Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-03-03
NEW Y0RK'S MURDER CASE,
Roland b. MOlineuX Under Ar
rest.

lie Isa Son of Gen. MOltneuN, the Mill
IIonaIre Point Mnnufscturer---Hn
writing Experts Prominent Witnesses
Against Him.
Roland Burnham Molineux, son of Gen.
Leslie Molineux of Brooklyn, was arrest
ed Monday night charged with numbering
Mrs. Katherine j. Adams, in New York on
Dec. %, 1898. He was locked up in the
Tombs.
The arrest followed the verdict of the
coroner's jury charging him with the
crime While the inquest was into the
death of Mrs. Adams, it also went into the
circumstances of the death of Henry G..
Barnet of the Knck erbocker Athletic club.
The cases are so closely connected that
they can scarcely be considered separately
The proceedings of the final day of the
inquest were sensational in the highest de
gree. The case had dragged along monot
onously, witnesses being examined for the
sole purpose, as it seemed, of contradicting
Harry Cornish's testimony in minor de-
Harry Cornish's testimony in minor de-
tails, or of eliciting suggestions as to a mo-
tive that might have led Cornish to commit
the crime. The newspapers from the be-
ginning had stuck to Molineux as the per-
son most to be suspected, but the prescott
The examiner was kind and gentle when
Nolineux was on the stand; gruif and Sc
we're when dealing with Cornish.
A shopkeeper who rented private letter
boxes swore positively that Molineux was
his patron, using the name of "H. c. Bar
net" 1t was proved long ago that bottles
of medicine had been sent to that letter
box. Then the handwriting experts were
called, and one after another declared that
the hand that wrote the address on the
poison package and forged the names of
Harry Cornish and II. G. Barnet to letters
sent to drug firms, ordering powder medi-
cnes, was the hand of Roland B. Molineux.
The experts were absolutely certain in
their identification and would make no
qualification of their statements.
District Attorney Gardiner then sum-
med up the case, directly accusing Molin-
eux. He defended his office from criti-
csm, saving that a consistent policy had
been followed, and that a complete case
had now been made out against Molineux.
He reviewed the circumstantial evidence
and declared the motive and the commits
sion of the crime had now been made plain.
The jury brought in a verdict charging
Molineux with the murder. 1--WE find that
the said Catherine J. Adams came to her
death on Dec. 2S, 1898, in 81 West Eighty
sixth street by poison by mercuric cyanide,
administered by Harry S. Cornish, to whom
said poison had been sent in a bottle of bro
mo settler by Roland b. Molineux."
The coroner Immediately issued a war
rant for the arrest of Molineux, and the
latter was at once arraigned before him.
Through his attorney, Barlow S. Weeks,
he demanded an immediate hearing, but
Assistant District Attorney Osborne OBJ
jected, saying it was impossible to proceed
with the hearing. The hearing was then
set down for Wednesday morning at II 80
o'clock. Molineux was committed to the
tombs without bail.
Molineux is a member of the New York
Athletic club, and was, until this quarrel
with Harry Cornish, prominent member
of the Knickerbocker Athletic club, from
which he resigned because of that quarrel.
Molineux's father is a paint manufacturer
and is reputed to be a millionaire. The
prisoner has gone into good society, being
of excellent address and manners, and
prospective heir to great fortune. His
counsel is Barlow S. Weeks of the New
York Athletic club and personal enemy
of Harry Cornish.
Harry Cornish, athletic instructor at the
Knickerbocker Athletic club in New York,
who formerly held similar positions with
the Boston and Chicago Athletic clubs, re-
ceived by mail at the club house on Christ
mas day a silver medicine receiver con-
tanning a vial marked bromo settler. Cor
nish lived with Mrs. Adams and the latter's
daughter, Mrs Rogers, and he carried the
receiver to his room. Mrs. Adams COM
planned of headache on the morning of
Dec. % and Cornish gave her dose of
what was supposed to be bromo settler
from the receiver. Mrs. Adams became
violently i'll at once and died within short
time. Fl. G. Barnet, who died few weeks
earlier at his rooms at the Knickerbocker
Athletic club house, had evidently been
poisoned by Kutnow's powders which were
sent to him through the mail.