Reason First: Why did Dentist Dr. Arthur Warren Waite Commit Murder?

In his selection for his last meal before being electrocuted in Sing Sing, did Dr. Arthur Warren Waite request some typhoid, pneumonia and diphtheria? Did he ask for an arsenic soufflé for dessert? While there are no records of whether Waite asked for such arrangements, it is clear that he used such substances to dispatch his mother-in-law and father-in-law. As a prosperous dentist before his murderous ways, Dr. Waite had become familiar with various bacteria and chemicals.

He took it upon himself to kill his mother-in-law first. Hannah Peck stayed at the Waite household shared with daughter Clara over the Christmas break. Pneumonia struck her like a scorpion’s aculeus. She perished. The grief-riddled Mr. John Peck decided to stay with Dr. Waite and Clara.

In time, Peck would fall ill and die along with his wife. Waite stepped up to organize the funeral and a cremation. Law enforcement thought otherwise. They wanted an autopsy. Arsenic poisoning became the root cause of his demise. In a flurry of emotions taking over his brain, he attempted suicide through drug ingestion. This failed. After the substances passed through his system, the proverbial moment of clarity washed over him. He confessed to the deaths of the Pecks.

Why did Dr. Waite put the germs in Mr. Peck’s food and spray the agents of illness in the throat of Mrs. Peck? He wished to relieve the wealthy couple of their fortune.

Dr. Waite tried to pass off his acts as a result of being criminally insane. He presented a defense that stated that an ancient Egyptian instructed him to kill his family members. The push never gained traction. The judge sealed his fate.

Now, this is a classic motive…kill them for the cash. But money is too good and too pure to be something besmirched by a vicious killer. It is not greed or avarice that leads to these kinds of actions. It is irrationality and emotionalism that paves the way for wickedness.

Money grants the best minds to concoct schemes to create and build. Money is not a tool of death. It is the means for men and women of the mind to generate more funds. Dr. Waite clearly had to earn his doctorate. At some point before his murderous nature, he had wanted to develop his skills and continue to be a professional.

His unreason is what brought him to the lowest stage of humanity. As a murderer he just claimed that he did it for the money. Suppose he got away with his crimes. What then? Would he be living in wedded bliss with Clara? With the knowledge of killing her parents, how much happiness could he experience?

Money is the scapegoat in these situations. Dr. Waite showed that he was of sound mind. He knew what he was doing and he did the misdeeds. Dr. Waite could’ve been a premiere dentist. He could’ve used his knowledge not for the destruction of himself and in-laws but to further the cause of reason and science.

Instead of being known as a murderer, Waite could’ve advanced the field of dentistry. Never mind the money. The dollars that he would have received would’ve been like blood colored pieces of cash. Fortunately, the authorities took him in and processed him. His death represented another example of a learned man who betrayed whatever intelligence that he possessed.

Without the touch of insanity to defend his case, electrodes led to his terminal breath. Dr. Waite’s selflessness and unselfishness led him on the path to disaster. If he had only harnessed his powers as an educated man, he may have never seen that chair at Sing Sing.