Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-16
CRUCIFIED HIS SON.
Little Jake Ackerman Tortured by a
Most Inhuman Father.
SEVEN LONG HOURS OF AGONY.
The Lad Will Probably Die as the Result
of His Injuries.
ALINCHING VERY NARROWLY AvERTED

WILKESBARRR, June 15.-This com.
munity was thrown into state of great ex.
citement, which eliminated in the arrest OF
Jacob Ackerman, a farmer,of Sugar Loaf
township, near this city, who had been
guilty of most inhuman and diabolical
outrage upon his 11-year-old son, Jake.
which will probably result in the boys
death.
Mr.. Ackerman has violent and ungov-
ernable temper, and when he becomes en-
ragged he is an object of terror to all around
him. Yesterday he became angered at some
triHing act Of disobedience on the part OF
the little fellow, and as his passion found
vent in violent language he became almost
beside himself in frenzy of wrath. He was
not satisfied to castigate the child. He de-
termined upon torture.
WORK OF FIEND.
He therefore went out to his barn and OBJ
tanned two pieces of scantling and fastened
them firmly together in the form of a saw
buck cross. Then when he had thoroughly
tested it, to see that it would Withstand heavy
pressure, he ordered his son down into the eel
lar of the house, and then followed the lit
tie fellow with the implement of torture.
He then caught hold OF Jake, and laying
the cross down on the floor took the boy in
his arms and placed him upon it. He
strapped the child's arms to the top parts of
the uprights and pinioned his legs to the
bottom parts, and then with refinement Of
cruelty affixed the boys neck immovably to
the structure. Then he lifted child and
cross upright, and regarded the work of
crucifxion with diabolical complacency.
The poor little fellow, in his agony, cried
for relief, and the mother and She rest of the
family pleaded with the inhuman man to
release the child, but their entreaties only
seemed to intensity his frenzied rage.
He went at them furiously, threatening
their lives and making menacing movements
toward them. Finally he procured hatchet
and drove them all out OF the house. They
fled away in terror, with the cries of the lit
tie sufferer ringing in their ears.
HATCHET IN HAND.
Then, with the hatchet still in his hand,
he returned to the cellar and stood guard
over the suffering boy, threatening to kill
anybody who should come near. Finally,
when the little fellow ceased his struggles
through sheer weakness, finding no one was
about to disturb HIM or release the child, he
sauntered away, leaving the crucifed child
to its fate.
Toward evening little daughter came
home from the silk mill, where she had been
at work during the day. She heard groans
emanating from the cellar. She went down
and found her poor brother in his awful
agony and position. For seven hours his
body had been suspended on the framework.
He was rescued more dead than alive. 1t is
not expected he can live.
These facts were brought out before q
Justice of the Peace, who issued warrant
for Ackerman's arrest, and to-day he was
lodged in Jail. The neighbors were on the
point of organizing posse to lynch the in
human father when the officers of the law
interfered and locked him in the county
iail