Amelia Cooper: “Girl Is Glad She Threw Acid On Him” - 1903

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): New York, May 20 – When John Mulvaney, aged 22 years, a stock clerk, of 276 West 118th st, told his sweetheart, 18-year-old Amelia Cooper of 1755 3d av, yesterday, that he did not want to have anything further to do with her, she threw two ounces of carbolic acid in his face from a tumbler she held in her hand. He was removed to the Harlem hospital, and will lose the sight of his right eye. He also was badly burned about the face and hands. The girl escaped.

Mulvaney said he met the girl last July, and four months ago they became engaged. Mulvaney says he learned that she was going with other young men, and that he told her he would break the engagement if she did not behave herself. She denied the charge and accused him of a similar offence.

Yesterday the girl’s mother sent for Mulvaney. When he got to the house, Mrs. Cooper accused him of paying attentions to a widow, and said that he must stop it and fulfil his promise to marry her daughter.

Mulvaney said he was not going with any one else and started to leave the house, when the girl came in and asked him if he was going to leave her In that fashion.

He said he had proof that she had been going to North beach with a young man and coming home at all hours, and that he did not want to marry such a girl.

When he got to the hallway he says the girl rushed up and shouted: “If you intend to jilt me like this, take that,” and threw the acid in his face. He ran down the stairs yelling with pain.

Policeman Oza took him to a saloon to await the ambulance, and then started on a run to the East river. Somebody told the policeman the girl said she was going to drown herself. He could not find the girl, and returned to Mulvaney and found Surgeon Donovan treating him.

Mrs. Cooper said that last night her daughter received a note last Sunday which said:

“Leave the house at 2 o’clock or you will see stars. If you don’t you will feel sorry. Yours respectfully, J. M.”

She also said that nobody saw her daughter throw the acid on Mulvaney.

[“Girl’s Revenge. – Throws Acid in Face of Her Sweetheart. – John Mulvaney Had Threatened to Break Engagement. – Accused Miss Cooper of Going With Other Men.” The Boston Daily Globe (Ma.), May 20, 1908, p. 7]

***

FULL TEXT (Artiicle 2 of 2): When Amelia Cooper seventeen year old, of No. 175 Third avenue was arraigned before Magistrate Crane in the Harlem Court today on a charge of assault and throwing carbolic acid in the face of her former sweetheart John Mulraney, of No. 270 West One Hundred and Eighteenth street, she was a trifle defiant.

“I’m glad I did it,” she said. “It served him right. He has not treated me right and he first threw the acid at me.”

The acid was thrown in the hallway of Annie house on May 19 and the girl has been missing until today when she was seen coming out of her house by Policeman Wolf. He took her to court and Mulraney who was recently been released from a hospital was in court to appear against her.

Magistrate Crane held the sir in $500 bail for examination on June 9.

[“Girl Is Glad She Threw Acid On Him -  Amelia Cooper Told Magistrate Crane John Mulraney Deserved It, but He Held Her.” The World (New York, N.Y.), Jun. 2, 1903, p. 7]

[Note: the two different spellings “Mulvaney” and “Mulraney” as in the original sources.]

***

SEE: “Acid Queens: Women Who Throw Acid” for a collection of synopses of similar cases.

***
[619-10/3/21]

***