The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-10-15
SHOCKING SCENES.
Manner In Which the Dead in WaFd's II
land Hospitals are Treated.

land Hospitals are Treated.
NEw YoRE, oCt l4.-The investigation
as to the manner in which the bodies o
people who die In the hospitals at Wards Is
land are treated by the physiclRnsin chRrg(
there, was yesterday begun by the Ward'l
Island committee Of the Board Of EmIgra
ton Commissioners. Sexton Peter KrapohI
the undertaken on the Island, was called
as the Arst witness, He said he had been
undertaken for one year, having served
the previous two years as orderly in the
hospital. He had charge ot preparing all
bodies to he inferred on the island. An
anonymous letter, which called attention
to the alleged ghoullsn practices was
read 10 him, and he was asked 10
give, In his own way, all that he knew
about the manner in which the bodies
were treated before burial, Krapohl said
that almost everybody was subjected TO Q
post mortem examination, and he knew
Of cases In which they had been mutllat,
ed by various physiCisns. When asked
to epumerate cases with dates and de6u-
ito explanations, he produced book in
which entries OF deaths had been made
BY him during the year, He read of
these instances;
Patrick Furlong died November IS,
1885, and his brain and stomach were re-
moved; CRthRrine Farrell, child born
dead on December 81, 1885, was skinned
and the body boiled. Krapohl said he
performed these operations, acting under
orders from DR.. Walker, OF the hospital
staff. He said the child was q fully
developed one, That was the only
case In which he knew Of Q body
having been skinned or boiled, julia
RlChendiech, twenty'one days old, died
March 8, last, and her head was cut of,
skinned and cleaned by DR.. Walker, who
had the head carried to his rooms. May 90
last, Claus Burrich committed suicide on
the island, and the coroner was notified,
Before he arrived an autopsy was per-
formed on the body. The top Of the skull
was sawed of and the brain removed.
Krapohl was then instructed to "Rx" the
body, for the coroner, which he did by
taking tho top Of the skull from the dead
man lying ON the next slab, and putting
It on Burrlch's head. Coroner Messmer
called, viewed the body, and
gave permit for burial without
that an autopsy had
been performed. On June 0 last Gustav
frederick died, and his body
was placed in the dead.house in the morn. |
ng. The house was locked up, but In |
,he afternoon, when the undertaken re-
,urned, both the eyes were gone and the |
right eye Of man lying on another slab
lad also been taken out. Frederick's |
vile afterwards came to see the body Of |
ler husband, and when she found cotton |
Ituded In the holes where the eyes ought |
% have been, witness said she kicked up
m awful row. Krapohl then enumerated |
leyen other cases In which male aud 70.
male bodies had been diSleCted by var.
ouS physicians. Krapohl said he knew
What he was talking about, for he had |
been present at every one Of the autopsies,
With the single exception Of the one in |
which the two men he spoke OF had been |
eft minus their eyes. Tho undertaken
Knew Of one case In which part Of the leg |
u corpse had hOen cut of and another
where the physician had removed the up.
per half Of a mans Dkull, taking one eye |
With 1t. In several instances Infants had |
been diGsected, and after the bodies had
been sewed up they were placed in the |
collins, the parts taken out for examina- |
ion being placed In the cofllus by the
IideS Of the bodies-not put back In their
respective places. In answer to q ques.
ion by the chairman, Krapohl said be
lid not consider It his duty to report these
to the Commissioners. Com.
missioner Stephenson elected from
him. however, the statement that
10 was afraid to do go for
ear the physicians would have him dis
,harged, % they had others disposed Of
or reporting their actions. krapohl said
40 did not know whether the phyalcians
'ot permission to make autopsles or not,
out he had heard relatives strenuously
protest sgainst them.
DR.. MARBLE, the physician in charge at
Ward's Island, here delivered what Com.
missioner Hurlbut called "sock. .dollager,"
1y saying that Ia tho case OF the man who
lad lost his eyes the undertaken had care
essly left the body too near the floor and
lufing his absence from the dead house,
'he rats had eaten the eyes out.