The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-03-24
OFFICIAL BRUTALITY.
Murder. Rape 1nd HfRfPed CrfReD
Practiced In She New York Chari.
table and Correctional IDssis0-
tiOns.

Murder. Rape and HfRdPed Crfases
Practiced In She New York Chars.
table and Correctional IDssSs0-
items.
The New York Herald of the 9Th,
in commenting upon recent case Of
cruelty at the Work house on Black
wells Island, wherein the prisone,
was abused even to death, enfoTces
the lesson of brief recital OF other
and similar cases. and relates the fol-
lowing as going to show what snail
chance a prisoner or sick patient
stands in the hospitals or prisons un-
der the charge Of the New York city
government:
Cases like the above are but tsO
numerous. There are others in which
deeper guilt is charged. On May l,
1867, Patrick ORe1ke and James
McGreary appeased before Jadge
Dodge, at Jefferson Market, and made
complaint against one Matthew Hen
derson, an under warden in the Char
ity Hospital, charging hina with goug-
ing the eyes and killing a fellow pa
tient of theirs named j John Thompson
They claimed that they made the
complaint, because they believed it to
be their duty. In the a1darit they
charged that they and Tkom pson were
in ward No. 9 of the hospital; that
Thompson was paralyzed In both lsgs;
was in very weak and reduced state;
that McGreary was selected as assist
ant in the ward, and that Henderson
had charge of it as orderly; that on
the afternoon of April %, Henderson
thrust his thumbs into Thompson
eyes; that Thompson, who was very
weak, succeeded in getting his head
away and opened his eyes; that Hen
derson repeated his brutality, when
the compla inants and Thomas Irwin
and John Cousins demonstrated with
Henderson, telling him that Thomp-
son was not dead; Henderson replied
that his soul had LETT the body and
lit was only his insides that were
working that Thompson was not
then dead, but opened his eyes; that
Henderson pulled the pillows from
under Thompson's head, when the
man gave a cohvulsiyc heave of the
chest, and, while he was still breath
ing, Henderson put bandage about
his neck and choked him until he
died. Sergeant (now Cal tain) Bor-
den, who made the arrest of Hender-
son, stated that the facts, as he learned
them, corroborated with the affidavit,
and the brutal orderly was locked up
for examination. What disposition
was made of the complaint does not
appear. Possibly political influence
saved the man from pl plosecution.
The Eliza Collins case, the most
outrageous that has been referred to
by the Herald, is SO fresh in the recol
lection of New Workers that it need
not be detailed at length. 1t occurred
last fall in the smallpox pavilion.
Eliza was sent there by a medical
blunder as a smallpox patient, while
she was suffering only from the hives,
and while there she was forcibly out
ragged by pet Of Commissioner Lam
beer named August Mayer or Major
DR.. Day, Professor Chandler, and
other physicians were satisfied that
the crime had been committed, yet,
by some means. Mayer secured an ac-
quittal. and, it is said, is still nurse
or orderly on the island. although
President Bailey reports that he is
Work house prisoner. .
Other outrages by policemen, prison
keepers, nurses. and, even judges, are
SO numerous that it is useless to re
cali all their disgusting and aegrava-
ting particulars. The declaration of
Commissioner Gardner and Captain
Williams, that the men should freely
use the club is we'll rememb bered. The
readers of the Herald will not soon
forget the ,injustiiable invasion of
mans house in the Twentieth Pre-
cinct by Detective Leahy and some of
his associates, their attempt to force
an entrance in the dead of the night
to the bedroom of their victim, an
honest laborer, how he supposed them
to be thieves, resisted, and while
holding the door against them was
sent into eternity by detectives bull
let. They will remember, too. the
many cases of brutality committed by
the police which have been recorded
in the Herald, and the scores Of times
within FIVE years that attention has
been called to the prison pen at JEFF
ferson Market, where prisoners, it is
believed, have been absolutely frozen
to death. With all these cases fresh
in the recollection Of citizens no won
der there is Indignation abroad when
this Stockvis case is added to the long
of outrages by the public's
servants.