The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-09
RRoOKLYN,s pEopANps.
Relics of Famous Crimes Preserved in
the City Of Churches

! Relics of Famous Crimes Preserved in
the City of Churches
NEW York, Jan. SIN Brooklyn an old
English custom survives that has been
| practically abolished in both Great Britain
and the United States. In the dark ages
! whenever a man met his death by violence
the deadly instrument was promptly con-
! tiscated by the thrifty monks and named
! deodand given TO God) The term was
! literally applied and in time came TO cover
/ al! the implements Of felony, and in some
Instances nearly all OF the personal property
| OF the criminal or offender In Italy and
! Southern France, where crimes Of violence
/ were OF frequent occurrence, the income for
/ the dcOdands was so large as 10 excite the
Jealousy and cupidity of the feudal lords.
! III the course of years the crown took
lhls right away from the church and
! found it in many cases source Of
revenue The custom prevailed in this
| country until the revolution and then
| died out. In most of the cities and counties
OF the land the courts treated and still treat
the property Of the accused as his own and
! deliver 1t TO any assignee upon his written
order. In Brooklyn the instruments Of
| CRIME have for very many years been con-
liScated by the authorities and put upon ex-
| hlDltion IN tho county court house. The
! collection Is open to the public at all reason
able hours and is found IN the inner room
| OF the District Attorneys Office. 1t is con
talned IN handsome glass and walnut cabi-
net that reaches from floor to ceiling and
covers an entire side of the apartment The
collection Is very well arranged and enables
the spectator to run down the history Of
crime in Kings county, (of which Brooklyn
| IS the capltaD without trouble or delay.
over thousand objects are exhibited and
make an interesting but CHASTITY display
The eye first falls upon a series of knives,
rusty and blood stained well illustrating the
cosmopolitan character of our great cities.
The English dirk, the American bowie, the
French poniard, the Negroes razor, the Ital-
ian stllleto, and the most ominOus of all,
the Oriental creese with its serDentne
| shape and cold gray color are expressions of
the interminable race-mixture which makes
| up our population.
In the centre of the cabinet are series
of strange looking glass walls and tubes,
| porcelain discs and watch crystals. Some
are clean and some covered with a white
! coating Others stand out prominently
! through bright spots of metal on their sur
face. Those are the appliances used by the
! chemists in the great Dr. Irish and Gro
| blewski poisoning cases. In the latter case
| they enabled the authorities, who were try
| ing the Polish poisoner for numbering his
| second wife, TO prove him guilty OF not
only that crime, but also of the making
| way of his first by similar means. Gro
| blewski was found guilty, but as there were
| grave doubts of his sanity, he was sent to
| the State Lunatic Asylum.
On the floor of the cabinet are piles of
burglars tools Besides the mask, gag and
! dark lantern of the yellow-covcred novel
| are powder-blowers, diamond drills. safe
! openers, patent levers" sectional jimmies
and all the latest implements Of scientific
| burglary Many of these tools are of the
! highest workmanship ana show to what
! terrible uses human ingenuity can be per-
| verteC.
In one corner are some ugly blood covered
| knives which played a deadly role in a hor
| rible murder. In Jan 1886, Andreas Fuchs
killed William Simmons and disnemb.red
his body with these knives. Both were me
| chanicS, and the motive was jealousy.
| Fuchs was sentenced to be hanged, but be
came insane and was sent to the asylum
An innocent looking object is a heavy cart
wrunG which, on close scrutiny, turns out
to be split and broken in three places With
| it Henry Rogers, the leader of the Battle
| Row gang, a desperate of great strength
and reckless courage, killed Officer John
| Donohue in July, 1892 The rutlian's
strength and the ferocity of his attack can
| be easily inferred when it Is recalled that
the one or two blows given to the luckless
| policeman fractured the massive piece of
! NbiNl Us IL ~ lltOl Dctil 1t Walking SUCK.
Rogers was hung for the crime the same
/ year.
Far different in appearance is q light
st el hammer below which is suspended
piece of a human skull. With this hammer
John NJ Wright, noted Tuffan, killed
well-to-do iunkman, Bernard Feron. who
had incurred Wright's wrath by refusing to
treat 10 glass of whisky.
Murderers use all sorts of implements in
producing death. Besides the cart wrung
and the hammer, there are other odd
weapons. One of these is the kerosene
lamp which Patrick Kenney threw at his
wife. who died from the combined effects
of the blow and the blazing oil. Another is
long bed Stat. With this James I1laherty
while drunk killed his drunken wife. A
third is vicious cowhide with which
Thomas Burke whipped his wife to death
Although many of the crimes whose
silent witnesses are displayed in the collec-
ton were inspired by drunken rage. vet
strange to say Drunkenness appears to have
been u very insignificant cause in the COM
mission Of the violations Of the law.
Joseph Bagnarcllo, the curator of the
deodands, said: THE crimes which are re-
corded here are in most cases the actions of
intelligent men who have deliberately taken
up breaking as a profession. Most of
the deadly weapons come from people of
this class and all the tools do of course The
rest come from insane people, drunken men
and from people who commit crimes in the
/ l., e