More technical experts were expected to be called by the defense today to testify that Robert E. Dunn, Jr., had died—or could have died—of a heart attack Jan. 1.
Carlo Quartararo, who was owner of the Latin Quarter night club
where Dunn was found dead, and Lucille Caroline Cotta, B-girl, yes-terday heard five medical experts
say they believed Dunn did not die —-or might not have died—as the result of a dose of chloral hydrate. The state contends that Dunn was given a fatal dose of knockout
drops while he was drinking Jan.
dr
1, in the Bourbon.
club, which is at 427
The medical experts summoned yesterday were Dr. Nicholas Chet-ta, Orleans Parish Coroner; Dr. Ralph B'rauer, toxicologist and pharmacologist at LSU; Dr. Willis P. Butler, Caddo Parish Coroner and president of the National Association of Coroners; Dr. Andrew Friedrichs, New Orleans pathologist hired by former Coroner C. Grenes Cole after the Dunn death was re-opened to examine Dunn's brain, and Dr. Cole himself.
BASED ON REPORT
The first three said that all their testimony was based on the assumption that Dr. Friedrich's re-port was correct.
None of the three had examined Dunn's brain.
Dr. Cole testified that he had thrown Dunn's brain away after he had accidently used too weak a preservative and it had begun to decompose. He admitted he had acted without a court order.
On the basis of Dr. Friedrich's findings, Dr. Chetta said he would "stake his professional reputation' on the fact that Dunn had died of a heart attack.
"Would you rule out the possi-bility that he could have died of chloral hydrate?" District Attorney
Darden snapped. "He could have," Dr. Chetta re
plied.
Caddo Parish's Dr. Butler then said he too believed that coronar occlusion, a' swiftly striking heart disease, could have killed Dunn
"I would say without any ques-ion—if all the information in Dr. Friedrichs' report is correct—there is no doubt in my mind that he (Dunn) could have died of coro-lary occlusion," Dr. Butler tes-ified.
Dr. Butler told how he had
not infrequently' used chloral lydrate on patients in Caddo Par-sh Jail as a sedative. He said a prisoner was accidentally given a dose of 16 grams, but he survived. According to the state, Dunn lad received at least 10.4 grams in the Latin Quarter before he died.
(Wednesday Dr. Edward Ireland, of the Loyola University depart-riient of pharmacology, testified| that four to 10 grams of chloral hydrate is a lethal dose. He said that alcohol increased the drug's effect. In his 34 years as coroner of
Caddo Parish, Dr. Butler continued,
he knew of only "three or four" deaths by chloral hydrate—and he .had not been able to prove any of them.
Dr. Ralph Brauer of LSU was asked his opinion of the test performed on Dunn's brain by Tennessee authorities.
"I would personally refuse the test as proof of the presence of chloral hydrate," he testified.
The defense hinted throughout the day that Dunn suffered a previous heart attack. Dr. Fried-irichs' report said that he had a chronic heart condition and listed some of the ailments as narrowing of the arteries, muscle deterioration and enlargement of the heart, (Mrs. Dunn had testified a week ago that her husband "had never been sick a day in his life.")...
