The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-15
From the Baltimore News.


 after having sat In a prison cell for nearly three years under sentence of death in the electric chair. Roland Burn ham Molineux walked out of New York court yesterday a free man. He had been acquitted by jury of his peers and can never again be charged in court with the murder of Mrs. Katharine J. Adams. Molineux was lucky This Is the com monplace expression coming to mind on the spur of the moment to fit the case. It is the deliberate judgment after carefully weighing all the circumstances of Moli- neux's accusation, conviction, retrial and acquittal.
 There is no doubt at all but the yer dict of the Molineux jury yesterday was just. It could not have been different without having been an outrage Every body who had given the casa attention expected 1t. It made a great impression because 1t was a great case and had in 1t, until tho last poll of the jury was made, the uncertainty of human judg- ment. But the Jury's verdict does not prove that Molineux was innocent of having poisoned Katharine J. Adams. It 
 legally fastened upon him. Molneux has yet to prove his innocence before that great public tribunal, many members of which will still regard him with sus- picion. He has been besmirched with the blackest dye which can defile Q human being, and traces of the stain will re- main always unless somebody else Is shown to have been the real murderer
 Molineuxs was a remarkable case, one of the most remarkable in American law. Harry c. Cornish, an athlete, who had been especially successful in hs man. agement of Chicago athletic club, came to New York as a managing enploye of the Knickerboc1er Athletic club. He and Molineux quarreled. He recommended the expulsion of Molineux and others from the club, charging personal practices which were a very severe reflection upon Molineuxs character. Cornish once ap- piled an opprobrious epithet to Moli- neux. You win,' said Molineux when he met Cornish on the stairway as he was leaving the club.
 The day before Christmas, 1S9S Cornish received through the mails sealed bottle or bromo-seltzer In silver bottleholder. The e<dress was in a disguised handwrit- ing. No name of sender was attached to the package. Cornish took it as a joke that his friend, whom he thought to be lady on account of the daintiness of the silver bottle-holder. should so delicately hint that he might be in need of a head ache draught He took the bottle to his room and placed it in his bureau drawer.
 Two days later Mrs. Rogers and her mother, Mrs. Adams, in whose flat Cor nish was rooming. took a late supper. Very early next morning Mrs Adams was distressed as the result of the feast, and her daughter, remembering Cornishs Christmas gift, knocked on his door and asked him for the bromo-seltzer. Her mother was i'll and wanted 1t, Cornish produced the bromo-seltzer, prepared a draught and Mrs. Adams drank
 What horrible stuff! said Mrs. Adams, as soon as she had taken it, and she fell immediately to the floor. Medical aid was summoned. Mrs. Adams died soon afterward of cyanide of mercury poisoning
 It was found that the bromo-seltzer ad- ministered was strongly mixed with the poison. Police authorities started to hunt the murderer. On the face of the circumstances, the poison must have been intended for Cornish. Who was Cornish's deadly enemy? The sender of the promo seltzer must be a person acquainted with deadly poisons, for cyanide of mercury | is- both deadly and unusual. In the search for the criminal and the motive, it was found that another man connected with the Knickerbocker Athletic club had died under suspicious circumstances. There was strong evidence that he, too, had been poisoned by cyanide of mercury. Who was the common enemy of Cornish and Barnet? And at this point it was that overmastering circumstances point ed to Roland B. Molineux. He had quar- reled with Cornish, who had put upon him a deadly insult He and Barnet were rivals in love. Both had given devoted attention to Blnche Chesebrough. Moli- neux had married her soon alter the death of his rival In notes sent to drug firms for specific remedy, the names of Bar net and Cornish were connected. Molineux was arrested and the battle for his life began. The first Indictment was quashed. He was rearrested and re- indicted. Nearly year after the crime | had been committed, he was first placed on trial.
 Circumstantial evidence only was at hand. It was proved by experts that Mol ineux wrote the Cornish and Barnet let ters to drug firms. Both sides agreed that the man who wrote those letters wrote the address on the poison package, The man who wrote the address on the poison package was the murcerer. These letters, or several of them, were written on egg-blue paper with three silver cres- cents. Moiineux admitted having had such paper and having written a similar letter on such paper. His servant at the first trial testified to his having such paper The letter Molineux at the last trial admitted having written-the Burns letter-was not only or the same paper. but 1t asked for the same remedy as did the Barnet and Cornish letters. One of these letters asked for information against another employe of the Knicker- booker Athletic club, with whom Mol ineux had quarreled also. It was shown that Mollneux might have gotten the bot tle-holder.