little black book” of names and addresses.
70. Swann did not disclose specifics about these papers, only that they pertained to the acquisition of poisons. This secrecy led the press to conclude that the papers contained receipts for arsenic. In fact, this cache included letters, purporting to come from legitimate doctors, which Waite fraudulently used to acquire bacteria at laboratories throughout the city. The papers may also have included prescriptions for drugs containing poisons.
71. Swann kept Timmerman’s identity from the press until the grand jury hearing.
72. Sun (New York), May 24, 1916.
73. New York Herald, March 25, 1916; Sun (New York), March 25, 1916.
74. Sun (New York), March 25, 1916.
75. New York Herald, March 25, 1916. Waite’s lack of emotion struck Swann as so odd that he wondered if he was a drug addict. Swann later told a reporter, “I asked him [Waite] if he was a habitual user of narcotics or similar drugs. He replied that he had never taken a sleeping potion in his life until Wednesday, that he never had needed any.”
76. This exchange was quoted in the (New York) World, March 25, 1916, and repeated in the Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916; a very similar exchange appears in the New York Herald’s front-page story from March 25, 1916.
77. The Evening World (New York) edition of March 23, 1916, describes Swann’s suspicious about this as-yet-unknown woman known only as “Mrs. A.W. Walters.”
78. Evening World (New York), March 25, 1916.
79. Margaret Horton’s full statement can be found in the Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916; the Evening World (New York), March 25, 1916; and the Sun (New York), March 25, 1916.
80. Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916.
81. At first, Waite was placed in Ward 44—Bellevue’s prison ward—but shortly thereafter moved to a more spacious room in the alcoholics’ ward. This would be necessary to accommodate the many investigators who would later question him.
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82. Marie Dille, “These Hypnotic Eyes Caused a Fluttering in Feminine Hearts and Aided Handsome Young Dentist to Climb Society Ladder,” Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916.
83. Grand Rapids Herald, March 25, 1916.
84. New York Times, March 25, 1916. “The shock has had a serious effect upon her,” wrote a New York Times correspondent, “and her condition is said to be much worse.”
85. Clara’s statement indicts the press for fabricating quotations. She may be referring to the message she allegedly gave to Waite’s parents when they traveled to New York just a day earlier. If she did ask them to send such a message, she likely expected the message to remain private. As news about the case evolved, she may have felt like her affirmation of undying love made her look like a fool, so she may have attempted to discredit the message at this point.
86. Grand Rapids Herald, March 26, 1916.
87. New York Evening World, March 28, 1916; New York Tribune, March 29, 1916. Some news accounts state that Swann interviewed tennis friends of Waite’s who became mysteriously ill, suggesting that Waite used them as guinea
pigs. Swann, however, denounced this as an utter falsehood to a New York Tribune writer.
88. Sun (New York), March 28, 1916. According to Schindler, Margaret Horton was never a suspect, but contemporary news reports indicate otherwise. An item in the Grand Rapids Press, April 5, 1916, under the headline “Mrs. Horton Is Eliminated as Suspect,” states that after a thorough investigation of Margaret Horton’s movements, Swann was convinced she played no part in Waite’s plot.
89. Grand Rapids Herald, March 28, 1916.
90. According to some reports, Swann met with Margaret Horton as early as Thursday, but in response to a reporter, Swann emphatically denied that he or any of his agents had met with her until Saturday. He said that the first time he heard the name “Margaret Horton” was when a World reporter phoned him and told him that he had just interviewed “Mrs. A.W. Walters.” At the time, he said, he didn’t feel as if “Mrs. A.W. Walters” was a person of interest.
91. Harry Mack Horton was not present when Dooling questioned Margaret about her relationship with Arthur, but he was present during Margaret’s interviews with the press. This may explain the lie she told reporters.
92. Grand Rapids Herald, March 27, 1916; New York Herald, March 28, 1916.
93. New York Tribune, March 29, 1916.
94. Grand Rapids Herald, March 29, 1916.
95. New York Tribune, March 29, 1916.
96. Grand Rapids News, March 27, 1916.
97. Ibid., March 30, 1916.
98. Grand Rapids Herald, March 26, 1916; Grand Rapids News, March 26, 1916.
99. Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 16, 1916.
