WEBVTT - The Poison Precedent: Part Two 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.800 You are listening to History on Trial, a production of 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:11.440 iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion Advised, Hello, History on Trial listener. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.400 This is the second part of a two part series. 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.360 If you haven't listened to part one yet, you'll want 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:23.799 to begin there. Thank you for listening. Last time on 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:28.160 History on Trial, we met Roland Molineux, the highly polished 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:33.199 middle son of General Edward Malaneu, a Civil War hero. Roland, 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:38.599 a talented gymnast and professional chemist, didn't play well with others. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.400 In late eighteen ninety eight, two of his nemeses, his 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:47.000 romantic rival Henry Barnett, who had once wooed Roland's wife Blanche, 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.199 and his personal rival Harry Cornish, who had battled Roland 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.639 for status at the Knickerbocker Athletic Club, and one received 0:00:55.720 --> 0:01:01.440 mysterious anonymous packages, each containing what looked like ordinary medicine. 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.240 Henry Barnett took a bit of his and died two 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.880 weeks later. Harry Cornish brought his home, where his relative 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.840 Catherine Adams took some and died in minutes. Both Barnett 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.240 and Adams were found to have been killed by cyanide 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.479 of mercury. Detectives quickly locked in on Roland Molineux as 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.720 a suspect, but were only able to build a circumstantial 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.360 case against him. They eventually managed to wrangle a handwriting 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.640 sample from Roland after handwriting experts agreed that Roland's handwriting 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.960 matched the writing on the poison package sent to Harry Cornish. 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.959 The DA's office charged Roland with Catherine Adams's murder at 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.559 the trial, which began in November eighteen ninety nine. Prosecutor 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.280 James Osborne also submitted evidence from the Henry Barnett case, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.200 although Roland was not charged with this crime, using it 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:57.040 to weave a complicated tale of envy and revenge. Osborne's case, 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.400 the longest murder prosecution in New York history to the point, 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:05.400 finally concluded on February fifth, nineteen hundred. We're picking up 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:09.720 the story the next day, Tuesday, February sixth, as Roland's 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.960 lead defense counsel, Bartow Weeks stands to begin his eagerly 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.960 anticipated defense case. Will Roland take the stand? What about 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:23.080 his wife Blanche? Or does the defense have something else 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:28.440 entirely up their sleeve. You're listening to history on trial. 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.280 I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week New York v. 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:39.600 Roland Malineux. A hush fell over the courtroom as Bartow 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.000 Weeks rose to speak. The thirty nine year old Weeks 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.680 had a commanding physical presence. He was nearly as well 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.360 known for his involvement with athletics as he was for 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:54.160 his legal acumen. But today he looked pale and drawn. 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.040 He was suffering from a mild case of laryngitis, true, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.639 and the month's long trial had no doubt worn on him. 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.720 But there was something else too, an undercurrent of uneasiness, 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.960 even fear. And for good reason, it would turn out, 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.840 Bartow Weeks was about to shock all of New York 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.280 by announcing a decision that he and his legal team 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:23.600 had agonized over. May it please the court, Weeks began, 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.120 after a careful consideration of the case, We believe that 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.560 the prosecution has utterly failed to make a case against 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.800 this defendant, and that he has not been proved guilty, 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.720 and the jury should not find him so. Believing this 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.120 as we do, we rest upon the case made by 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:47.680 the prosecution. The lead prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney James Osborne, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:53.400 looked astounded. The crowd briefly shocked into silence, began to 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:59.880 murmur only Roland Molineux, smiling enigmatically at the jury, seemed 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:04.440 to the decision to not present a defense, which both 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.480 Roland and his father had agreed to, was meant to 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.840 deliver a symbolic message that the state had presented such 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.840 a weak case that the defense had no need to 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.640 rebut it with witnesses of their own. In his closing argument, 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.400 Weeks detailed what he called quote the missing links in 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.720 the evidence. Take the silver bottleholder, which had been sent 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.320 to Harry Cornish along with the poisoned Bromo Seltzer. The 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.560 police hadn't proved that Roland bought the silver bottleholder. They 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.239 had only proved that a shop that Roland had once 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.920 been seen near had once sold a silver bottleholder. Roland 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.960 worked down the street from this shop. Was it really 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.640 so damning that he had been seen near it? Weeks 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:54.120 next turned to the handwriting analysis. The prosecution's experts claimed 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.120 that Roland's handwriting matched the writing on the poison package. 