Chapter 2
Doctor Agnoli, an Italian doctor of the Faculty of Medicine of Lima, had a visit from Mrs. Lewis accompanied by her friend Peter Bacigalupi, who had introduced her to the doctor at his home. Bacigalupi wanted the doctor to listen to her heart and diagnose the disease she might suffer from. From the examination carried out by Doctor Agnoli there was nothing to suggest that there was in fact a painful affliction of the heart in Mrs. Lewis. However, the same doctor believed she had insignificant symptoms of a heart condition.
This happened two days before the Bacigalupi New Years gathering, on December 29, 1891.
Since her return to Lima, Isabel showed herself to be a person very much in control of herself and, if, in the bottom of her soul, there was something that disturbed her mental faculties, it did not show. On the contrary, her background assured her against any mental imbalance. She was the mother of several children, the eldest was sixteen, whom she had left in her country in the care of a friend named Catalina (Kate) who lived in San Francisco. Before marrying Captain Lewis, she had been married twice.
The Captain is a robust man in spite of his fifty plus years. He was a man of the sea, dedicated to maritime commerce as commander of steamships belonging to a company in San Francisco, California. He loved her and cared for her very much. Although an affable man, he once let it show that he was capable of strong action, for he had said, referring to his wife’s intimacy with another person and to the suspicions of his wife’s conduct, “If I go back to land, I will have to carry my loaded revolver”. These suspicions reached certainty in his mind, because on January 20, 1892, he wrote from
San Francisco to a friend of his in Callao in these terms:
Dear friend and brother:
My wife Mrs. Isabel Lewis left her home and children on November 23 and went to Lima, Peru, convinced by a J. Dockendorff, who was in our company the last night I was in Callao. He made her believe that she could make a small amount of money with a small batch of opium, an item she bought and proceeded to leave with him.
Your friend and brother,
(Captain) C.H. Lewis
The captain of the George W. Elder did not know in writing his letter of January 20 that the separation of his wife should be eternal and that they would never see each other again on this earth, except maybe in the region where the spirits are said to dwell.
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On January 2, 1892, Dr. David Matto, a police doctor, was called by the Police Chief Colonel Muñiz to see a person who had died suddenly in one of the rooms of the Maury Hotel. The doctor found the body of a woman lying on the sofa, fully dressed in street clothes. To her right there was a stool where there was a bottle with a label containing a prescription signed by the Italian doctor Dr. Agnoli.
The body still had the faint heat of those who had just died. This symptom and the appearance of the corpse made the doctor presume that the death was produced by a severe and sudden event.
Having made the necessary inquiries, Dr. Matto learned that she had seen another doctor. He convinced Colonel Muñiz that the death certificate should be issued by the doctor who had seen her before.
On the same day, Bacigalupi and Taylor asked Dr. Matto for a death certificate in order to be able to bury the body, but they could not obtain it, since in order for it to be issued it was necessary for the Police to complete an autopsy. Then they went to Doctor Agnoli, who treated Mrs. Lewis on just one occasion. He issued a certificate that they presented to the City Hall, thus obtaining a license of burial.
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In the meantime, Mr. Lecaros, one of the owners of the hotel, upon becoming aware of what was happening, went personally to look for Dr. Vera Tudela. When they arrived at the hotel, they met another doctor, Dr. Bambarén, who had been called for the same purpose. Mr. Peter Bacigalupi, Taylor, and two stewards from the hotel were all present in Isabel’s room, and, almost with one voice, they said to the new arrivals: she is already dead.
The two doctors present made a cursory inspection of the corpse. They asked Bacigalupi and Taylor the disease that the deceased suffered from. The answer was heart disease, and, although she was medicated, she had just taken a cup of coffee. Indeed, there was an empty cup on top of a chest of drawers, and a small container holding a toxic substance. Fulfilling the objective to which they had been called, the two doctors left, instructing Mr. Lecaros to report what had happened to the police so that the police could order the autopsy of the corpse.
Some months later, Bacigalupi asked Dr. Vera Tudela for a medical certificate. He told Dr. Tudela that he was requesting to be the guardian of the family of the lady whose body the doctor saw in the Maury Hotel , adding that all the other doctors had issued him an identical document. Vera Tudela agreed, stating his opinion that a heart condition had caused death.
But eight days later, Bacigalupi himself met with Dr. Vera Tudela and asked him for a new certificate. He said the previous one did not serve the purpose for which it was intended, which was to collect a life insurance policy. The insurance company gave Bacigalupi a form of a certificate in English, which he showed the doctor. The doctor did not read English, so Bacigalupi translated. Vera Tudela filled out the questions that concerned him and signed the form.
Almost at the same time that the doctors had been is Mrs. Lewis’ room, a Mrs. Carmen Martin appeared. This lady is a native of Peru, thirty years old, and visiting from her birthplace in Payta. She was to stay for fifteen days in the same Hotel Maury, where she met Mrs. Lewis. There she was introduced to Mrs. Lewis’ friend, Taylor.
Mrs. Martin was called by Bacigalupi to assist because Isabel had taken a fatal dose poison and Mrs. Martin should come to her aid. Mrs. Martin did indeed come, but her help was no longer appropriate. She found the same scene as the doctors. Surrounding the corpse of Mrs. Lewis, were Bacigalupi, Taylor and a third person hiding behind a screen. Mrs. Martin has not been able to identify the unknown person, whom she never saw again. Mrs. Martin had a nervous temperament and delicate constitution. She was greatly shocked by the event, and even more so by the investigative diligence used by the police and by the judge of the crime.
While the city newspapers announced the sudden death of “an American lady” from a heart attack or a sudden stroke, the public commented on the event, but like the newspapers, they were unaware if that the body had been taken to the Morgue, or to the police for an autopsy. The corpses of people who have died in conditions that instill suspicions about the motives of the death are normally taken to the police for autopsy. Little by little the restlessness and alarm calmed down until silence sealed all comments and murmurings.
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Only a few onlookers knew that Bacigalupi, Taylor and Dockendorff had honored the mortal remains of Mrs. Lewis by taking them to the Protestant cemetery in the village of Bellavista where she was buried. The body was taken from the hotel the same night of January 2, and taken to San Juan de Dios station on the English railroad. On the first train of the following morning, it was taken to the cemetery and was buried in the early hours of the day by a Protestant priest who presided over the funeral ceremony with Dockendorff, Bacigalupi, Taylor and others. These unnamed others returned to Lima, but the other four remained in the hotel “Peninsula” of Chucuito, beyond Bellavista, where they had lunch.
After this sad ceremony, the matter was never discussed again.
The months of January through September passed when a fire in the Bacigalupi establishment caused uproar in the residents of Lima, and began the famous process that is still before the Courts. The friends of Mrs. Isabel Lewis had to find a new meeting place because the imprisonment of Bacigalupi took away their meeting center.
Taylor disappeared unexpectedly from Lima.
The attention of the police had been devoted entirely to the investigation of the causes of the fire to discover if there was a deliberate and punishable purpose in this terrible disaster. The police could not suspect that the death of Mrs. Lewis involved a crime: homicide or suicide.