NEW YORK SENSATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11398, 15 April 1899, Page 5

NEW YORK SENSATION.

A POISONING MYSTERY.

Press Association—l3y Telegraph Copyright.

NICW YORK, April 13. The judge dismissed tho charge against Roland Molineux of poisoning Mrs Adams and attempting to poi.wn Mr Cornish.

The ease is in mimy respects a most extraonliiiavy one. Henry Cornish, director of the athletic sports at the wealthy Knickerbocker Club, Now York, received by posit just before the Christmas holidays a packnye conUiinim; ii small silver bottlc-hokler, and what nnnos'red. to be one of the familiar little phials ol'nromoacltzer. JJc tool: it from the club to tho house ot his aunt, Mrs Ktito Ailum*, where he had rooiiiM. On tho morning of December 28, Mrs AthuiiM was suffering lioni a headache Soine.ollo migrated a dewo 01 the bromo-seltzer, which hud boon sent to Cornish. It was given to her, and she died in great agony «, few minutes Utter. Cornish tasted of the .solution, and became very ill. The doctor, whom he had hastily summoned, also tasted of it, and was ('Heeled in the same way. The contents or tho phial were not bromide-seltzer, but cyanide of mercury—a deadly poison. Examination «hove<l that the phial-a, little smaller than a bromo phial, Imt of tho same colour—was one of those in which tho poison is sold. The'murderer had pasted a bromo-scltssor label on it, and had even paraffined the cork, in imitation of the process used for a bromo phial. Then began a most interesting inquiry. Only 2! of the silver holders which had contained the poison sent through the post had been 1111.de. A search from San Francisco to New York proved that this had been sold in the city of Newark, a few miles from the city. 'J:ho man who bought it bad been disguised by a. red beard. It was then ascertained that; two or three weeks before the death of Mrs Adaias a well-known member of the KmcWboek.u- club, Henry C. Burnett, who had rooms in the clubhouse, Imd been poisoned by a little phial of sedative powder, which he had received by post; ihat tho poison hi that instance had also been cyanide of ■mercury;, and that Barnett had died of disease superinduced by tho poison ' Tho New York newspapers took the whole case yy> in a manner which is described as enterprising. Day after day they were getting up case.? against various people whom they named; and by free statements of alleged facts, and by the pointing of obvious suggestions, they stirred up tho public to believe, at various times, that quite a number of men had been the objects of tho gravest suspicion. Then when the inquest came on two papers which hinted that the police were attempting to hush up the caso employed criminal lawyers to watch tho proceedings. The principal victims of the newspaper detfetivca have been (1) Roland B. Molineux, (2) Felix ,1. Gallagher, (3) Alvin V. Harpster, (4) Henry Cornish.

llolancl B. Molineux is tho son of General Molineux, of Brooklyn, who, as soon us his son's name was mentioned, instructed his lawyers to take immediate proceedings against the .offending journals. But the only effect tho intervention of the lawyers had on tho irrepressible newspaper men was that they — the lawyers—were watched wherever they went, to have their movements recorded and made the subject of deductions for and against the guilty. The Now York correspondent of tho London Daily Mail gave the following particulars. COMPLICITY OF YOUNG MR MOLINEUX. In the first place, Mr Roland Molineux is a chemist in a Newark paint firm; and the Government analyst, basing his statement on the rarity of the drug employed in the poisoning of both Burnett and Cornish—cyanide of mercury—has declared that in all probability a chemist either committed or had some complicity in tho poisoning. In tho second nlace it is recalled that Kolaml Molineux was the rival of H. C; Barnett in the affections of a Miss Blancho Chesebrough, v pretty, young professional vocalist, sometimes a chorus-girl in tho theatres. Barnett and Molineux were hot her only admirers. Tiklc-w^ as long ago ,as June last, she confided to her sisters that she expected to marry a,Mr A. 3. Morgan. This Mr Morgan died in October. "He is said to have been r. victim of poison," calmly announces the World. In November Barnett received a letter from Blancho Choscbrough, in which she said she heard he was ill, and ho was to make haste and get well. Harriett's death occurred aftQr his reception of poison in n mysterious package through the mails, on November 22. Twelve days later Blanche Chcsebrou^h and Koland Molineux were married.

In these circumstances the papers find a niotivo for suggesting guilt against Molineux in respect of Baruett'a case; and tho uses of innuendo are skilfully employed by one journal, which says, "If they had a quarrel over Miss Chesebrough, no fact has become public to prove it."

