On this day, Dec. 28, in 1898, Katherine Adams died of poisoning, and the snobbish New York aristocrat Roland Molineux was accused in what became a national scandal.
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Molineux, the wayward son of a Civil War general, was accused of sending a poisoned package of seltzer to Adams’ uncle, Harry Cornish, the athletic director of Manhattan’s elite Knickerbocker Athletic Club. Molineux had recently been booted from the club.
Molineaux’s rival for the beautiful singer Blanche Cheeseborough was also killed after taking medicine sent to him through the mail.
Two trials occurred at the height of yellow journalism. Molineux was convicted in Adams’ death and sentenced to the electric chair, but an appeals court overturned the decision.
Molineux’s life never returned to normal. He was committed to an insane asylum, where he died in 1917.
— Scott McCabe
