The Portland daily press., 1886-06-23
THE FREEMAN CASE.
Could 1t Have Been a Murder?


Coroner Gould postponed the inquest on
the case of the colored man, Fireman.
found on the flats in Back Bay Sunday
morning-to enable him to secure more evil
dence.
The men arrested on suspicion of having
been concerned in, or being privy to the
causes that led to Freeman's death. are
lodged one in the cell room and one in the
lodging room at the police station. The
men, according to the Marshal, do not tell
the same story of their whereabouts all
through Saturday night and the details of
their movements. This perhaps is not so
strange when it is remembered they were all
more or less intoxicated. One of the men
arrested said that a number of them stole
barrel OF beer about o'clock that night and
carried it up to the sand bank near the turn
OF Washington street into the Eastern Prom
enade, and there they preached it, Leaving
this mans brother in charge, the two men
now in arrest went down the street and on
Oxford street met Freeman in company with
man they knew. They invited the two to
come up and have some of the beer. After
drinking some time the men got to quarrel
en-. One man under arrest says the other
struck Freeman, and the other says the first
struck him. This was the quarrel reported
in the papers which Mrs. Cain saw where
Freeman was struck in the back of the head,
and Freeman lost his hat and ran off. But
one of the arrested men says that he and the
other went back to the beer barrel which he
says was empty, but the other says had beer
in it. The first man says that he, and one
other who had a hammer, went and drew
staple from door which protected, as they
supposed, more beer, but there was no beer
there, and two of the comrades remained in
Ingraham's Court near by. But the first
man says that on their return these two COM
rades had gone off. One of the crowd went
aud got the empty beer barrel and sold it to
man on Washington street. The first man
arrested thinks it was about or o'clock
when they went on the search for the second
barrel of beer. He declares he knows moth
ing about Freeman's further movements,
nor the two boats seen by Mrs. Knight on
Back Bay between and 2 a. IN.
DIR. Vose says that the condition of Free
mans body after he was found, when ex-
amined by him, were bad, and not such as
he should expect to find in person killed by
drowning. The back of the skull showed he
had received tremendous blow, and the
scalp about it, as we'll as the blood back of
the skull plate, was very badly congested.
There was very Titled water in either the
lungs or stomach; the heart was not con-
gested there was no goose flesh, and certain
other signs were wanting. Furthermore if
Freeman had tumbled into the water he
doesn't see how he could have been left by
the outgoing tide where he was found as the
tide would have swept him out to sea. Even
if he had fallen on the sluiceway and struck
first on his nose, fattening it and then, by
the force of the blow, he had gone over back
ward and struck on the back of his head, he
thinks he could not have been found on the
flats since the tide must have swept him out
towards Tukey's Bridge. There was bad
blow on Freeman's nose, the blow mention
ed on the back Of the head, and the backs of
the legs were much bruised.
There does not seem to have been any
motive for MURDER and if there was one, it
must have been the result of blows inflicted
in a drunken quarrel. One woman last night
was reported to have said she saw one of the
men strike Freeman with club in the back
of the head and he cried out "You have MUIR
dered me" but the officers deny any knowl-
edge Of any such statement A number of
men who are said to belong to the gang were
brought into the station last night and after
hearing their stories they were allowed to go
on their personal recognizances until to-day.