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.120 But could these experts really be so sure of their conclusions? 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:06.480 Weeks brought up the Dreyfus affair, an infamous contemporary miscarriage 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:11.279 of Justice in France. In that case, Weeks told jurors, quote, 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.760 a man spent five years in jail because the handwriting 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:21.160 experts were mistaken. Next, he questioned the identifications made by 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:25.000 Joseph Coche and Nicholas Heckman, owners of the private letter 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.160 boxes that Roland had allegedly rented in Henry Barnett and 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:32.360 Harry Cornish's names. Weeks reminded jurors that both men had 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.440 initially refused to identify Roland, and that Heckman had even 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.680 tried to get payment for his statement. About the testimony 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.240 presented by Blanche's former maids who discussed the love triangle 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:49.880 between Blanche Roland and Henry Barnett, Weeks was contemptuous. This 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.440 was just an underhanded attempt by the prosecution to insult 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:59.200 the defendant's wife. James Osborne, ever confrontational, loudly asked Weeks 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.800 why he had denied the maid's claims. Weeks wheeled on 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.080 Osborne with what The New York Times called quote the 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:11.040 ferocity of a tiger. Why did we not deny it, 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.080 Weeks asked, incredulously, because we were not called upon to 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.919 deny it. It was not necessary to deny it called 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:23.159 upon to deny such infamous lies, How dare you to 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.000 produce it when you could not connect it with this case? 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.480 Osborne did not respond. Besides being a moment of high drama, 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.320 this exchange reminded jurors that Roland was not on trial 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:39.279 for Henry Barnett's murder, and the prosecution hadn't produced a 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:43.279 compelling motive for Roland to murder Harry Cornish. Roland and 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:48.240 Cornish had squabbled. Weeks acknowledged, but he asked, quote, would 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:52.640 the defendant imperil his life, ruin his family, drag them 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.240 to dishonor and disgrace for such a trifling motive? As 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:00.680 that it mattered that the evidence was rock solid, Weeks 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.720 told jurors because it was upon that evidence that they 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.520 would be sentencing a man to death, the mandatory punishment 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.720 for first degree murder in New York at the time. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.680 Weeks did not spare them the graphic details of what 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.920 Roland would endure if executed, describing the effect of the 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:22.880 electric chair on the human body. In the audience, Blanche 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:27.679 Molineux wept loudly by the end of his closing argument, 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.600 which spanned more than eight hours over two days. Weeks 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:36.360 was visibly exhausted. His voice was hoarse and ragged, but 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.920 this only made his plea more poignant, as he asked 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:45.360 the jurors to quote Air on humanity's side. The wrong 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:50.320 you do, he said, can never be restored. Gentlemen, in 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.840 a case of doubt, when the scales are oscillating, let 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.480 them turn in favor of the prisoner. It is a 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.239 terrible thing to destroy the temple of an immortal soul. 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:08.600 On Thursday, February eighth, James Osborne delivered the prosecution's closing arguments. 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.920 Osborne was a born showman, and he brought all of 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.880 his passion to this final performance. Before getting to the 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:21.240 facts of the case, Osborne attacked the defense's strategy. Looking 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.920 right at Bartow Weeks, Osborne shouted, quote, if you knew 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.800 of a single witness who could have aided the theory 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.080 of the defendant's innocence and did not call him, you 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.840 have violated your oath as a counselor. Your action is 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:41.360 a plea of guilty. Week subjected to this attack, but 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.240 Judge John Goff allowed it. Osborne would return to this 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:50.640 point over and over, calling the defense's choice unnatural. Quote 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.360 it is one of the prime evil principles of human 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:55.960 nature to say, when you are accused of a crime, 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.200 I am not guilty. See here are my witnesses. But 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:06.520 Osborne wasn't surprised to see Roland Molineux behaving abnormally. Throughout 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.080 both the press coverage and the prosecution of the case, 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:14.640 Roland's strangeness had been a theme. People had speculated on 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:20.439 his behavior, his associates, and his sexuality. Poisoning was seen 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.280 to be a woman's crime. What kind of man would 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.079 use poison as opposed to say, his fists to kill? 