The Indiana State sentinel., 1886-03-24
GRAHAM'S STATEMENT
Of His Illicit Relations With Mrs. Emma
MollOy and Cora Lea
A Story which Will Earn no. Compassion
for the Talented Writep-The Burden
of His Song is That the Wo-
men Tempted Him.


les in the murder of Sarah Graham (for
which crime George E. Graham is now con-
fined in the Jail of this County, should
arouse the interest of thousands of men and
women throughout the country is not to be
wondered at when it is considered that Mrs.
Molloy has for the past fifteen years been
prominently before the public and has been
awarded place of distinction as the most
eloquent and magnetic female orator in
America. Her fort is revival meetings and
temperance crusades, and wherever she went
her converts were numbered by hundreds.
In the temperance campaigns of Ohio and
Indiana she attained special prominence,
and in tour of England a few years ago
she electrified the slow-going inhabitants of
the Isle of Britain and won laurels only less
to be priced than those bestowed, both be-
fore and since. in her own country.
at the time of her arrest as an accessory
in the terrible crime of murder she was en-
gased in the conduct of an unusually sue
cessful revival at Peoria, ILL.,, and the de-
velopments of her trial thus far have been
such as TO shock those who believed in the
purity of her character.
1t is unnecessary to ter into details as to
the other members of the trio upon whom
public attention is centered at this time.
Cora Lee is Mrs. Molloy's foster-daughter,
and George Graham, who married Cora while
he had a wife back in Indiana, is a protege
who came into the family about four years
ago, and whose acquaintance with the
woman grew into an unholy intimacy that led
first to bigamy and then 10 wife murder-in
both of which they are believed to be Access
sories. Graham's life has become well known
through the publication of the details of the
sensational events of the past few weeks,
and although the reputation of the Molloy
household for some years past has not been
free from suspicious that are being daily
Il %
preliminary examination of the twd women,
yet the public will hardly be prepared for
the startling revelations contained in a state
ment which he has written in the dreary
confines of his steel cell since his abandon
ment to his fate by the women who would
save their POPULATIONS, aud possibly their
lives at his penSe. Ih.S IS treating upon
matters about which a question of veracity
might suggest itself, he enters into details
with a minuteneSs that leaves no room for
| doubt-giving dates cities, hotels, numbers
| of rooms, etc. IN which his liaisons with the
women were had, and all with a frankness
| that challenges investigation and disarms
| denial.
The narrativeJ commences with his intro
| duction into the Molloy family after his dis
| charge from the Indiana Penitentiary in
| 1881, and ends With his arrest in this city
| for bigamY on January 20, 1856. In no place
| does ne touch u On either the charge of big
amy or murder avoiding them scrupuIousy
and contining b nself to an unveiling of hy
pOcrisy by an e. pose of the adulterous rela-
| tons that exist, between himself and Mrs
| MollOy and her foster daughte, Cora E. Lee.
| His reasons for this are given in the opening
| paragraph, as follows.
To THE PUBLC-In putting forth the following
| statement make no pretensions of being actu-
sted by that high and holy impulse-a desire to
improve society or raise the tone of public NOR
ais Having been adjured by Mrs Emma Molloy
ard Mrs. Cora y. Granam to "tell the truth and
nothing but the truth" in this matter, and these
ladies having ventilated their opinions of the
writer with freedom that is charming ~ to con-
template and shown a familiarity with adjec-
tives that would have delighted Lin1ley Murray,
/ have concluded, as an addenda to their adjura-
tiOn. 10 tell the whole truth.
He then reproached his second wife,
Cora, for her desertion in his extremely, and
her apparent determination to save herself
and allew him to be sacrificed, and adds:
Whether Mrs. Graham will really have so very
much cause for congratulation is aquestion about
which there may be two opinions. When the
tale he or she may conclude that. however guilty
may be, Cora Graham and Emma Molloy are in
no position to join in the general chorus against
no Emma MollOy or Cora Lee there would be no
George Graham in the steel cage of Green County
tonight
He then enters into circumstantial detail
of his life and work after going with Mrs.
Molioy TO Chicago where he was engaged
with the publishers of the Morning and Day
of Reform to which Mrs. NJ. was ''valued
contributor and associate editor. This was
in the early part of 1882, in April, and about
the time Mrs. Molloy was divorced
from her husband Shortly after this he en-
gagged Mrs. Molloy to go TO Fort Wayne to
use her powers of persuasion upon his wife,
Sarah Graham, to induce her to live with
him sgain. Mrs Graham was obdurate and
refused 10 leave her father, and in connec-
ton with his reference to this visit of Mrs.
Molloy, Graham writes:
The women who were calculated to have such
dire effect upon each others lives then met for
the first time.
1t was then that he went with the ID. G.
Cook publishing house on its removal to
Elgin. In July he went to Fort Wayne and
brought his wife and two boys to Elgin, and
in the following November Mrs Molloy was
induced to make her home in Elgin. Here
they were thrown together a great deal and
Graham records in matter-of-fact way:
We had grown very friendly, and though moth
ing improper had transpired between us up TO
this time she frequently sat in my lap and kissed
NE.
Graham's smoldering love for Mrs NJ. burst
into flame November L. and he unbosom-
ed himself. She protested mildly, but on
the 18th of December 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 srent at
Mrs. Molloys house when she was not away
on eVangellcal work, and the repetition OF
the ofense was frequent, the narrative in
such instances particulsrizing as to date and
place.
Cora Lee. the adopted daughter was an
inmate of the house at the time, and Graham
asserts that on Christmas afternoon, 1882,
Mrs. Molloy in confidential mood
Told Cora OF the intimacy between myself and
her, and also between herself and Rev. J. J. Tai
bOtt. who was then deceased, but who in life had
been a very prominent member of the l. o. q. I.
in Indiana, and who died at herhome in Elk
hart, Ind in 1876. Mr.. Talbot was probably
better known through Indiana, Kentucky and
the East than any other temperance orator of his
day. Her open intimacy at that time came near
separating Mr.. and Mrs. Molloy. but neither
party was willing to give up the son Frank.
He adds that on Jan. 1 Mrs. Molloy left
for Richmond, Ind, to hold a series of re-
vival meetings, and in this connection says:
She never admitted that she really loved me
until on this Richmond trip, when one morning
] received letter from her which fairly electri-
fed me. She had copied the most passionate
poems from Ella Wheeler's Poems Of Passion
and sent them to me as her letter. i intended to
foTtify all doubtful position in this statement
with copious extracts from her letters, but on the
night OF the day on which the body of Sarah era
ham was found on the Moloy farm Mrs. Cora (Lee)
Graham burnt the most of my letters--an accum-