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BOOK REVIEW My Grandfather’s Son This is the autobiography of Justice Clarence Thomas from his birth in Pinpoint, Georgia, through his swearing in at the United States Supreme Court. It is a moving book, a memoir dedicated to his maternal grandfather Myers Anderson. Mr. Anderson (“Daddy”) and wife raised the future justice and his brother in Savannah. Few of us could have accomplished so much in face of the poverty and discrimination he endured. His life is a testament to hard work and determination. One of the things I admire about the book is the author’s candor about his shortcomings. Included among those was his fondness for alcohol. That ended on a hungover morning when he opened the refrigerator for food and found only two cans of Busch beer. “I drew myself a hot bath and downed them slowly as I sat in it. I haven’t had a drink since.” He gives his side of the Anita Hill controversy. It is a welcome counterpoint to the vituperation heaped upon the nominee in those days. I recommend the audio version; Justice Thomas is the reader. The hardbound book version is interesting because of 16 pages of photographs. Either way, it’s a good read. • • • The Devil’s Gentleman You and I know about the evidence principle that other crimes are inadmissible in an accused’s trial for the indicted crime. It is ensconced in Rule 404(b). A famous case applying that principle is People v. Molineux, 61 N.E. 286 (N.Y. 1901). You may have read excerpts in a casebook during your law school days. Now we have an excellent book recounting Roland Molineux’s 1898 murders of Henry Barnet and of Harry Cornish’s landlady, Katherine Adams. Cyanide of mercury was the fatal agent. Molineux was tried and convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Katherine Adams. The New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in that state) reversed because evidence of the Barnet murder was introduced at trial. On remand Molineux was acquitted. Was he guilty or innocent? The author divulges his opinion in a fine print endnote at page 450: “[T]he jury at Roland’s first trial rendered the correct verdict.” What happened to Roland Molineux after the trial? He was executed by “syphilitic infection” on Nov. 2, 1917. He was 51 years of age. Tennessee Bar Journal
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