100. Grand Rapids Herald, March 26, 1916.
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101. News accounts vary on this aspect of the case. Some stories have Waite making two separate confessions, first to Frank and later to Frank and Raymond Schindler.
102. Grand Rapids Herald, March 29, 1916. Percy Peck told the press that Catherine Peck requested Deuel handle Waite’s case. The Peck family later issued a public statement in which they denied making any such request.
103. Grand Rapids articles often compared Waite to Jekyll and Hyde. It is possible that Waite, aware of this comparison, conjured up a new version of the famous tale with the hope he could pin some of the blame on his evil other self. It is also possible, given the similarities in their stories, that Waite borrowed a stratagem attempted by slayer George W. Wood.
104. The Grand Rapids Herald, in a sidebar published in the March 28, 1916 edition, placed the remarkably similar statements of Wood and Waite side by side.
105. Grand Rapids Herald, March 29, 1916. Schindler recalled this bit of the interview.
106. Grand Rapids Herald, March 30, 1916. This exchange attributed to Potter, Kane and Waite was recollected by Swann in an exclusive interview with a Grand Rapids Herald reporter.
107. Grand Rapids Herald, March 29, 1916.
108. New York Tribune, March 29, 1916.
109. Grand Rapids Herald, March 30, 1916.
110. New York Tribune, March 29, 1916.
111. Her subsequent testimony and dogged loyalty to Waite also suggests the falsity of this accusation.
112. The entire statement appears in the New York Times, March 30, 1916.
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113. Evening Telegram (New York), May 23, 1916.
114. Doyle, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery.”
115. New York Herald, April 1, 1916.
116. The People of the State of New York v. Arthur Warren Waite, Cal. No. 19307, No. 109983, filed March 31, 1916. New York City Municipal Archives.
117. New York Times, April 1, 1916; New York Herald, April 1, 1916.
118. Grand Rapids Herald, March 30, 1916.
119. Margaret Horton’s note is undated but was published in several newspapers, including the March 30, 1916 edition of the Daybook (Chicago). The actual note is located in the New York World Telegram and Sun biography file for “Margaret Horton” in the Library of Congress.
120. According to some news reports, Arthur’s letters to Margaret wound up on Swann’s desk. Some reports indicate that Margaret betrayed Arthur by giving the letters to Swann. Her testimony at the trial, however, proves that she did neither.
121. Sun (New York), April 2, 1916. News of the confession appeared across the nation on Monday, April 3. The Grand Rapids News, April 3, 1916, ran a page-one item under the headline “WAITE UNABLE TO LEAVE BED.”
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122. Sun (New York), March 28, 1916.
123. Evening World (New York), April 4, 1916; Grand Rapids Press, April 4, 1916.
124. New York Times, March 26, 1916.
125. A lengthy transcript of the interview appears in the April 6, 1916 edition of the New York Tribune.
126. Grand Rapids Press, April 17, 1916.
127. New York Tribune, April 18, 1916.
128. Because Waite’s defense relied on the idea that only an insane person would commit such depraved acts, it is possible that Waite exaggerated the extent of his attempts to murder the Pecks. Clara’s statements to Mancuso at this point, however, prove some of Waite’s testimony at the subsequent trial.
129. New York Tribune, April 19, 1916; Sun (New York), April 21, 1916. According to an item in the Grand Rapids Press, April 7, 1916, Waite “inoculated himself with the germs of virulent typhoid in order to note on himself their effects.” Waite apparently became so sick he had to call for a doctor. This raises a few possibilities to explain the presence of typhoid in Clara’s blood: Waite may have also experimented on Clara, or Clara may have become sick when she caught it from her husband.
130. Mancuso did not reveal the names, and none of the news reports reveal the identities of Waite’s many lady friends. Sun (New York), April 21, 1916.
