About this item

Emma Molloy -- temperance revivalist, prohibitionist, and accessory to murder In the summer of 1885, ex-convict George Graham bigamously married Cora Lee, foster daughter of nationally known temperance revivalist Emma Molloy, and the three took up residence together on the Molloy farm near Springfield, Missouri. When the body of Graham's first wife, Sarah, was found at the bottom of an abandoned well on the Molloy farm early the next year, Graham was charged with murder, and Cora and Emma were implicated as accessories. As Larry E. Wood notes, this sensational story made headlines across the country and threatened Mrs. Molloy's career as a prominent evangelist and temperance revivalist. Although Graham confessed, taking sole blame for the murder, he inflamed the scandal surrounding Emma Molloy when he claimed that he'd carried on a passionate affair with her while simultaneously courting her foster daughter.



Read Next Recommendation

Report incorrect product information.