TRIED TWICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

TRIED TWICE.

A NOTED SOLDIER'S SON. POISONING CASE.

Robert R. Molineux,; son of General Edward L. Molineux, one of the distinguished soldiers of the United States, was tried twice for the alleged poisoning of Mrs. Katherine Adams, whose death occurred December 28, 1898. At the conclusion of the second trial he was acquitted. The affair created unusual interest,* not only because of the prominence of the accused, but also on account of the element of doubt which persisted to the end. Molineux was a member of tne fashionable Knickerbocker Athletic Club. In some way he got into an altercation with Barry Cornish, the athletic instructor of the organisation. There was bad blood between the two men for some time, a 1 act that was well known to most of those connected with the club. One day Cornish received a bottle of what was supposed to be headache medicine. It seemed to have come by mail. At aU events, Cornish took it to the home of Mrs. Adams, where he boarded. Soon afterwards, being troubled with a severe headache, Mrs. Adams took one ot the tablets. Not many minutes later she was seized with convulsions and died in great agony. One of her relatives who took a tablet was also taken critically ill, but prompt medical treatment saved her life. An examination of the contents of the bottle proved that it was the deadliest kind of poison. ~A n. investigation which followedjtraced the deadly bottle—or seemed to trace it— to Molineux. The authorities claimed that it was an act of revenge on his part for the purpose of "getting even" with Cornish. The young man denied the charge, but he was arrested and the two trials which followed were among the most famous in the country.. Another Charge. Molineux was also charged with causing the death by poison of H. C. Barnet, a former friend. The means employed were almost similar to those employed against Cornish. Barnett, it seems, had been attentive to Mrs. Molineux prior to her marriage. There was no reason to believe that his attentions were not entirely proper, but the green-eyed monster took possession of the husband, and lie is reported to have said that he 'would make Barnet suffer.

In the mass of evidence were a number of letters Said to have been written by the accused man. The great effort of the prosecution was to prove that Molineux had actually written these epistles. In order to do this, handwriting experts from all parts of the United States were summoned as expert witnesses. As is usual in such cases, there was a difference of opinion between the experts. In addition to this, a large number of detectives was employed to trace the chief incidents of Molineux's life from the age of 15 until the time of the trial. As may be surmised, the trial was long, tedious and expensive. . One authority says that the number of words of evidence was so great that it equalled those in all of the printed volumes of the works of William Makepeace Thackeray. Excitement ran high curing the proceedings, the public being about equally divided as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant. He bore himself with much fortitude during the trial and constantly reiterated that he was guiltless of tne awful charges that were made against him. In any event it was not found possible to convict him, and he was acquitted by a jury of his fellow countrymen. But the innocent victim of the poison was unavenged, and to this day it is not known who was responsible for the death of Katherine Adams.