Now about the poison sent to Cornish. The press sleuths have not allowed themselves to Ik at fault in finding ample motives for Molineux to have done this also. More than a year ago Cornish and Molineux quarrelled, and the latter told the committee that cither ho or Cornish must resign from the lmickerboclcer Athletic Club. Cornish was retained and Molineux left, and joined the Mew York Athletic Club. It is Raid in a delightfully v.'iguo imd airy way, considering the gravity of tho insinuation, that Molineux " has long studied poisons," and that " there was found in the Knickerbocker Athletic Club, where 4c formerly lived, a book on famous murders by means of poisons." The police have declared that their investigations satisfy them that there is no reason to suspect Mr Molineux; but the elaboration of the case against Mr Molineux proceeds apace in the columns of more than one of our dailies. 7H15 BEI'OHTEJtS' UiICOND VICTIM. Mr Felix J. Gallagher, the second victim of tho reporters, is a friend and protege of Mr Molineux. Ho held a position as auditor in tho Knickerbocker Athletic-Club by virtue of Molinciix'a influence, and left the club after Molineux left it, and then followed Molineux to the Now York Athletic Club. Mr A. A. Harpster was employed at the former club as bookkeeper's clerk, and when he saw a photograph of the hand-writing on tho wrapper which covered the silver holder and tho bottle of ncisou sent to Mr Cornish, he is alleged to have declared that the handwriting was that of i'elix Gallagher, and that he was so familiar with it that ho could not be mistaken.

This made the newsnapers very busy for .1 lime. Facsimiles of Gallagher's admitted penmanship were printed in juxtaposition with photographs of the writing on the incriminating wrapper; and-all sorts of similarities were discovered. .

Nor did the papers contenc themselves with excursions into the realms of the hand-writing expert. Two men who rented letter-boxes to the mysterious person who was ordering samples of drug specifics in the names of '" Barnett" and " Cornish," together with other possible witnesses, were marshalled by one reporter at a street corner, when Gallagher was known to ba about to pass. The unsuspecting Gallagher went his way unconscious of the eyes focussed upon him. None of the witnesses was able to identify him, but the reporter recorded honefully that another test would be made.

In the meantime the official hand-writing experts pricked this bubble, by reporting that they had compared Gallagher's undoubted ponmaiishio with the incriminating wrapper, and with the orders for drugs sent in the names of "Cornish" and " Barnett." They found both of tho latter to be, in their opinion, tho work of tlie same hand which directed the poison to Mr Cornish, and they were convinced that that hand was not Gallagher's.

Then the papers fell upon A. V. Harpster, and plainly insinuated that lie attempted to throw suspicion on Gallagher in order to divert it from himself. Facsimiles of Harpster's writing were next paraded before the newspilfer readers, and again damaging similarities were indicated. The World suggested that Harpster only made hia allegation against Gallagher after his (Harpster's)'name had been mentioned in the case, under the following circumstances: —Early last December the poisoner, whoever he :r, wrote from hia letter-box address, 1620, Broadway, in the name of " Cornish," asking whether the firm to whom ho wrote, Steams and Co., of Detroit, would recommend A. A. Harpster as a collector. The fact that Harpster had been employed by Steams and Co. years ago was known to very few persons in New York. The suggestion here was that Harpster, fearing he was about to lose his place with the BiilWmtino Company, wanted to sound Steams and Co. on the likelihood of his getting a reference from them, and that it was Harpster himself who wrote in the name of Cornish. Moreover, it was alleged that on tho night ol November 22 last, while returiii-.g from the Sharkey-Corbett fight, Hamster told a friend ho could have a letter addressed to him under the name of "H. Cornish," at 1620, Broadway. There is strong evidence that the man using thai name and that address wroto the address on the parcel containm" the poison sent to Mr Cornish, at the Knickerbocker Athletic Club, and it is not, therefore, to be wondered at that Harpster was emphatic in his denials. The police, too, declare that the association of Hnrpster's name with the case in this way is mi justifiable; but the World insists that "Harpster can explain the unexplained," and announces that its hand-writing experts " are continuing their examination of Harpster's hand-writing." ANOTIIF.iI SUBJECT. Then poor Mr Cornish, who was himself all but killed by taking some of the stuff which poisoned Mrs Adams, has not escaped a suspicion which has been aired in the papers. It is pointed out that, although he could slcop and'board at tho Knickerbocker Athletic Club free, he preferred to leave some months ago, in order to live at the flat of his aunt, Mrs Adams, where resided also Mrs Florence lingers, " a youn;: woman in the spring of tho thirties, who dresses well and is fond ot pleasure." ■ Her husband is an insurance agent in Buffalo, whose friends knew nothing ot his marriage. On the. evening Mr Cornish took the silver holder and the doctored bromo-seltzer home from his club, lie and Mrs Rogers went to a restaurant to supper. The next morning, Mrs Adams feeling unwell, he gave uer the fiit;il " bromo-seltzi-r "' , and one of the papers at least is not at a!! sure that he did not have the poison sent to himself at the club in the mysterious manner already recorded, in order to' recount for his possession of the dose by which he intended removing Mrs Adams.