The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-26
FARCICAL.
Adams Case is Sim
ply a Play.
WITHOUT EVIDENCE.
Inquest Means Ruin to Pos
sibly Innocent Man.


Not since the trials Of Carlyle Harris
and DR.. Buchanan has this city had so
thoroughly satisfactory q murder, so
far as sensation is concerned, as the
Adams case which is now before the
coroner. The Fleming case of three
years ago was interesting for students
of the Nordau type, and Il had it's eIe-
ments Of mystery which legally were
never solved, but there was no room
for wide flights of fancy in a dish of
clam-chowder in which the poison was
supposed TO have been concealed. Nor
is arsenic, the poison Used in that case,
good material for the romancist of the
daily press.
In the Adams case, however, there
is not wanting a single element which
would delight the heart of a Du Bois-
gobey or Gaboriau. Murder was COM
mitted by a poison, cyanide of mercury
which, 80 we are told, Is known only
to chemists as it disappeared from the
pharmacGTea twenty years ago. 1t
was sent anonymously through the
mail as q Christmas sife, concealed in
harmless bromo-seltzer, and was in
AChOCu LII d dllC1l well hliOWA III lllC
walk of life. The intended victim ad-
ministered it to an old woman, think
ing thus to relieve Der headache, and
her death was what probably prevent
ed his own, because ,;ooner or later he
would have taken a dose which would
have killed him and thus have worked
out the end intended by the person who
sent it.. AS 1t was, he took little and
was very sick from its effects.
49, I.r Il =
tective story have? With such pre-
mises to work on, all the writer had to
do was to exercise his ingenuity and
find motives, love, rivalry, revenge, or
something Of that kind, fetch in people
of more OF less social Importance, sup
ply a woman, said to be pretty. as
factor in the case, and twistAand mix
everything up in an inexplicable mess.
Then he could take his time in solving
the problem with the comfortable con-
seriousness that there was a ready and
profitable market awaiting his work,
It would not have b9en necessary for
him to throw out dark hints of another
murder, by the same criminal, done N
the same fashion, but more successful
than his main subject, IN that the one
aimed at had been killed That would
have been an embarrassment of riches
and would have needed another volume
to clean up.
Yet these, in short, are the elements
which make the Adams case, and de-
spite an inquest which has lasted now
for many days and which promises to
continue indefinitely, nothing more is
known about it. At any rate, if any
thing more is known, the authorities
ere keeping their knowledge to them
selves in remarkable fashion and are
subjecting great many persons to a
vast amount of inconvenience, If not to
lasting injury. The really remarkable
feature Of this case has been and is the
peculiar attitude of the authorities to-
ward it and the extraordinary. freedom
with which accusations have been cast
right and left by the authorities in
vague but perfectly understandable
way, and by certain papers and persons
interested in the case, who use names
with utter recklessness and, go far as
the inquest has SHOWN with but the
slightest Of provocation. Not a thing
has been revealed in the inquest so far
which by any stretch of the imagination
would warrant the arrest of the persole
whom the papers have not hesitated to
accuse of being the murderer and whom
the district attorneys Office has said by
implication is the man the law is after
To all intents and purposes, MolineuX,
who is the man most concerned in the
case, has been tried and found guilty by
the papers which have been showing
the greatest enterprise" in the matter
They have accused him outright not
only of having sent the poison to Cor
niSh. the man who WIS intended as the
victim, but they have made a case to
their satisfaction against him concern
ing the death of his one-time friend
Barnet, who died of diphtheria, but
who according to the doctors, was also
poisoned by taking Kutnow powders
which had been sent to him by mail
and which also contained cyanide of
mercury.
And all this course seems to have the
consent of the district attorney, who so
far has been unable to bring out even
ciTcunstantial evidence against the
man. More than that, he and his assist
ants VINO have charge of the case, have
treated the accused man with the great
est consideration, while Cornish when
he was on the witness stand the first
time was bully-ragged and buldozed as
If his guilt We're undoubted; and this in
the face of assertion from the district
attorney that not the slightest shadow
of suspicion was attached to him. Mr.
Gardiner, the district attorney, merely
wanted to make sure that Cornish was
not concealing anything"
The whole proceeding is rapidly de-
generating into a farce. At first there
was much talk of a desire on the part
Of the authorities to hush the thing up
and let it go by default This talk was
taken so seriously and seemed to have
such good reason behind it that Col.
Gardiner took Assistant District Attor-
ney Mcintyre from the case in which
it seems that he is mixed up in some
mysterious manner and put another
man on it, besides devoting considerable
of his own time to it. But practically no
good has come of it, Not a fact has been
brought out which was not known be-
fore the inquest began, and several
things which had seemed to be attested
facts have lost much through little con-
tradictions. And now we have the en-
livening spectacle of Cornish going on
the stand on one day and telling why
he thinks MolinepX sent the poison to
him; that he was his enemy; that he
thinks the handwriting of the address
on the package was like Molineux's; in
short, he thinks Molineux is the man
because-well. because he thinks So All
this is gravely taken in by the district
attorney, and then MolineuX is called
to the stand and requested to deny the
accusations made against him, which
he does with commendable readiness.
Meanwhile the district attorney,
when he is not telling the reporters
how he has solved the mystery, gives
out vague hints of horrible scandals he
has unearthed, and gives them out in
such fashion that Immediately the good
names of various men are passed
around from mouth to mouth in a
fashion which will do them irreparable
damage. whether the charges, or
rather the insinuations, are true or
not.
In the case of MolneuX, however.
should the authorities be unable to
| bring home to him the charges which
have been made, 1t is difficult to see
what will be the attitude of the various
papers and the authorities. He has
haen u AZ hn AZ AI..s.