New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-06
THE CASE UP TO THE PRESENT.
WHAT THE PROSECUTION HAS ATTEMPTED
TO SHOW AGAINST MoLINEUX.

Now that the evidence for the people has been
completed 1t Is competent to review the main facts
which the prosecution has established in support
of its accusation that Roland B. Molineux is re-
spansible the death of Mrs. Katherine ]. Adams
without going into the details of the direct and
cross examination OF witnesses, a summary OF the
evidence which has been adduced shows that Harry
8. Cornish received by mail bottle of bromo-
settler, accompanied by silver bottle holder Cor
nish few days after receiving the anonymous
package, which he presumed was a gift from
friend took home the bottle and administered a
dose of it's contents to Ms. Adams relative, at
whose home he lodged. Mrs. Adams died shortly
afterward. and Professor Witthaus, the chemical
expert for the prosecution who analysed the pow
der in the bottle, swore that 1t was mixed with
large proportions of cyanide of mercury and testi-
fed also that he had found sufficient quantity or
the poison in Mrs. Adamss body to cause death
1t has been shown also that box of headache
powder was sent to Henry c. Barnet The prose-
cution has suggested that Molineux in frenzy
of jealousy encompassed Barnets death by the
that by which he sought to kill Cor
nish. by mixing merourial cyanide with the powder
An expert chemist who analysed the powder taken
from Barnet's room deposed that 1t contained
cyanide of mercury, while Professor Witthaus and
several physicians called by the prosecution assert
ed that the symptoms displayed by Barnet during
his illness and subsequent examination of the ex-
humed body led them to determine that he died
from mercural poisoning. DR.. Henry Beaman
Douglas. the physician who attended Barnet In his
last illness, stoutly maintained that his patients
death due to heart failure superinduced by
dphtheria.
The leading experts upon handwriting in the
country have been called prove that the address
upon the package posted to Cornish was in the
handwriting of Molineux. One after another these
experts have pointed out distinctive simarities of
Characteristics in the defendants admitted hand
writing and that upon the poison parcel
Nicholas Hickman and Joseph j. Koch, proprie-
tors of private letter box establishments in Broad
way ana West Forty second-st., to which the bar
ned Molineux as the man who either rented them
or called TO inquire about them. One of the dis
puted letters was written blue paper bearing a
crest of three interaced silver crescents. Mary
Melando young woman who had charge of Moli-
neux's rooms in Newark. has sworn that such
paper was kept in his apartments, and that she her
ne IN tbe Wnyap n.in+ factoT 10y %
that the defendant kept in MS labora the chem
ioals necessary for the making of cyanide of mer-
curry.
The prosecution has established the fact that
the silver bottle holder purchased In Newark
tie young woman who sold the holder asserted
that the defendant not the TO whom she
made the sale. The prosecution has proved that
the poison package and many OF the Barnet and
Cornish" letters mailed at the General POST
office between 4 and o'clock. about the time that
Molnsux would pass the building on his way home
While the prosecution has brought forward sub
stantial reasons why Moiineux should have hatred
at one time suppanted the defendant In the affec-
tons of the woman who subsequently became Mrs.
Motneuz as regards motive for the attempt upon
Cornish's life the case OF the People Is admittedly
weak John D. Adams, the secretary OF the Knick-
erbocker Athletic Club, and one two other MEM
hers have related that differences existed between
cornish and the defendant, but that these varances
related entirely TO the administrative affairs OF the
club. Although II has been rumored that other and
Cornish and Molneux, they were not touched upon
during the trial.