SENSATIONAL POISONING CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 87, 14 April 1899, Page 5

SENSATIONAL POISONING CASE.

CHARGE AGAINST MOLINEUX

THE CASE DISMISSED.

XEW YORK, April 13

Roland B. Molineux, indicted on the charge of murder in the first degree for the killing- of Mrs Katherine J. Adams by sending poison to Harry Cornish, was to-day found not guilty, and the judge dismissed the

charge

Molineux is 33 years old, and is the I ssoii of a millionaire manufacturer of paints, holding' a prominent position in politics. Young Molineux , was popular in the best society, and active i.v athletics. I STORY OP THE CASE. The story of this remarkable poisoning case may be briefly recalled. Mr Henry C. Barnet, a member of the Knickerbocker Club, died last November, apparently from natural eatises. He had taken Kutnow's powder, which it was proved had also been mixed with cyanide of mercury. At the time of his death Mr Barnet was supposed to be engaged to Miss Blanche Choeseborough. .Nineteen days after Barnet's death Miss Cheeseborough married Molineux. Mr Barnet was the first victim. The second was Mr Harry Cornish, a prominent member of the Knickerbocker Club at New York. On December 2 he received at that institution a parcel which was found to contain a small ornamental silver case, which held a bottle containing —so it was indicated —bromoseltzer, a drug used much in the same way as anti-pyrine for the cure of headache. He paid no particular attention to the present at the moment; and, indeed, regarded it somewhat in tb.e light of a joke, as there was nothing to suggest the source from which tlife gift'came. Mi; Cornish lodged at the house of a Mrs Kate Auains and her married daughter. On the evening following the receipt of the package Mr Cornish went with the ladies to the theatre, and on the following- morning Mrs Adams complained of headache. It was at this juncture that the gentleman recollected the parcel he had received. 'I have,' he remarked, 'some bromoseltzer, and as it is -a ood thing for tlijß headache I will give you.some.' He thereupon fetched the bottle, and Mrs Adams swallowed a dose. Almost immediately she became violently ill, and despite medical efforts died within a very short time. Cornish, who had himself taken a smaller quantity, was .also affected, but, thanks "to the attentions, of the doctors, he recovered. Investigations were at once commenced by a large staff of detectives. The first thing to be ascertained was where the silver c:ise had been procured, and eventually the police discovered that it had been purchased in a New Jersey shop, the proprietor of which ■ said that it had been bought by 'a man with a red beard.' Subsequently a wig-mak-er was found who declared that he had sold a red beard. This particular clue did not, however, result in anything. During the last two months countless rumours have been current in the States, many of these, perhaps, being the product of the private detectives who were set to work on the case by the more enterprising journals. There was no actual result,' however, the only fact disclosed beyond doubt being that Mrs Adams had died from the effects of poisoning by cyanide of mercury, a drug which it is difficult to obtain, save from the wholesale chemist. The police discovered that private Ittter-boxes had been rented by certain persons under the names of Baruet and Cornish. The persons who rented these boxes had obtained samples of Kutnow's powder and oilier drugs. Suspicion centred on Molineux not only because there was rivalry between him and Barnet for the hand of Miss Cheeseborough, but also since there had been a violent quarrel between him and Cornish. 'Molineux, it was also known, had a knowledge of chemistry. It was the theory of the prosecution "that the poisoned bromo-seltzer which Mrs Adams took was really intended for Cornish. The prisoner having so successfully disposed of Barnet, he evidently hoped, it was suggested to be able to remove Cornish undetected. The circumstantial evidence which made the jury find Molineux guilty of murder was his positive identification by the proprietor of the letterbox station as the man who rented tlie box under the name of Barnet, •Uld the testimony of seven handwriting experts who positively swore that Molineux had written the address onthe package containing the bromoscltzer sent to Cornish. Cornish, while in the witness box, openly accused Molineux, and asserted that Bianche Cheeseborough had been alone in Barnet's room in the club, drinking wine, and that jealousy was the motive of that crime. Cornish had been relentlessly questioned-and insulted when he gave evidence but the district attorney explained that thiswas only part of a trap for Molmeux. They wanted samples of his writing, ami he would not give them, but they made him believe that they suspected Cornish, and that he (Molineux) 'was free from suspicion. Then he gave the samples that the experts with- one accord swore were written by the pain "who addressed the package,