Dr. Bennett Hyde was married to Frances Swope, daughter of Logan Swope and Maggie (Chrisman) Swope, niece of Col. Thomas Swope. In 1909 Col. Thomas Swope was living at the mansion of his brother Logan Swope in Independence, Mo, with other family members. Logan Swope had died in 1900. James Moss Hunton, a cousin of Col. Swope, became suddenly ill and died the following day on Oct 1, 1909. Two days later Col. Thomas Swope died after a month long illness. Kansas City newspapers reported Dec 1, 1909, that there had been a Typhoid outbreak at Park College in Parkville, Mo. William Chrisman Swope came down with Typhoid, and died the following day on Dec 6, 1909. Several other members of the Swope household also contracted Typhoid, but did not die as a result. Nurses suspected Hyde and reported their concern, following which an autopsy of Col. Thomas Swope revealed traces of poisoning. It was felt that Dr. Hyde had administered poison, and introduced Typhoid into the water supply of the Swope home. There was evidence that Dr. Hyde had obtained poison and Typhoid cultures. He was tried and convicted of murder, but later released after appealing the verdict. According to the Kansas City Times/Star, the second trial in 1911, ended in an uproar when one of the jurors fled through the window. Apparently both the second and third trials resulted in either a mistrial or hung jury. The prosecuting attorney was James A. Reed. After trials in 1910, 1911, and 1913, the State of Missouri finally dropped all charges against Dr. Hyde in 1917. Frances Hyde had used a substantial sum of money from the Swope fortune, to hire the best lawyers, even though her brother William Chrisman Swope was one of the family members that had died. The popular opinion was that the Hydes had bribed jurors. After the trials, Hyde filed libel and slander suits against the owner and publisher of Kansas City Star, William Rockhill Nelson, for insinuating that Hyde had murdered and attempted to murder several members of the Swope family. Dr. Hyde returned to Lexington, Missouri, where he was born and practiced medicine there until his death. Because of fires, cemetery records don't exist prior to 1885, or from 1920 to 1940, during which period, Dr. Hyde was buried. Dr. Hyde's obituary in the Lexington Intelligencer Friday August 10, 1934, indicates he died suddenly the previous Tuesday August 7, 1934, and burial was in Machpelah Cemetery. A section by section tombstone transcription project was completed in 1977, and those records indicated that Dr. Hyde had a marker with the following information, and that it was located in the Hyde/Hopkins plot. Bennett Clark Hyde, 1872 - 1934. However, a marker is no longer present for Bennett Hyde in that family plot. Records at the Walker-Nadler Funeral Home indicate that Hyde was divorced at the time of his death, and also provided the date of his birth. The obituary of his wife, Frances Hunton (Swope) Hyde indicated that she divorced him in 1920. So he apparently did not re-marry afterwards. On the evening of his death, Dr. Hyde had went to the office of the Lexington Advertiser-News to check on election returns. He walked around the counter, and fell to the floor without a word.