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.520 And then there were the numerous impotence cures that Roland 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.679 had allegedly ordered to the private letterboxes. The prosecution was 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.280 quick to play up these themes, insinuating that a lack 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.760 of virility made Roland less of a man and thus 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.840 more likely to kill with a womanly method. This murder, 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:53.960 Osborne said, was quote an outre strange, abnormal crime. We 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:59.079 must therefore look for a man who is outre strange abnormal. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.920 These attempts at criminal profiling were based on contemporary gender 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:08.360 norms and stereotypes, and though they are obviously offensive, they 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.199 were likely compelling to jurors. They also weren't the only 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.640 character based arguments Osborne made. He brought up Roland's behavior 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.000 during the trial, describing how, quote, when reference was made 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.960 to the death of Missus Adams and the death agonies 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:29.440 of Barnet, you have seen the defendant laughing, coolly laughing. 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.080 It is this attitude, gentlemen, which shows that the defendant 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:40.120 has an entire absence of soul. Osborne's closing was an 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:44.200 entirely personal attacks though he reviewed all of the evidence, 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.800 pointing out that even if it was circumstantial, every single 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.280 piece of it pointed back to Roland Molineux. Like a 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:56.040 bloated spider in his web, Osborne said, the poisoner spun 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.760 out his filaments to the outer world. We must trace 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.120 for the end of the filaments back to the center. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.040 Here's a line running out to Barnett. We trace it back, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.000 and at the other end is the mind of Molineux. 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.720 A line running out to Cornish. Tracing it back to 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:16.960 the web center, we find the mind of Molineux. A 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.400 line stretching to the blue crested paper, a line stretching 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.360 to Heckman's letter box, and at the center of the 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:28.040 web to which all these lines extend, we find spinning 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:34.240 its deadly plots the mind of Molineux. Osborne agreed with 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.600 Weeks that the stakes were high, but not for Roland. 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.440 The stakes were high for the community, who would not 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.200 be safe should Roland be set free. Ending his nearly 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:49.600 six hour summation, his voice raised to full volume, Osborne thundered, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.800 I say that the evidence from every direction points to 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.920 that conclusion, and I leave this case in your hands, 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:00.920 knowing that you will find your verdict in the sight 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:05.640 of God, in the sight of man, without fear and 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:10.280 without favor. The next day, Judge goth summarized the evidence 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.160 and charged the jury at three twenty three p m. 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:18.120 The jurors were dismissed to deliberate. Outside the courtroom, bookmakers 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.160 were laying odds on the verdict. The odds favored acquittal. 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.360 In his cell in the tombs, Roland Molineux was not 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.320 so confident. He began chronicling his feelings in a journal 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:34.360 while he waited. I am very tired, he wrote. For 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.360 full three months. I have been under a physical strain 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.280 and a mental tension. I have been falsely accused. I 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.080 am innocent. An hour later, with no news from the jury. 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.800 He reflected, I am chemist enough to love an experiment. 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:55.239 The jury is the unknown substance, the testimony, the reagent. 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:01.600 My case is in solution. What will precipitate? It would 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.120 take more than seven hours for the jury to reach 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.800 a verdict. At ten forty eight pm, the jurors filed 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.360 back into the courtroom. Roland Molineu came in next. His 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.160 face was dead white, a reporter recorded, and his dark 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.280 eyes shone like live coals. The court clerk asked the 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.679 jury foreman to announce their findings on the charge of 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.680 murder for the death of Catherine J. Adams. The defendant, 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:34.920 Roland Molineux was found guilty. There is no good place 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.600 to contemplate your impending execution, but Sing Singh's death House 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:44.880 was especially grim. Built in eighteen ninety to hold condemned prisoners, 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:49.079 the death house contained both cells and the execution chamber itself. 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.880 Each prisoner was kept in a windowless, stone walled cell. 