Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1898 — BOX OF DEADLY BON BONS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BOX OF DEADLY BON BONS.

Wa* Seat 3,000 Mile* to Poison aa Innocent Woman. “O, look, girls, what a nice present Pve got, and I don’t know whom it is from,” said Mrs. John Preston Dunning of Do-

ver, Del., to a group of friends gathered for a pleasant chat on her doorßtep. The “nice present” t o which she referred was a neatly tied package of choice candies which her little nephew, Harry, had just brought from the postoffice. The box was quickly opened and was labeled Inside as coming from “your

friend, Mrs. C ” A Mrs. C in San Francisco had once been under obligations to Mrs. Dunning, and she was evidently sending her old friend this little token of memory. On the porch steps with Mrs. Dunning sat her sister. Mrs. Joshua Deane, with her children, Harry, Elizabeth and Leila; also a Miss Bateman and two or three other children who had stopped to chat with Mrs. Deane’s little ones. Candies were soon passed round and their excellent quality commented upon. That night Mrs. Deane, Mrs. Dunning and several others of the little party were taken violently ill. Two days afterward Airs. Dunning and Mrs. Deane were dead, and the rest of the party was under vigorous treatment for arsenical poisoning. Capt. Pennington, the father of the poisoned women,,had one of the ehoeolates analyzed. It, contained enough arsenic to kill two persons. The Penningtqns are an old and respected Delaware family. Capt. Pennington was at one time Attorney General of the State, His daughters Elizabeth and Ida, now dead, were at one time the belles of the capital. Ida married Joshua Deane, a merchant of Dover, and Elizabeth married John Preston Dunning, a young lawyer, who had studied in Dover and who.

shortly after his*- marriage, went West with his wife. He did a great deal of traveling, and when sent out on long trips his wife usually came East to her father's home. It was for this reason that she was in Dover at the time of her death. Dunning, who was in Porto Itico as a war correspondent at the time of the poisoning, it seems was on friendly terms with a Mrs. Ada Botkin of Stockton, Cai. He corresponded with her and they were fast friends. Suspicion was directed to this woman, and she was arrested. When questioned, she openly admitted that she loved Dunning and corresponded with him. The fatal box was mailed in San Francisco Aug. 4. Mrs. Botkin was there on that date. A confectioner remembers a woman coming into his store, purchasing half a box of candies and filling the box up with some of her own. The box was mailed at station B in San Francisco. A young man remembers seeing a woman drop such a box at Station B on that date. These men will try to identify Mrs. Botkin. An expert is comparing the handwriting on the packages and in the letters sent to Mrs. Dunning with Mrs. Botkin’s known Jjaudwriting. Mrs. Botkin was very calm when she was arrested, but on her way from Stockton to San Francisco-she became nervous and excited and it was thought she would break down. Dunning has returned from Forto Rico. He says he has evidence that will startle the community, but will not tell it till he is put on the witness stand.

MRS. w. A. BOTKIN.

MRS. DUNNING.

MRS. DEANE.