The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-02
A. ADAMS ENDS OUTCAST LIFE
POLICY KING SHOOTS HIMSRLF
IN THE ANSONIA.

HOunded Lost Much Money out was
suu said 70 Own Millions Lived
Alone since Release From sing sing.
Al Adams, the policy king. a. New York
hss been calling him for years, ended hts
Me Yesterday morning in his apartments in
,bs Ansonia. He shot himself through the
bead.
surrounded by luxury and possessed Of q
fortune still estimated at several millions,
although he had some recent losses. the ak
convict, who had been denounced from the
hsnch as New York's meanest criminal,
died AZ he had lived. a social outcast and q
marked man.
He was absolutely alone when he shot
himself. He had lived alone at the Ansonia
aver since his release from Sing Sing.
Whether it was his own desire or that OF the
members of his family that made him live
unart from them is not known. According
N some of his friends. It was his OWE idea
that his family should share as little as pos
sibIe in his shame. Mrs. Adams with her
,wo sons and unmarried daughter has
lately taken a new house at All West End
avenue.
Adams, according to some Of those in
whom he confded. met With some very
heavy losses in the stock market recently.
He il said to have been playing the short
side Of the market in American Ice and in
Union Pacific. W. Z. d. Stokes, who knew
adams as well as any one. said yesterday
that Adams told him not long ago that his
losses would amount to more h $500 600.
papers we're found in Adams's rooms at the
Ansonia Yesterday showing that on August
~ he had closed his account with Robert
Maclay, a broker at II Broadway, and had
received a check from the concern for
s2s. 900. Other papers showed that he had
had dealings with this firm to the extent Of
3ssl,OOO.
some OF the old gamblers friends secuted
the idea Yesterday that these loeses could
have caused him TO take his life. They
attributed his act to III health. he had an
inclrable disease which recently reached
an acute stage, and his lungs also were
affected. For weeks he had complained OF
insomnia and had appeared very mOrose.
He told Mr.. Stokes that the public and the
notice would never get through bounding
him. He apparently had in mind the recent
failure Of Sage 4 Co., the bucket shop con-
oern In which he was interested heavily.
Adams had been a silent partner, but his
connection was brought out in August
last and was followed by the failure OF the
firm. II was said at the time that the
venture had proved a disastrous one for
Adams. The failure Of the bucket shop
concern brought into notoriety his connec-
ton with the Guanaiuato Mining Company
Of which he was president, and the Colonial
Securities Company, the underwriters for
the securities Of the mining concern. They
we're engaged In trying to get the public
to buy mining stock at IS a share and when
Adams's connection was brought out the
sales fell on.
Things are not breaking right for me.
Adams remarked In a respondent mood
lately, Mr.. Stokes says.
Despite losses, Adams was one OF the large
Individual real estate holders in this city.
His property in real estate, according to one
Of his agents yesterday, would amount to
almost 5000 900. He had been a shrewd
Epeculator all his life. He was one OF the
first to foresee the future Of the neighbor-
hood Of Thirty-fourth street and Broad
way, Much OF his property was bought
by the Pennsylvania Railroad. A lot OF
property in that neighborhood was still
owned by him and his other holdings were
on the West Side. He also owned prop
erty out OF town.
Adams had a suite OF three rooms on the
fifteenth floor OF the Ansonia. One he used
as a bedroom, another as a parlor and the
third as a sort Of Office. Ernest Miller, one
Of the beIlboys. was employed by him TO act
o. a sort Of valet.
Adams was seen about the hotel on Sun"
day and on Sunday evening he sat in the
cafe a while. He said goodnight to DR..
John p. Thornley,, who had sometimes at
tended him and who lives at the hotel. He
went to bed early. This vas the last seen
Of him.
It was the custom for the telephone girl
In the hotel to call Adams on the telephone
every morning at Q O'Clock. The girl did
this yesterday morning and Adams re-
Eponded. Shortly after 7 o'clock George W.
Robinson, treasurer OF the Greene Copper
Company, who occupied the suite directly
underneath Adams, heard a sound In the
room over him. He said he thought at the
time that it was a door slamming-
When Miller, the bellboy, let himself into
the apartment half an hour later as was
his custom he found Adams lying over a
chair in his bedroom with the. blood pouring
from a big hole in the right side OF his head.
A "a calibre army revolver with one
chamber empty was on the floor by his
feet. Adams wore only his nightshirt
and one sock and slipper, 1t looked a.
though he might have just begun to dress
when the idea Of killing himself took pos
session Of him.
In order TO kill himself Adams had evil
IDENTIFY taken a position in front Of a mirror
with the large armchair directly behind
him. The bed had been pulled out OF its po-
sition. and Adams had the dea apparently
that be could fall on the bed. Instead he
fell over the chair with his head hanging
over the further arm OF 1t. The bullet had
gone through his head a1d through the
open door Of the bedroom and was found
buried in the wall Of the private hall.
The rooms were in a rather d~isordereC
condition, articles Of clothing which Adam
had taken OF the night before being fiunl
around promiscuously. In one OF ths
bureau drawers the police and Coroner
Hamburger found another revolver OF th'
same pattern as the n he had used b
kIl himself with. IL was fully loaded