New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-06-14
THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE IA, 1860.

and while there showed me the marks of her bus-
bands nails M on the backs Of heg hands. She went
home, and everything appeared fe go ON quietly
until was walked up in the night by her screams:
and heard him say, go now You son Of b-h,
go;, she still continued screaming, Kind Of
choking screams. thought he had put her
out of the house and got up to bring her into
my house. When went into the yard fond
some of the boarders sitting ON the steps
still heard the screaming of Mrs. Eagan and a@o
the children and he was talking. aslSed a rasn
on the steps what was the matter, and he said,
something between themselves. ! was almost
afraid to go up stairs, but | ventured, and went
up, found Mrs. Eagan lying on the trunsile bed !.
with her arms stretched out. her face pale and
cold, and her eyes sunk. Iasked her what was tile
matter. She Immediately caught me round the
neck and asked me to raise her up; she spoke
with broken speech, and called for water
which was got; and instead Of drinking it.,
she poured it on her stomach. The only thing
| heard her say was that she was smothering-
She was retching and choking like person dying
ana threw up a small quantity Of water. The two
children were sitting on the large bed and scream
ing; asked them what was the matter with their
mother; they said their father had kicked her in
the stomach. She kept struggling and pulled her
clothes Oh, as if in great distress and did not know
what to do. While she was lying that way. Eagan
came up to her In brutal manner, and said, .Coy-
er yourself, woman at the same time he gave
her two siaps with the fiat of his hand on the abdo
men. Che rolled off the bed / could not hold her
ON. went for Mrs. Mcnamara, and she Came up.
Eagan refused to help us put his wife in bed, and
one Of the men helped us. Il then went for her
sister, and when came back she was dead.
John Burke and other witnesses were examined.
Burke, boarder in Eagan's house, saw Eagan
beating his wife. Other witnesses testified to the
noises and screams, and the statements of Eagan's
children. An unhesitating verdict of murder was
pronounced against Eagan by the Coroner's jury.
COMMITTED FOR MuRDER.-Recorder Summers
has sent Michael Hefferman before the First Dis
trict Court for the murder of John Dempsey, on
the 14th ult. The following was the testimony
taken
Hiram FdnceNe, sworn-On the day that John
Dempsey, the deceased, was stabbed, I was stand.
ing on the wharf in front Of the steamer Choctaw
nearly opposite Notre Dame street, the First &.
| trict, and city of New Orleans. heard there was
a fight on board the Choctaw. i saw John Gaffney
and John Dempsey clinched together in fight. /
went on board for the purpose of separating the
away from Dempsey, and handed him over to
officer Smith, intending to arrest Dempsey also,
and bring them in. saw knife in the hands of
either Gaffney or Heferman, but can't say which.
as the crowd was SO great. Hefferman appeared
as though he was separating the two men. When
went to arrest Dempsey, he had kind of sunk
down against the wood. / pulled him up, and
found that he had been stabbed. and his entrais
were hanging out. can't say who stabbed
Dempsey; did not know he was stabbed until after
him and Gaffney were separated.
Patrick O Connor, sworn-I was standing on the
wharf, in front of the steamer Choctaw, the day
John Dempsey was stabbed, between and o'clock
PM II saw Dempsey going board the boat,
shaking his head at Johl Gaaney. When he got
close enough to him he made an attempt to strike
him. Gafney struck back at Dempsey; they then
clinched and fell, Gaffney underneath. saw Hef-
| ferman with knife in his hand, shaking it hack
wards and forward. ! sung out lie had knife
| and would kill somebody. Gaffney and Dempsey
were separated; they all then back in the fire
| room-that is Dempsey, Gafney and Heterman-
and there they all three clnched, Hefferman hav-
officers phil Gaffney away; Immediately after thai
| | saw Heferman stab Dempsey in the belly
Dempsey fell back against the derrick, and Hetfer.
man stuck the knife in the pile of salt and went
away. At the time Dempsey fell back against the
derrick, the mate Of the boat hit him the head
| with billet Of wood. Hefferman is the man who
| stabbed Dempsey: the knife looked like white
handled drk-knife. The white handled knife ex
hibted in Court looks like the knife that in ths
| hands Of Hefferman.