The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1904-06-04
The Killing of Andrew 81. Green,
"Father of Greater New York;"
Result of a Mistake
Millionaire JOHN R. PLAT
Was THE INTENDED VICTIM.
h wealthy OctOgenarian, By q
Elias, an O~ctOrOon, For AlleEed
Blackmail, Lays Bare the Motive
For Williams' Crime.

New York, June 1.-The persistent
contention by the friends Of the late
Andrew H. Green, the venerable phi
lanthropist and Father of Greater New
York." who vas shot down at the door
of his Park avenue residence by the
negro, Cornelius Williams, that the
murderer mistook him for another
man, is borne out by a suit which has
been started in the supreme court by
John r. Plat, an -octogenarian million
aire, against Mrs. Hannah Elias, the
octoroon, who vas the indirect cause
of the murder, for the recovery Of
nearly a million dollars worth of prop
erty, obtained from MIN by blackmail.
In a 10,000-word affidavit, supporting
his claim to property, now held by Mrs.
Elias, Mr.. Platt lays bare his relations
with the woman, which began in 1886,
and have continued in way and an
other up to the present month.
That he was the gray-haired man
whose attentions to Mrs. Elias when
she ran a boarding house on West Fiji
ty-third street first excited the jealousy
of the demented Williams; that he was
the aged admirer who vas much seen
at the Central park west establishment
and was known to some as Mr.
Green" and TO others as Mr.. Platt, there
seems now to be no doubt.
Admits Admiration.
Mr.. Plat makes an open avoWal In
his affidavit that his admiration fol
the woman, whom ne thought was G
S%paniard, was his lndoing. She knew
he was a married nal with two grown
daughters, he says, yet she pretended
to believe that he was single for a
time. She then got her first money
payments out of him by threatening tt
expose him to his family and his
friends.
By far the greatest success the WON
an had with Mr.. Plat, however, was
in ~deceiviug him into the belief that
the child that was born to her and
afterward died was his. Although over
so years of age, he firmly believed thai
she spoke he truth, and answered &c.
mand after demand for money when
such demands were coupled with
threats of exposure.
He Claims S6S5,3S5.
AS nearly as Mr.. Plat can now fig
ure, he is entitled to recover $685., 3o5
from Mrs. Elias, but this does not rep
resent all in money and property that
she had from him. Fifteen thousand
dollars of this money he alleges was
procured from him during the present
month by the same cOercive methods
described. Mr.. Plat asks the appoint
ment of a receiver for all of Mrs. Elias
property, pending tie decision of the
suit. Mr.. Plat says he is upward of
81 years Of age, and in feeble health,
and was formerly ngaged in business
In this city, out has for some years not
been engaged in business. He says he
is a widower, having two married
daughters now living.
Before the Elias woman gained so
much prominence through the mention
of her name by Williams, the crazy
negro who murdered Andrew H. Green.
she lived in a handsome house at 236
Central Park west. She HAD a large
retinue of servants and lived in great
style, much to the wonder of the ne
groes who mad known her before she
became so well to do, financially.
The woman wao is a good-looking
octoroon, came to the city in 1887, and
it was not long afterward that she be-
came we'll to do. When she first came
to this city she kept a boarding house
for negroes in West Fifty-third street.
Before this she had been divorced from
her husband, Davis, a Pullman car con-
ductnr