To those who received his telegram that day in 1900, the news from Charles Jones, valet to the eccentric millionaire William Marsh Rice, was hardly a shock. After all, old Mr. Rice was 84, and it was therefore not surprising that he should have died of "old age, weak heart and delirium." But when friends and family arrived at his home, they came in for a shock after all.
In the bleak but spacious Manhattan apartment that Rice had occupied with Charley Jones after the two moved up from Houston, the mourners found everything apparently in order. But some were...
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