Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-02-16
MOlineux Declared Guilty.
Result of the Verdict In the Mysterious
Poisoning Case at New York IA Great
Notwithstanding Trial Probable.

Result of the Verdict In the Mysterious
Poisoning Case at New York "A Great
surprIse---Another Trial Probable.
One of the strangest murder cases on
record, which has attracted great public at
tention for year, came to an end at New
York city Saturday night at 11.03, when q
Jury which had been celebrating seven
hours, declared Roland B. Molineux guilty
of murder in the first degree.
Barstow S. Weeks, senior counsel for Mo
lineux, will go before Recorder Golf today
to move for a new trial. 1t is expected
that this request will be denied, and that
death sentence will be pronounced 1t is
expected that Molineux will then be taken
to the Sing Sing prison. His counsel will
ask the court of appeals for new trial,
and it is probable that one will be granted.
Roland B. Molineux is a son of Gen Ed
ward l.. Molineux. He was arrested on
Feb. "a, 1899, at the close of Coroner
Harris inquest into the death of Mrs. Kath-
crime j. Adams, who on Dec. Is, 1898, took
a dose of supposed bromo-seltzer admins
tered to her by Harry S. Cornish, "a boarder
in her flat Cornish was also violently i'll,
but recovered.
An investigation proved that the contentf
of the bottle were a mixture of bromo-selt-
ger and cyanide Of mercury. The morn
ing after the appearance of his name in
connection with the case Molineux and his
father presented themselves to the chief of
detectives, and the younger man asked is
he was wanted. He was told that he was
not, but the police kept up their work Of
seeking the poisoner. In their investiga-
tions they found number of letters writ
ten to patent medicine firms throughout the
country asking for remedies and signed
with the names of Harry Cornish and H.
@. Barnet
Handwriting experts swore that the
same hand that had written these letters
had also written the poison address, and
that, in fact, Molineux was the author of
all the writings. Molineux was arrested.
An indictment was found against him, and
later dismissed A succeeding grand Jury
refused to indict, and Molineux was dis
charged only to be rearrested Immediately
on the charge of assaulting Cornish AT
ter another long legal battle Molineux was
again discharged and rearrested He
waived examination on the charge of as
sault, and finally the July grand jury
found an indictment against him in seven
counts for the murder by poison of Mrs
Adams.
Much testimony relating to the death of
Barnet was given in trial. Barnet and
Moilneux were intimate friends and both
were attentive to Blanche Cheesborough,
the young woman who married Molineux
soon after Barnet's death. Assistant Dis
trict Attorney Osborne, who conducted the
prosecution of Molineux, declared that the
young woman was the motive in the poi
soning of Barnet. One of Barnet's physi-
piana RlafnnaA that HE IaakI IL r.
diphtheria.
Molineux and Cornish had quarreled and
become bitter enemies at the Knicker-
booker Athletic club, where the former
was one of the governors and the latter
the athletic instructor. The quarrel re
suited in Molineux leaving the club and
joining the New York Athletic club.
Molineux's father is a man of great
wealth and prominence and of high stand
ing in his personal reputation. The young
man was superintendent of large paint
factory in Newark, and he was widely
known as the champion amateur horizontal
bar and trapeze performer in America. He
expected to represent the New York Ath.
letic club in exhibitions at the Paris expo
sition.
Cornish had been connected with athletic
clubs in Boston and Chicago before going
to New York. His divorced wife lives in
Hartford.
A large majority of people who had fol.
| lowed the testimony of the case believed
that the jury would acquit the prisoner OF
disagree. All of the testimony was of a
circumstantial nature, and much depended
upon the statements of the hand writing
experts. Molineux's counsel offered no de.
fence after the prosecution had finished
with the witnesses, claiming that no cast
had been made against the prisoner. In
his final review to the jury Assistant Dis
trict Attorney Osborne made a strone
point of this failure for testimony in de
fence of the prisoner.
The prediction is generally made in New
York that new trial will be granted on
exceptions to Recorder Colts rulings, and
that Molineux will never be executed.
Lord Curzon, the Indian viceroy, cable,
that the distress arising from the famine i,
steadily increasing, and that those now in
receipt of relief number 1854, 900. Fully
$4,000, 600 persons are affected by the pre-.
vailing distress in British territory and it i,
estimated that 81, 900, 900 are affected in the
native states.
Congressman Charles A. Chickeripp
leaped from a fourth story window of the
Grand Union hotel at New York early
Tuesday morning. dying before the arriva
of the ambulance He registered at the
hotel Sunday. He mad rheumatism and
had become respondent. He was one OF
the best known Republicans of the New
York state delegation serving his fourth
term, and representing the oath district
His home was in Harrisburg, Lewis county