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.280 From behind these walls, they could not see one another, 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.840 but they were constantly surveilled by others. The lights stayed 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:05.160 on all night, allowing the wardens, who walked incessantly up 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.960 and down the corridor to watch the inmates. The men 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.680 were not allowed outside and they could only bathe once 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.320 a week. The worst part of the death House was 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:21.600 the sounds. Because the execution chamber neighbored the cells, inmates 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:25.760 could hear every step of the grisly process, the slow 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:30.240 walk to the chamber, the administration of last rites, the 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:34.840 sickening thrum of the electric chair, and the appalling sounds 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:40.040 of the autopsy conducted after Roland. Molneux, who entered the 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.880 death House on February sixteenth, nineteen hundred, called execution days 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.120 quote the greatest horror we are called upon to bear. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.920 Roland had done his best to avoid the death House. 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.600 At his sentencing, he had delivered a powerful, moving statement 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.320 to Judge Goff, proclaiming his own inn an sc since 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.360 many wondered, given how well Roland did, why Barto Weeks 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.280 had not put him on the stand during his trial. Now, 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:14.800 his words, however compelling, meant nothing. New York mandated the 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:19.080 death penalty for first degree murder. Judge Goff sentenced Roland 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.240 to be put to death during the week of March 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.800 twenty sixth, nineteen hundred. He was transported to sing Sing 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:31.920 only hours later. Roland's projection of calm optimism, which he 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.960 had maintained for months now, did not falter. On the 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.160 journey to sing Sing, he joked with passengers on the 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.520 train to Austening, many of whom had bought tickets just 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.880 to see him, and admired the scenery of the Hudson Valley. 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.520 But the oppressive atmosphere of the Death House quickly took 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.400 a toll on Roland. When Blanche visited him less than 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.640 a week after his arrival, she found Roland a shell 0:15:55.720 --> 0:16:00.520 of his former self. His eyes, she later wrote, they 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:05.080 were dead and expressionless, set in a stone mask that 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:09.680 was immovable. The soul of him was dead. It had 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.880 gone out of him. During his trial, a journalist had 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.960 called Roland a man in a mask, but that had 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.600 been a mask he had chosen to wear. This mask 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:24.760 did not seem voluntary. He seemed finally to have accepted 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.960 the reality of his situation and had become, Blanche observed, 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:34.200 obsessed with freeing himself. Back in New York City, Roland's 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.680 lawyers were working hard on his behalf. In early March, 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.880 bartow Weeks and George Gordon Battle filed a notice of 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.480 appeal Roland's execution was put on hold as the appeal 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.280 was prepared. Weeks in Battle decided to engage another lawyer 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:53.080 to argue the case, landing on John G. Milbourne. Milburn 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.400 was an accomplished attorney and a leading citizen of Buffalo, 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.480 where the New York Court of Appeals was based. There 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.680 were a number of delays in the process, but Roland's 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:06.240 appeal was finally scheduled for June seventeenth, nineteen oh one. 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:09.720 David Hill, a former governor of New York and ex 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.400 US Senator, had been retained by the Manhattan District Attorney 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.960 to represent the States case at the appeal. On Monday, 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.960 June seventeenth, the seven judges of the New York Court 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.760 of Appeals seated themselves to hear arguments in Roland's case. 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:29.320 John Milburn, for the defense, spoke first. The main thrust 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.280 of his argument quickly became clear. Milburn believed that it 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.159 had been an error on Judge Goff's part to admit 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.360 any evidence about the Henry Barnett case. When your honors 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.080 read the court record, Milburn said, it will require an 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.280 effort of your mind to convince yourselves that you are 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.560 reading a record of an attempt to poison Harry Cornish, 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.520 and not a record of the alleged murder of Henry C. Barnett. 