The Portland daily press., 1890-09-16
WAS 1T ACCIDENT OR HOMICIDE?
Case That Coroner Gould Has
Under Investigation.

sunday morning Officers Rowe and Nc
aratn found man lying near a pile of lum-
oer close by the railway tracks near the
match factory, West Commercial street. He
was taken to the station and locked up. At
ter while, when the turnkey, Mr.. Massure,
happened to see him, he was apparently In
great pain, and furthermore his head was
bleeding, he had black eye and there were
evident signs Of a wound on the side Of the
head. He had pain In the back, and in his
inner coat pocket was a lot of broken glass
that evidently came from bottle which had
been filled with liquor that had saturated his
clothing Officer McGrath said the man
when arrested gave the name of Charlie
tons.
Mr.. Way, one of the overseers of the poor,
ordered the mans removal to Greedy Hospit-
al, and the man was sent there and died
yesterday morning.
The man was apparently sailor, about So
years old and roughly dressed. He was un.
able to tell anything about himself. Corop-
er Gould impanelled jury at p. M, and
an inquest was begun. Doctors Thayer-the
city physician-King, and W. l.. Dana we've
present An examination of the body
revealed the fact that it was profusely dec
GRATED by many designs in India ink. On
one arm were the initials "R. r. c." In large
letters. On another was an illustration of
brick wall with an cverhanging tree. The
initials "H. M. F." were conspicuous as was
also the date January 80, 1856" Another
inscription read maria and Jeanne, April
z, 1864" In bis pocket was a money order
| hat had ~ haa fa~ e.
drawn at Corning. N. S., in April last in IA
vor of John Nicholson, and 70 cents in mon
ey.
The surgeons, by their autopsy, found that
the apparent wound on the back of the head
was not wound, but putting out of the
flesh caused by the extravasation of blood
The inner lining of the skull had been frac-
tured from blow the left ear around the
base of the brain, nearly to the right ear.
The blackened eye was caused by blood
leaking from under the scalp down into the
eye. The whole back of the head was bog
gy with blood. There was some enlarge
ment Of the heart, but that had nothing to
do with the injury to the head and could
not have caused the mans death. There
was slight congestion Of the kidneys. but
that was evidently caused by the injury to
the head, and like the heart enlargement
would not have produced fatal result. The
fracture of the inner lining OF the skull was
what killed the man. 1t was the opinion of
the physicians that the fracture was the
result of blow that might have been in
fiicted by locomotive-provided the man
had got onto one of the railroad tracks and
been struck by a shifting engineer he
might have been in row and struck by a
club or sand-bag. 1t would not necessarily
follow that such blow would fracture the
skull SO that the fracture W d appear ex-
ternally.
1t also appears that about a. m. Sunday,
the Waterman in the railroad yard heard
cries and tried to ascertain whence they
came but failed. Mr. Sawyer, the Boston &
Maine car-checker, however, made
search later and discovered the deceased.
He notified Officers Rowe and McGrath as
he found the man couldn't stand without
help and they took him to the station. 1t is
the theory of the railroad men that the de-
ceased went into saloon near the yard and
got partly intoxicated, bought bottle of
liquor and then had a squabble with some
one or more friends whose acquaintance he
had made and. in the squabble, was struck
the blow on the head which caused his
death.
The inquest was adjourned to p. m.
Thursday.
Last evening the body was identified by
sailors from the schooner Herald. now in
this port, as that Of Robert Charlton, mate
Of the vessel. Charlton was last seen by his
shipmates at nine o'clock Saturday evening,
when he bought some tomatoes. The toma-
toes were found In his pockets by the police.
Charlton belonged in Barborsville, Ms.