The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1889-05-21
DEATH In LIFE.
Sensational Developments in the Mat
ter Of the Death of Washington
Irving Bishop.
Believed to Have Been in a State OF
Catalepsy When the Autopsy
Was Held.
The Agony OF Bishops Mother. who Be-
IieVes Her SON Was CutUP
While still Alive

NEW YORK, May 2O.-Euneral services
over the remains of Mind Reader Bishop
were held at Grace church to-day. The re-
mains were inferred in Greenwood ceme-
terry
New York Herald: The death of Wash
iDgton Irving Bishop promises 20 develop
into as great and mysterious sensation as
was his life. IL will probably never be
known whether the man was really dead
or not when the doctors dissected him.
The gentlemen who performed the opera
ton are, OF course, positive that life had
flown, and DIR. Irwin asserts that the infal-
llble sign of death. riROr mOrtis, had set in
But Dr. + q. SpitZSa, who is universally
conceded TO be the greatest authority In
this country on the diseases from which
Bishop is alleged 70 haYe died. told me last
night that the rigidity Of the limbs pro-
duced by catalepsy could be easily mis-
taken for rtgor mOrtis, that there is no test
by which death can be absolutely estab-
lished and that persons in n cataleptic
trance such as Bishop is known to have
frequently been in before have frequently
been declared dead. Many cataleptics, IN
fact, are known 10 have been burl-- alive.
Other physicians cOrrObOrated Dr.Spitzka's
statement and all condemned the holding
OF the autopsy so soon after death and
without the consent of the dead mans rel
Atives.
Besides this it was entirely illegal even
II the man was dead, and the grand jury
may take hand in the matter under sec
tion SOs % the penal code, which provides:
A person who makes OF causes or pro-
cures TO be made any dissection Of the body
OF a human being, except by authority OF
law or IN pursuance of a permission given
by the deceased, is guilty of misde-
meanor.
No authority is given by law covering
the case of Bishop and justifying the doc
tors in their proceedings. It was clearly
cOroners case, as the man died within
tWenty-fOur hours after DIR. Irwin WAS
called in, and only by the coroner's orders
could an autopsy have been made without
the consent of Bishops wife or mother.
But the most horrible phase of the case
Is presented, OF course, by the possibility
that Bishop may have been alive when he
was being cut up, With all his powers of
speech and movement paraly zed, but sec
ing and hearing all that was going on
This shocking possibility Is breaking the
heart of his poor old mother. who is firmly
convinced that her son was only In atrance
and that the dOctort killed him. The old
lady did not learn until yesterday that the
autopsy had been performed, and since
then her suffertngS have been pitiful-
They murdered my poor boy" she
mOaned yesterday when l called on her at
the Hoffman house. 81 know they did.
on IL was a cruel outrage and it should
have been impossible in free country like
this. My poor, poor bCyl IL they had
only let him alone he would have been all
right again IN day or two. L know be
would. have seen him again and again
in a condition where every body said he
was dead, but 1 knew better. Once, some
years ago, when he was utterly prostrated
by the work OF saving a number Of lives
az the Tay disaster, he was in trance
for three weeks. But the Scottish
surgeons were more merciful than
these, bis murderers. They spared
him. 1t will kill me, this cruel work, but
l viii ind strength and life enough to
bring these men-these butchers-t0 Jus
tice, II there is any TO be had. / will sacri-
nee everything have got In this world and
All that expect To punish these heartless
doctors. My son has implOred me again
and again: Mother do not let any sur
geOn's knife touch me after they declare
me dead. Make them wait until decompO-
sltlOn has set in / promised faithfully,
out these cruel men took advantage of my
absence 10 do their hsndish work Irving
even carried carried a card usu-
ally, asking that If any thing happened
70 him his body should not be mu
tilated, but all this availed moth
ing Ny address in Philadelphia was
public property, bat they were afraid to
telegraph me or his wife for permission,
these doctors; they were afraid We would
refuse. and they wanted his brain, so they
cut MIN up alive through criminal stupidi-
~. am subject % the same cataleptic
frances In which my boy often fell. One
can hear and see everything, but spet ch
and movement are paraly zed. It is h0rri-
Ole- For six days some years ago [ was in
AIsnce, ana l saw arrangements being
made for my burial. Only my brothers.
determined resistance prevented them
from embalming me. and lay there and
heard u all On the seventh day / came to
myself but the agony ! endured left its
mark fOreverv