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The Bromo Seltzer Christmas gift
On Christmas Eve 1898 a parcel reached Harry S. Cornish at the Knickerbocker Athletic Club in New York: a Tiffany box, a silver bottle holder and a blue bottle of what looked like bromo seltzer, with no card. Four days later a dose of it killed Katharine J. Adams.
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Play the caseAt a glance
- When
- December 23–28, 1898
- Where
- New York City and Newark, New Jersey
- Poison
- Cyanide of mercury, in a bottle labeled bromo seltzer
- Record
- People v. Molineux, 168 N.Y. 264 (1901)
Timeline
A silver bottle holder is bought at Hartdegan & Co.’s store in Newark, New Jersey.
The package is mailed at the New York general post office in the afternoon.
Cornish receives it at the club. The gift-card envelope inside is empty.
Mrs. Adams takes a dose for a headache and dies. Cornish, who tasted it, falls ill.
From the record
Mr. Harry Cornish, Knickerbocker Athletic Club, Madison Avenue and Forty-fifth St., New York City.Statement of facts · People v. Molineux, 168 N.Y. 264
why that stuff is all rightCornish to Mrs. Adams, December 28 · People v. Molineux
Show who was tried (spoils the game)
A package was mailed at the New York general post office on the afternoon of December 23, 1898, addressed to Harry S. Cornish at the Knickerbocker Athletic Club. It contained a Tiffany box, a silver bottle holder, an empty card envelope, and a blue bottle labeled as bromo seltzer. The bottle’s contents were bromo seltzer mixed with cyanide of mercury. Cornish brought it home; Mrs. Adams took a dose for a headache, collapsed, and died. Cornish drank part of the same glass and became ill.
Molineux was convicted at trial, but in 1901 the New York Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of conviction and ordered a new trial. The judges divided in part over the Barnet evidence, though all agreed in the disposition that the conviction could not stand as entered. At his second trial in 1902, an historical fact outside this appellate record, Roland B. Molineux was acquitted. His legal guilt therefore was not finally settled by the record used here.
Sources
Lines marked “reconstructed” restate the court’s summary in the form of the original document; they are not facsimiles.