131. New York Dramatic Mirror, May 6, 1918.
132. New York Herald, May 18, 1916.
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133. The official transcript of testimony is located in the collections of the Lloyd Sealy Library at the John Jay Library of Criminal Justice, which archives cases from the era. In addition, several New York newspapers sent reporters to cover the trial. The Evening Telegram (New York) coverage tends to consolidate several answers into single responses, while the Sun (New York) and the New York Herald articles provide a better sense of the actual back-and-forth between lawyers and their witnesses and include other aspects of the trial atmosphere—such as an instance when a juror laughed—that are not part of the official record.
134. New York Herald, May 23, 1916.
135. Examination of Talesmen, People v. Waite; Evening Telegram (New York), May 22, 1916; New York Herald, May 23, 1916.
136. Fifty-six potential jurors, or talesmen, were questioned during jury selection.
137. Evening Telegram (New York), May 22, 1916; Evening Post (New York); New York Herald, May 23, 1916; New York Sun, May 23, 1916. The jury selected consisted of the following: Robert Neill, mechanical engineer; Peter Hebel, merchant; Thaddeus S. Barlow, superintendent; Paul D. Case, assistant secretary; George A. Helme, “capitalist”; James H. Betts, insurance agent; Edwin M. Friedlander, broker; Thomas Widdercombe, accountant; James N. Jeffares, manager; Stephen A. Douglass, electrical engineer; Hugh F. Donnelly, real estate agent; Joseph H. Trant, writer.
138. At the time of the trial, Frank Waite was a resident of New York, residing at 3210 Hull Avenue in the Bronx.
139. New York Herald, May 23, 1916.
140. Evening Telegram (New York), May 22, 1916, “10 P.M. Extra.”
141. Opening of Judge Edward Swann, People v. Waite.
142. Direct examination of Dr. Albertus Adair Moore, People v. Waite. Diarrhea is a symptom of typhoid fever, but when Brothers later began to question Moore about this, Deuel objected, and Shearn sustained the objection.
143. New York Herald, May 23, 1916.
144. Direct examination of Dr. Albertus Adair Moore, People v. Waite.
145. New York Sun, May 23, 1916.
146. New
York Tribune, May 23, 1916.
147. Ibid.
148. (New York) Evening Telegram, May 23, 1916.
149. Direct examination of Dr. Victor C. Vaughn, People v. Waite. The provenance of this fluid became a point of contention during the trial.
150. Direct examination of Dr. Otto Schultze, People v. Waite.
151. Direct examination of Dr. Richard W. Muller, People v. Waite.
152. Direct examination of Dr. Richard H. Timmerman, People v. Waite.
153. (New York) Evening Telegram, May 23, 1916.
154. Direct examination of Arthur Swinton, People v. Waite.
155. New York Tribune, May 24, 1916.
156. Direct examination of Eugene Oliver Kane, People v. Waite.
157. Cross-examination of Eugene Oliver Kane, People v. Waite. See the March 31, 1916 New York Times for a discussion of Kane’s shady background.
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158. Sun (New York), May 25, 1916.
159. Direct examination of Elizabeth B. Hardwicke, People v. Waite. Hardwicke was not asked why she chose the “K. Adams” pseudonym. The identity of the person she said asked her to send the telegram also remains a minor mystery in the case, although at the time, several people suspected Dr. Cornell.
160. Direct examination of Clara Louise Peck, People v. Waite.
161. Direct examination of Clara Louise Peck, resumed, People v. Waite.
162. New York Herald, May 25, 1916.
163. Cross-examination of Clara Louise Peck, People v. Waite.
164. New York Herald, May 25, 1916.
165. Evening Telegram (New York), May 24, 1916.
166. Sun (New York), May 25, 1916. Portions of Margaret Horton’s testimony appeared in several New York dailies, but the content and tone of the coverage vary widely. A reluctant witness, Margaret Horton was obstinate, even hostile during Brothers’s examination—an attitude best captured by the New York Sun’s correspondent.
167. In March, Margaret Horton recounted this conversation for reporters, but in this earlier version, she said Waite denied the accusation. In some newspaper accounts, this exchange is presented as quite hostile. Margaret, at first, doesn’t answer the question, prompting Brothers to ask again.
Poisoning the Pecks of Grand Rapids Page 18