CHAS. GABLEMAN

GABLEMAN

Posted By: Deb Barker (email)
Date: 12/26/2014 at 17:43:32

Ottumwa tri-weekly courier, February 17, 1912 MAN TAXES SLEEP POTION AND DIES CHAS. GABLEMAN SUCCUMBED THIS MORNING AT BLOOMFIELD—TELLS STORIES.
Bloomfield, Feb. 16.—(Special).—
Charles Gableman, age 38 years, a prosperous young farmer of Davis county, died this morning at 7 o'clock from the effects of a sleeping potion taken last Tuesday. He did not regain consciousness from the time he succumbed to the drug last Tuesday until death claimed him this morning. Gableman has been spasmodically insane for a number of years. The attending physicians state that the drug which he took to induce sleep, which was many times impossible when Gableman's was not himself, was hyoscyamin. Gableman has said many times that he secured the stuff from a New York physician. During his fits of insanity, Gableman became violent and dangerous. A short time ago his wife left him in fear of her life and has been hiding from his since that time. Not long ago he met Sheriff Johannessen and told him that it was either by the grace of God or good luck that he (the sheriff) was living. Gableman told Johannessen that he laid for him in West Grove with a revolver and a corn knife intending to kill him on sight. The story, although coming from an insane man, was believed. Just a short time ago, Gableman told his physician that he had killed his two babies with strychnine. During the past three years two children, born to Mr. and Mrs. Gableman have died with convulsions.
Strychnine poison was evident at the time of the death of each. They were three months and three weeks old, respectively, when death came. Gableman said that when his wife left them alone he went to a shed where he kept a bottle of strychnine, secured a small quantity of the drug and forced it down the throats of the babes. Gableman told the physician that convulsions soon followed. This terrible tale is also believed by the friends in Bloomfield.
His wife had sued for a divorce in the district court.