The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-28

| The Adams poisoning inquest, which
promised to drag its slow length along
for many weeks, took a sensational
and highly dramatic turn yesterday,
Last night Roland Burnham Molineux
slept in the Tombs, charged with the
murder of Mrs. Adams and of his
former friend, Henry C. Barnet.
New York has had many murders
and many mysteries, but newspaper
men of the present generation have
worked upon nothing as mysterious or
as cunningly planned and executed as
the Adams poisoning. They knew as
much about the case before the inquest
was held asSthey do now, for the two
weeks investigation brought out no
new features except the testimony of
the handwriting experts yesterday and
the identification of MoineuX by a
man who was around the newspaper
offices of New York trying to sell an
identification to the highest bidder
some weeks ago, but none of them
thought the investment a good one.
though the New York newspapers are
ever ready to take long chances in such
matters. Unless more convincing tes-
timony is produced at the trial than
any offered at the inquest, Molineuy's
conviction is altogether improbable
Before the inquest it was conceded by
the brightest newspaper men in New
York who had followed the case from
the beginning and We're in possession
Of all the evidence produced at the
nearing, with the exception of the
opinions of the handwriting experts.
that it would be impossible to convict
Molineux, though many incidents
seemed to point toward him. But the
eX parte statement of the district at
torney left nothing for the jury to do
but bring in a verdict that would
cause the arrest of Molineux.
In connection with the inquest is an
unwritten chapter that may have had
an important bearing in producing the
sensational developments of yester-
day. The proprietor of one of the New
York newspapers which exploited
Molineux and his wife as the poison
ers early in game and before evidence
had been secured sufficient to connect
them with the case, has been in cold
sweat for weeks, through fear that
MolineuX would not be arrested as a
result of the inquest. In that event
enormous libel suits would have been
brought against his newspaper. To
protect the interests of this newspaper.
the leading criminal lawyer of New
York was retained and this lawyer has
been one of the prominent figures at
the inquest. 1t is a singular circum-
stance that the forecast of the identi-
hcation which was procured yesterday,
and the other sensational features then
developed, came from this lawyer and
not from the district attorneys office.
The public will also be curious to know
how many Of the handwriting experts
whose testimony was presented yester-
day were employed by this same news
paper. One of them was, and the news
paper in question exploited his reasons
for maintaining that Molineux wrote
the address on the poison package,
some weeks ago. and asserted that he
had been asked by the newspaper to
give his opinion. This mans conclu-
sions were torn in shreds a few DAYS
after by Kinsley, the expert employed
by the district attorney, who demon
strated that his deductions were incor-
rect and that his opinion was worth
less. People win be curious to know
the arrest of Molineux is in
the interest of justice or in the interest
Of a reckless newspaper.
Molineux may be the guilty party, as
the district attorney declares, but in
the, latter's statement at the close of
the inquest, he drew more upon his
for his conclusions than
upon the evidence submitted to the
a process that is far more eff
fective at an ex parte hearing than
before jury of IL men in a court of
Justice.