The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1860-03-30
THE DAY BOOK.
The Murders i'll New York Bay,

The Murders i'll new YORK Bay.
There seems to be no doubt that the sloop
Spray has been the scene of murders as ter
&. A. johnson. The occurrence of two such
acts of piracy and murder almost at the
same moment, marked alike by so much
mystery and bloodshed, and each brought
to light in so remarkable manner, has
hardly parallel in the history OF crime
We condense from the New York papers
of Wednesday the following additional de-
tails:
THE MYSTERY OF THE sLoeP SPRAY.
All day Yesterday the excitement concern
ing the sloop Spray, of Guildford, Conn.,,
and the mysterious fate of the captain and
his brother, continued to increase. The YES
sci, which had been hauled into shoal water
inside the Battery wall, was visited by
crowds of persons, who were curious to learn
everything which would tend to throw light
upon the affair.
While the tide was falling, the police ex-
amined the cabin of the sloop, which was
still under water. With boat hook they
fished out from the berths various articles,
such as clothing, bedding, coils of rigging,
&c. Among them was white cotton shirt,
which was much stained with something
red, but there was difference of opinion as
to whether it was blood or iron-rust. A gray
wooden undershirt was found with thick red
stains near the neck, which when it was
pressed, came off to the hand, and might
have been blood. Soon bed tick came up.
1t had been filled with feathers, but they had
been washed out. On this tick, near one
end, were conspicuous stains as of blood, a
loot or more in circumference. Shortly af-
forwards, a white cotton under bed-tick was
recovered, which had large bloody spots in
various places. The discovery of these arti
cles removed all doubts that murder had
been committed, land it seemed apparent that
the bloody deed had been stealthily perpe-
trated while the victims were in their berths.
A laberious search was made in every part
of the vessel which could be reached for the
dead bodies, which it was supposed might be
below, but no traces of them were found
The bloody bed-clothing was taken to the
office OF the Harbor Police, to be dried. The
public curiosity having thus been satisfied,
and the seeming evidences OF crime brought
to light, the eager crowd acknowledgements
ed, and left the Harbor Police in possession
of the vessel.
ARREST OF THs CHINAMAN.
On landing at Jersey City, on Friday NOR
ming, "Jackalow" appears to have concealed
himself in some out-of-the-way place to es-
cape observation and arrest. On Saturday
he was seen lounaing about the railroad sta
ton in company with two sailors, with whom
he afterwards took passage on the Morris
town train. Having obtained this clue to
his whereabouts, Harbor Policemen Hays
and Carpenter started in pursuit OF him. At
Jersey City they learned that a person bear
ing close resemblance to the Chinainan had
been seen by the brakeman and engineer of
the Philadelphia train, which arrived about
noon. lie was walking on the road near the
Hackensack Bridge towards Jersey City
While the workmen engaged in repairing
the bridge were at dinner, man was OBJ
served coming on the bridge, but Jacobus,
who was in charge, drove him of, as it was
contrary to the rules to allow any foot pas
sengers to pass over it. The circumstance
was reported to the workmen, and they
were told that he was Chinaman, and
might be the murderer they had read OF in
the morning.
While they were standing at the bridge
toll gate Jackalow came up to cross the
bridge. As he was in the act OF paying the
toll, one of the men asked him il he was not
the man that had attempted to cross the
railroad bridge. He replied that he was
They then asked him what 'countryman he
was, land he replied that he was an lndiaman.
Becoming satisfied from his conversation and
dress that he was the man they were looking
for, they took him into custody. One of the
men, while behind him, called out "Jacka-
low," when the prisoner whirled around sud
denly, but Immediately afterwards denied
that that was his name. The men then stop
ped a train of cars and brought their prison
er to Jersey City, where they arrived at
about O'Clock. At the depot Assistant Su-
Woodruff nod ba
er and found tied around his waist small
sack and stocking, in which there was
1896 so, of which $237 was in gold CON-
Jackalow was then taken to the city prison,
followed by great crowd and locked up.
EXAMINATION OF THE PRISONER.
Shortly after five o'clock, the prisoner was
taken before Recorder Bedford, and Mr. San
ford entered complaint, charging Jacka-
low with the murder of Captain Leete, and
his brother on the high seas, while on board
the sloop Spray.
The Recorder then asked the accused the
following questions:
Q. What is your name?
A. Sam Patch. daughter.
Q. Where do you belong?
A. l belong to sloop Spray, of Guillord.
Two weeks ago, Captain Leete's brother and
stru a and capsized us, both overheard, me
down below.
Recorder-That will do; that's enough
Sam Patch-Tell you more bime.by, when
we go up there.
The prisoner was then committed to the
cells, to await the action of the United States
authorities.
THE OYSTER SLooP TRAGEDY.
UNITED STATES CoMMsSIoNER's OFGIeE.-
Before Kenneth e. White, Esq, U. States
Commissioner. The United States Vs. Will
liam II. johnson, ALIAS Albert w. Hicks. -
The prisoner, who is charged with murder
and piracy, was brought up from the Second
Ward Station House yesterday afternoon
and placed in the custody Of Lorenzo De An
gelos, one of the United States Deputy Mar
shals.
In the course of the morning Mr.. Dwight
ssistaut District ATTORNEY. was DuSiIY en-