AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11947, 22 January 1901, Page 2

AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE.

Robbery and murder. It was by the merest slip that the plot to . do away with the aged millionaire William Marsh Rice and to obtain his fortune failed. By attempting to cash cheques for £250,000 S * lS ?^ C \? n w ? s arouse( l> atl d was that Air Rice, whose name was attached to the cheque, was dead. But for the inquiries made by Swoneon and Co., upon ;. whom two of the alleged forged chequcs werja , wn ; « l °.Dody would have been cremated* i an( * evidence of the greater crime destroyed. I Mr Rico lived in a fashionable apartment house at 500 Madison avenue, with Charles i. Jones as his only attendant. He was 83 years old, but apparently had a : considerable lease of life beforo him when liq m t °m i^"se . Patrick, a. lawyer, formerly of Texas,, but who had been practising in New : York for several years. Mr. Patrick represented certain contestants to the will of Mrg" ■ Rice, the bulk of whose property went to her husband, but lie managed to gain the conj fidence of Mr Rice and became entrusted with i some of the millionaire's affairs. He induced Mr Rice to sign a power of attorney giving l him practical control of all the property, and a. will, bequeathing most of the estate to Patrick; ■is Baid to be in existence, though: it has never been offered for probate. Everything was ready by tlio middle of September for the old man to die, but .he showed remarkable vigour. It was then that he became suddenly ill, and Dr Walter Curry, of 23 East Sixty-first street, an aged practitioner, who had for years been a friend of Patrick, wai, called in. Dr Curry was not inclined to be suspicious,' and great care was taken to conceal the real state of affaire. Dr Curry diagnosed the case as one of ordinary stomach trouble, and prescribed some simple remedy. He called early on the afternoon of Sunday, Septemher 23, and found Mr Rico in good spirits and seemingly stronger than on the previous day. He was much' . worse the following day, however, and though tha messenger brought word from Jones that Mr Rice was sinking rapidly, Dr Curry found '' thftt the old man had been dead for somo. time, Albert T. Patrick took charge of affairs, called in an. undertaker! and had the body embMmod. Dr Curry gave a certificate that death was due to natural causes, and pre- . parations were being made to have the body cremated when the coroner stepped in ana sent the body to the morgue for examination. Owing to the presence of arsenio.in the embalming fluid the autopsy failed to disclose anything conclusive. Portions of th° stomach were given to .Professor Witthaus for analysis, Suspicions of foul play.were aroused by an irregularity in cne of the cheques presented for payment on Monday, the day following Mr Rice's death. An attempt to reach Mr Rice by telephone was made. Jones announced over the telephone that the cheque wis all right. The bank people insisted uppn talking with Mr Rice, and were informed, after some delay, that Mr Rice was dead. • Patrick and Jones were arrested on October 4-, charged with forgery in the second degree, and looked up in the Tombs. They stoutly maintained their innocence, even after Professor Witthaus reported finding mercury in the kidneys and intestines,. indicating that . Mr Rice had died from mercurial poisoning., In the investigations that have been made it was learned that a will drawn by Mr Rice in 1896 left the residue of the estate, amounting to 5,000,000 dollars, to tho William M. Rice Institute, of Houston, Texas, and that a will recently drawn leaves these millions to Patrick. Jones has made a confession, saying that Patrick killed Rice.