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.480 Seven tenths of the evidence in this record relates to 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:03.040 the death of Barnett. The Barnet case was irrelevant. Milburn argued, 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.520 if Barnett were murdered and if Missus Adams were murdered, 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.960 they were two separate and distinct crimes. He said, and 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.639 thus quote the admission of evidence of one crime on 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:19.359 an indictment charging the other was improper and incompetent, and 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:24.080 its admission was clearly an error. Towards the end of 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.639 his argument, which spanned five hours over the course of 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:32.359 two days, Milburn made a grave charge. The admission of 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.480 the Barnet evidence, he claimed, had not been a simple 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.639 mistake on Judge Goff's part. It had been part of 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:43.280 a larger pattern of bias against the defendant. The judge 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.240 in this case, Milburn stated, took the side of the 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:50.960 prosecution from the very beginning to the very ending. Milburn 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.800 acknowledged that accusing a judge of impartiality was a serious matter, 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.760 but he believed that the record backed his accusation up. 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.200 He claimed that quote every piece of testimony which seemed 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.280 to be damaging to the defendant was freely and welcomingly admitted, 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.280 while everything which seemed to be in the prisoner's favor 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:14.480 was hampered and repressed, battered, and cross examined by the court. 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.280 He pointed out the insults Judge Gough had aimed at 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.679 defense attorney Bartow Weeks, including when Gough admonished Weeks for 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:28.240 his quote fatal and ungovernable habit of talking, an insult 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:32.240 I probably would never recover from. Milburn brought up a 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.760 variety of other points. He criticized the admission of testimony 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.520 relating to Blanche, Judge Goth's charge to the jury, which 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.760 he claimed was also biased, the lack of proven motive, 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:47.400 and the reliability of handwriting analysis. But to observers, according 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.240 to the Buffalo Inquirer, it was clear that Quote Milburn 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.320 rests his case upon the alleged error of Judge Goth 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.760 in admitting the evidence relating to Barnett's death. Once Milburne 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.240 finished on the afternoon June eighteenth, David Hill presented the 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:06.800 state's argument. Hill argued that the Barnet evidence was admissible. 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.600 The Barnet case was introduced, he said, in order to 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.720 quote make the chain of evidence complete and prove the 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.200 theory of the prosecution in the Adams case. Hill rebutted 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.600 Milbourne's argument that the two cases had nothing in common, saying, quote, 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.600 there is the same hiring of private letter boxes in 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.879 the names of the intended victims, the same writing for 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.800 samples of medicine in the names of the victims, the 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:36.679 same plan of assassination, the same drug cyanide of mercury used. 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.359 Though Hill acknowledged that quote in the prosecution of one crime, 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.000 you cannot prove another, he said that this case was 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:47.560 an exception to the rule. It was an abnormal crime 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:52.199 by an abnormal man, Hill argued, echoing Osborne's closing, and 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:56.000 as a consequence, it produced an abnormal condition on the trial. 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.960 Hill also cited another poisoning case in which the court 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.000 had ruled that it defend its history of attempted poisonings 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:06.600 could be discussed in his trial for poisoning his wife. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.199 After briefly addressing Milbourne's other claims, Hill said that the 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.680 handwriting analysis had been properly conducted, that the judge's charge 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.879 was fair, and that the prosecution had provided a compelling motive. 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:21.480 Hill finished by saying, quote, no substantial error was made 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:25.960 upon this trial. No real, genuine evidence was excluded. Nothing 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:30.200 that was immaterial or irrelevant, incompetent, or improper of any 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:35.440 consequence was admitted. After a series of questions from the judges, 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:39.359 the appeal concluded on the afternoon of June nineteenth. Four 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.680 months later, on October fifteenth, the Court of Appeals published 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:46.120 its ruling on the Malinu case. Though the opinion, which 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.600 was not unanimous, addressed several points, including the admissibility of 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:53.440 handwriting analysis, the majority of the opinion focused on whether 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:58.080 the Barnett evidence was inadmissible. Judge William E. Werner began 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:02.840 by reviewing why discussion of or bad acts, whether charged, uncharged, 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.320 or resulting in a conviction, is generally not allowed at trial. 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.639 This rule, Werner wrote, is the product of that same 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:16.200 humane and enlightened public spirit, which, speaking through our common law, 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.200 has decreed that every person charged with the commission of 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:24.119 a crime shall be protected by the presumption of innocence 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:28.440 until he has been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.080 Werner cited a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:37.600 Schaffner v. Commonwealth. Logically, the commission of an independent offense 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.679 is not proof in itself of the commission of another crime. 