CARBOLIC ACID IN THE SOUP. ~ Warrants Out for Two Former Cooks in Scarritt Restaurant.

November 20, 1908
CARBOLIC ACID IN THE SOUP.

Warrants Out for Two Former Cooks
in Scarritt Restaurant.

Carbolic acid in the form of disinfectant containg a large portion of the poison was put into a kettle of soup and a lard can in the Scarritt building restaurant some time between Wednesday afternoon and yesterday morning. It was discovered as soon as the force of cooks got to work in the morning, for the odor was so strong that it could not be mistaken. All the food to be served at the restaurant was then inspected before the first customer was served, but no other poison was discovered.

W. S. Waterman and G. J. Teck, proprietors of the place, at once made complaint to the prosecuting attorney, with the result that warrants were issued from the court by Justice James B. Shoemaker for R. A. Bell and Fred Gaddis, who formerly worked at the place. The proprietors said the men, both cooks, were discharged yesterday afternoon. Bell and Gaddis are charged in the warrants under a statute which makes it a penitentiary offense to mix poison with food with the intent to kill human beings. Five years is the maximum sentence which may be inflicted under that statute.

About half a gallon of the disinfectant had been poured into the soup and lard, so the owners of the restaurant reported.