The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-03-23
GRAHAM -M0LL0Y-LEE
A TRINITY OF DEPRAVlTY SUR
PASSED BY NONE,
Unless the Head of the Firm Is Great n
Liar as He Is Scoundrei-Sorrowfu
Reading for Many Western People
Who Have Known the Women.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo, March 23.-George
Graham who is confined in the Jail here
for the murder of his wife, has male de
teilcd statement of his relations with Cora
Lee-Graham, his second wife, and Mrs
Maloy, the notorious female orator, and
now undergoing a preliminary eXamina-
tion on a charge OF being access 1ries to the
Grim. for which Graham is incarcerated
Tho statement Occupying sixty pages of
closely written note paper, is of most sen
sational nature In the opening paragraph
Graham disclaims all pretentions of being
actuated by desire to improve society or
TO raise the tone of publ: III )ralS, and ad-
mits that in making this statement he has
accepted the challenge of the two women, as
given in their testimony during tie exam
nation TO tell the whole truth of his reia-
tions with them.
After reproaching his second wife, Cora,
for her desertion of him in h S hour of
trouble, and her apparent determination to
save herself and allow him to he sacrificed,
saying that IF there had been no Emma
Molloy or Cora Lee there would be no
George Graham confined in the steel cage of
Green county, he reviews in detail his life
and work after going with Mrs Molloy to
Chicago He went to Chicago in April.
1852, and was engaged by the publishers of
The Morning and Day of Reform to which
paper Mrs. Molloy was u valued contribu-
tor" and of which she became later an AS,
socate eiitoc. At about the same time
Mrs Molloy had secured divorce from
| her husband, and at Graham'S solicitation
went to Fort Wayne to induce his wife to
life with him again This Mrs Graham re
fused to do, and Graham soon afterwari
| left far Elgin, HIS where h, had So ured a
| situation with the ID. C. Cook Publishing
house In November following Mrs Moloy
| took up her abode in Elgin, where she was
| thrown great deal with Graham. OF thi,
| intimacy Graham SAYS: eve had grown
very friendly, and though nothing improper
| had transpired between us up to this time
she frequently sat in my lap and kissed
me"
On Nov. Il he told her of his love. She
protested mildly, but on Dec. Y, at her own
house in Elgin, the first instance of criminal
| intimacy between the two occurred After
that the greater portion of his evenings were
spent at Mrs. Mo!loy's house when she was
not away on evangelical work and the repe
tition of the olfense was frequent the mar
rative in each instance particuiarizing as TO
| date AMI place
Cora Lee, the adopted daughter, was an
inmate of the house at this time, and Ora
ham asserts that on Christmas afternoon
lSs3, Mrs. Molloy, in a confidential MOOD
| told Cora of the intimacy between Graham
and herself, and also of tnat between herself
and the Rev. j. J. Talbot, who was then
deceased, but who in life had been very
prominent member of the l. q. e. T. in In
diana, and who died at her home in Elkhart
Ind, in 1876 Mr. Talbot, says Graham,
was probably better known through lndi-
ana, Kentucky and the east than any other
temperance orator of his day. Her open
intimacy at that time came near separating
Mr. and Mrs MOloy, but neither party was
willing to give up the son, Frank.
On Jan. l, 1855, Mrs. Molloy left Elgin
for Richmond, Ind, to hold a series Of
revival meetings, and of this trip CIR aham
says:
''She never admitted that she really loved
me until on this Richmond "trip, when on
morning | received etter from her which
fairly electrified me. She had copied the
most passionate poems from Ella Wheeler S
Poems of Passion, and sent them to me Us
her letter | intended to fortify all doubt
full positions i'll this statement with copous
extracts from her letters, Tut on the night
of the day on which the body of Sarah
Graham was founi on the Molloy farm
Mrs Cora lee Graham burned the most of
my letters-an accumulation of years OF
correspondence. Still she did not get all,
as had some with me in the jail, to which
| can occasionally refer"
January 4, 1855 the first instance of i'm
proper intimacy oc 'urre1 between Graham
and Cora Lee, and from that time until his
unlawful marriage with Cora last July his
attentions were equally divided betweeR the
two women. On March s. May 81, and
twice afterward criminal malpractice was
performed on Cora Then follows a long
list of designations held with the two womeI
at hotels in Chicago, Kansas City, Crestline
OHIO Independence, Mo and Other places
In /, 81 Mrs Molloy removed tor Washing
ton Kan 10 publish The Morning and Day
of Reform, and Graham went with her a:
business manager.
The examination Of the two women vii
be concluded during the week. The chiel
testimony adduced Saturday was that o
Peter Hawkins, the negro employed at the
Molloy farm, and was simply of a corrobo
rative nature. A strong effort will b. mad'
to put Graham ON the stand during tn,
= week