New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-21
BEATING HIS DYING WIFE.
PAwNING HER CLorHE S TO BUY RUM.

THE SON SAID To A. BAD As THE FATHER
TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL
II is the most shocking case OF the kind ever
brought to Bellevue Sosptal' said DR.. Tingley,
one Of the house surgeons.
" Her brutal husband Systematically undertook
to beat and starve his wife to death" said Cap
tain Carpenter of the Oak street Police Station.
They were speaking of woman who was trans
ferred yesterday from Bellevue Hospital to the
Charity Hospital on BlaclSwes Island She was
terribly emaciated ~ starvation and filthy beyond
description. Great bed-sores covered her back,
and bruises and contusions evidently the result
of violence, numerous upon her body and
She was suffering and helpless from rheumatism.
The hospital records show that the woman was
Mary A. Nicolaus, age thirty-two native OF
England, twenty-siX years in the United States,
and that she was brought to the hospital from
No 100 Ohver-st., where she had lived with her
husband, Emil Nicoaus and her son Daniel, age
eleven. She was examined by Drs. Edward q.
Janeway and w. X. Tingley, and sent to the
island as the proper place for treatment Re
duced to skeleton by Starvation said Or.
Tingey yesterday: covered with sores and filth,
and unable to any of her limbs, she was
certainly the most ptiable and revolving spectacle
ever saw Her case is apparently hopeless and
her recovery would be miracle
The FAMILY LIFE IN oLIvFR-sr.
No. 90 Oliver-st. is an old-fashioned brick
house Of three stories and basement South
st. 1t is occupied by Patrick Thomas, a hard
working and respectable Irishman and his family.
Mr. Thomas subjects part of the house to other
tenants Regarding Nicoaus, and his wife and
boy he said yesterday:
They came betwee1 four and i've d,1ains ago and
ronted rooms on the top floor at ~ so per week
high said that he was employed In Washng'"n Nsrlet
Of ~ he GTStm nr ( IN
II was noticed that the man generally came homo
drunk T Tm q hss sn %s SS o
Ter he'd. The mara brutality then began TO show
itse for we could hear him beating her and he sound
little nothing for her TO eat and left her without
fire or light Lately he locked her in when he went at
as brutal and unfeeling the fahoL and some
%cn SaSE Sd sqS4 ng gone mother R maze him dc''
Ny wife broke down the door one day to carry food
dying but what and other -ghTors took her to cot
and drink, the unnatural husband and son devouled
Undertaking, fact every article that belonged 70
her leaving her utterly destitute Of clothes and rawned
clothing which my wife gave her to keep her from
freezing these cold nights, and pawn-d It We has
wife often threatened to cut her heart Out with knife
Thinking her about to die no long ago my wife
got doctor from the dlspensary TO come and see her
When Nc9lans heard that priest had been iher e he he
hid he sySr ca%s ,hsr, sg5n / have been trying
for weeks to bring this case to the attention OF tho
authorities hive teen the police station, to Mr..
Gerry's Society, to Dr. Cro:by's, Society and to the
Tombs Court. but they all referred from the
other and did nothing Al last wrote 'ert-r to
two other officers came and examined the wfctched
woman and tho next day the ambulance and took
her away. They also took charge OF the boy. We arc
Try ing tn the where she cleaned up now
for 1t is I'm horrible state.
WHAT POLICE FOUND.
Mrs. Thomas. a matronly Irish woman of
fifty corroborated her husbands account Captain
Carpenter of the Oak Street tatioD. said yesterday
that Superintendent Murray had called his atten !
ton to the case, and that with Police Surgeon |
Nammack and Agent Charles Gardner of the |
he nd gone TO the house in Oliver-st He added !
We found tie attic room occupied by the N!colaus |
family In frfghtiul condition. The stencil was over
powering and windJW had TO be raised before we |
and wore only salt sack with hG'es cnt In Il for |
the head and arms, and her sole covering was a thin
surmlscd. The doctor said she suffering from |
exhaustion brought about by starvation and from rhsu
maiism. The woman told rlc hat her husband never
gave her penny 10 buy food and came home drunk |
every light and beat her. On ono occasion he had /
threatened to kill her. Agent Gardner obtained an !
order from Judge Power at the Tombs Court to send
ProtectOry and hes Fave beer rcmo' ed accordingly
TIC man has not been arrested that aware T. |
We cannot without warrant. The Society for the |
Prevention Cruelty TO Children my have caused his |
arrest
Superintendent Jenkins Of that Society, said /
last evening that nc had not yet received his !
agents report in the case, but he thought that /
NicOaus had not been arrested. If he failed to
might have him arrested in the course of two or
three weeks. His prosecution for beating and
starving his wife, the Superintendent said, rested
with the police.