The New York City coroner confirmed on October 27, 1900 what many had suspected, that multi-millionaire William Marsh Rice had been murdered for his money.

Valet Charlie Jones promptly confessed to poisoning the Texas tycoon and implicated Rice’s attorney Albert Patrick, who had forged a will to profit from the premature passing of his client.  Jones went free in a plea bargain and stayed out of sight until his 1954 suicide in Baytown.  One New York governor commuted Patrick’s death sentence and another granted him a full pardon.