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.159 Yet it cannot be said to be without influence on 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.439 the mind. For certainly, if one be shown to be 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:50.919 guilty of another crime equally heinous, it will prompt a 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:53.720 more ready belief that he might have committed the one 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:57.720 with which he is charged. It therefore predisposes the mind 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:01.359 of the juror to believe the prisoner guilty. Because of 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:04.199 the enormous weight this kind of evidence could carry, Werner 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:08.040 explained there were only rare instances in which it was admissible. 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:12.880 Werner described these instances as falling into five categories. If 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:18.960 evidence of prior bad acts established motive or intent, or 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:22.959 the absence of mistake or accident, or a common scheme 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:26.119 or plan, or the identity of the person charged with 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.160 the commission of the crime on trial, then this evidence 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:33.159 might be admissible, as long as it was more probative 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.480 than prejudicial. Werner then examined the Malnu case to see 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:41.639 if any of these exceptions applied. Motive was irrelevant, Werner 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.080 said because the alleged motives for each killing were distinct 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:49.159 and unrelated intent. Whether or not the person intended to 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:53.200 commit a criminal act was also irrelevant. Whoever had killed 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:56.639 Catherine Adams had clearly intended to kill someone by sending 0:23:56.680 --> 0:24:00.720 them poison disguised as medicine. No additional evidence was needed 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:04.000 to prove this. The same reasoning applied to the exception 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:08.160 for mistakes or accidents. This crime was clearly not an accident. 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:11.080 The two crimes could also not be said to be 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:15.040 part of a quote single design, as no evidence showed 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:17.919 that they were quote united for the accomplishment of a 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:22.440 common purpose. As to the final exception, identity, Werner said 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:24.760 that the Barnet evidence would only be allowed for this 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:28.800 purpose if quote it had been shown conclusively that the 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:32.240 defendant had killed Barnet and that no other person could 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:35.520 have killed Missus Adams, but no such evidence was given. 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:39.639 The evidence tended to show that the defendant had the knowledge, skill, 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:43.080 and material to produce the poison which was sent to Cornish, 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:45.840 but he was not shown to be the only person 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:50.359 possessed of this knowledge, skill and material. Therefore, the naked 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:55.560 similarity of these crimes proves nothing. David Hill had claimed 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:58.480 that Roland's case was an exception to the general rule, 0:24:58.880 --> 0:25:03.199 an abnormal propit sus justified by an abnormal crime. The 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:07.119 appeals court did not agree. According to their ruling, the 0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:12.159 Barnet evidence was inadmissible. Thus they reversed Roland's conviction and 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:17.040 ordered a new trial. Early the next morning, Roland received 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:19.639 news of the decision in his cell in the death House. 0:25:20.280 --> 0:25:23.880 He seemed stunned, then laughed and said it seems too 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:28.320 good to be true. The following day, October seventeenth, Roland 0:25:28.359 --> 0:25:30.679 was transferred out of Sing Sing and back to the 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:33.800 Tombs in Manhattan, where he would occupy the same cell 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:37.040 he had during his first trial. The city jail was 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:40.919 no luxury hotel, but anything was better than the death House. 0:25:41.920 --> 0:25:44.679 Roland would just have to hope that his second trial 0:25:45.160 --> 0:25:51.760 wouldn't send him right back in the Malinus Fort Green Brownstone. 0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:55.960 Blanche Molnu couldn't help but feel that her sentence had 0:25:56.000 --> 0:25:59.720 just been extended. Blanche would later write in her memoirs 0:25:59.760 --> 0:26:02.960 that even from the earliest days of the investigation, she 0:26:03.040 --> 0:26:06.520 had begun to draw away from Roland. By the middle 0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:10.280 of his first trial, she was completely repulsed by him. 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:14.080 She felt misled. She had agreed to marry Roland because 0:26:14.080 --> 0:26:19.040 he'd offered a comfortable life full of the arts and travel. Instead, 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:24.399 she'd gotten relentless public scrutiny. She had attended Roland's first trial, 0:26:24.800 --> 0:26:27.800 putting on the act of devoted wife, only out of 0:26:27.840 --> 0:26:32.280 affection for General Molineux, who she described as a quote 0:26:32.680 --> 0:26:38.400 fine and splendid and brave man. By early nineteen oh two, however, 0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:42.800 Blanche's patience had worn thin. She'd been cloistered in the 0:26:42.840 --> 0:26:46.600 Fort Greenhouse with limited contact with the outside world for 0:26:46.720 --> 0:26:52.000 three years. Her cabin fever was intense. She missed seeing 0:26:52.080 --> 0:26:55.040 friends and going to concerts and singing in her choir. 0:26:56.080 --> 0:26:58.920 In August, she moved out of the Malinus House into 0:26:58.960 --> 0:27:03.720 a residential suite in a Manhattan hotel. General Molineu was 0:27:03.760 --> 0:27:07.159 covering her expenses and giving her an allowance on the 0:27:07.200 --> 0:27:11.480 condition that she attended Roland's upcoming trial, But when the 0:27:11.480 --> 0:27:16.160 trial began on Monday, October thirteenth, nineteen oh two, Blanche 0:27:16.280 --> 0:27:19.600