MURDER OF A MILLIONAIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 15

MURDER OF A MILLIONAIRE.

CONFESSION MA VALET.

NEW YORK, April 3.

Mr William Rice, the millionaire, who died in New York last year, is now alleged to have been murdered. His valet, Jones, made a confession, which st-ates that Rice's attorney, Patrick, instigated Jones to hold a towel saturated with chloroform to Rice's face for half an hour. Both have been arrested and charged with murder.

The following particulars of the case were supplied by the New York correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, writing on February 1 —

We are soon to have a full account of the remarkable crimes — murder and forgerj —by which, two men now in gaol here sought to obtain possession of old William Rice's fortune of 8,000,000d01. The surrogate will take testimony next week concerning Rice's will, and the trial of the imprisoned men is near at hand, Hice was an eccentric and stingy old man, who lived here in a meanly furnished apartment, attended by a valet named Jones. He had brothers and sisters and nephews m distant States, but he had given all his relatives good cause to hate him , and at the age of S3 he was living here alone, cooking his own meaJs, and finding pleasure only in sewing. To this diver.sion he gave several hours every day. The profits of a grog stoic in Texas were the begir.■ningg of his fortune, adding to them the gau.s cf a gambler and a smuggler, he had finally risen to dealings in real estate and railroads. He had quarrelled with his wife, an-d driven her away. She died some years ago, after attempting to dispose of 1,500,000d0l of his property by will. As he refused to honour her bequests, litigation over this question harassed his lsst years. One of tire lawyers who canitf up from the -south to get something from the old man, for his wife's heirs wars Albert T. Patrick, an unscrvipulous fellow, who had been engaged m several disreputable transactions.

This adveTturer conspired with Jones, the valet, to rob Rice of both his fortune and his life One Monday morning he appeared at the bank where the old man kept bis funds, and presented a series o? cheques, rurpoiting to have been drawn by Rice to Its order. Thcoa cheques, with others which he presented elsewhere, called for 250,000d01. The bank sought to communicate with Rice by telephone. Ine valet responded, saying that the cheques were all right, and that Rice himself was too deaf to tise the wire. Patrick succeeded in getting cheques for 160,000d0l certified in. his favour, but further inquiry by the bank disclosed the fact that Race was dead. He had died ctur*rg tho preceding night.

Patrick and Jones took charge of the body, and with suspiciotis haste caused it to be embalmed. Fortunately the detectives intercepted it as it was being carried to the cremation furnace, and thus saved it for the chemists. The cheques were submitted to experts, who declared that Rice's signatures oa them were forgeries Then the two conspirators were locked up in the city prison. Patrick had already produced an assignment from Rico of all thr> securities contained m a safe-deposit vault, but had not been permitted to take this property When the vault was opened by officers of the law a few days" later stocks and bonds to the value of 2,000,000d0l weie found in it.

Ihe chemists discovered mercury m the old man's stomach, and this poison h.id not been an ingredient of tho unde.ta'iei'=- in. up. me; fluid, which had, however, cciti ne^l ar r eiji?. When this discovery became known, Jones the valrt, confessed. Patrick, he said, h?.<l induced the old man to take some grey tablets which he had brought to the apartment. R'ce hr.cl been found dead in his bed that Monday morning-, and the night before Jones had seen V-Unck leaning over tha oid uUii., holding a «ponq.° and a bottle in one liar-d, a id wilh the r.thcr pre&>=mg^ouwn over Rice's fscs a towel m the shape of a cone. Following this confession, the T.a!et cut his thioat with a penknife, but he is still living. This young man, it appears, had talcen a course of lessons at a " School of Hypnosis," the manager of which now testified that ho was an apt pupil, and became so proficient that ho must have been able at times to contiol a feeble octogenarian. The lawyers will revel n the fight over Btc's will. One that was made four years ago, undoubtedly genuine, shows that this hard old man — barkeeper, gambler, and smuggler n his eirly diy= — had become a philanthropist for the will gives 5, 000,000 cl ol to create and c upncit m Texas a:i nistitu+e bearing hi* rpire. A second wi'l, Sated a fow weeks l)2fcre h.s death, is clearly the work of Patrick and t ! i 3 valet. In it all the fir=t will's numerous bequests to relatives are increased, but the remainder of the fortune, not less than G,000,000c101, is left to Patrick, who pretends that he had secret instructions fiom E.ce as to the use of it. To secure the punishment of Patrick may not be an easy task, and the wills invite long litigation of the kind that eats up even a large estate.

A Mas>lerton hairdresser received a pleasant surprise on Monday. His faithful dog marched into the shop with a roll of seien £1 notes in its mouth. Where they came from is a mystery.

advice to Mothers' — Are you broken m your rest by a sick child suffering with tho pain of cutting teeth? Go at once to a chemi t and get a bottle of Mra Winslow's Soothing Sykup. It will relieve the poor sufferer immediately. It is perfectly harmless, and pleasant to the ta=te, it' produces natural, quiet sleep by lehevmg the child from pain, and the little chertib awakes "as bright as a button." It soothes the child, it toftens the gums, ',11 ays all pain, relieves wind, regulates the bowels, and is the best known remedy for dysentery md diarrhoea, whether arising from teething or •ther causes. Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup is sold by medicine dealers tvery where at 1b )§d pet bottle.— Acvx