The Portland daily press., 1892-07-04
WIN. A. FIELDS'S DEATH.
His Bruised Bod, Found in the
Dock.
THE POLICE TRYING TO LEARN
HOW 1T CAME THERE.

A Soldier From the Fort and Two Bibulous
Women Saw Him Last; But Do Not
Give Satisfactory stories--Rum at the
Bottom on the Tragedy.
Saturday evening about $50 p. m. Mr..
Libby, who works for I. F. Beals & Co.,
was on Portland Pier, when he was ap-
Notwithstanding to his statement
/! by a soldier from the fort, who was in
| citizens dress. The soldier said that he
| thought man had fallen off the end of
the pier as he saw the man walk in an
apparently somnolent state, to the end of
the wharf and disappear. The soldier
said further that he went to the end of
the wharf to see what had become
| of the man. Looking over he
saw boat containing two men,
and another man standing on
lobster float below the wharf. He asked
| the men if they had seen or heard any
body fall overheard and they replied
they had not. The soldier gave his
| name as Matthew S. Cahill.
Mr.. Libby first noticed Cahill standing
talking with a woman. The soldier left
the woman, went to the end of the wharf,
returned and spoke to Mr.. Libby, telling
him the above story. From the time he
left the woman, until he spoke to Nh.
| Libby, was only a few minutes Earlier
| in the evening woman was found ON
the wharf in a drunken Sleep She was
| aroused and ordered off the premises.
| Officers Webster and Frank upon
further investigation found an mans
brown Derby hat and empty half
| pint bottle at the spot near where
| the woman had been asleep.
Yesterday morning some of the family
of longshoreman named William A.
Fields, who resided on Dunphy's Lane,
came to the station and reported that
Fields was missing. Upon seeing the
| hat, picked up on Portland Pier, they at
once pronounced it the hat of the miss
| ing man. Fields was about twenty-three
years of age and had been at one time
| quite prominent oarsman.
| AS the soldier Cahill seemed to know
the most about the matter Deputy Nc
Callum telephoned the officers at the
fort requesting Cahill might be held un-
til wanted. The officers at the fort replied
that Cahill had been absent without
leave since Friday night, but later tele-
| phoned that Cahill had reported and that
he would be held
/ About / o'clock Fields body was
found with graphing irons in the water
off the end of Portland Pier and taken to
Undertaken McDonoughs rooms on Ex-
change street, and Coroner Stephen d.
Hall notified. The body was seen by
DR.. G. D. Smith and City Physician Sui
livan. They found the mans jaw brok-
en-. This may have been caused by
striking on his face on the lobster float
when he fell in, or it may have been
caused by heavy blow delivered before
he went into the water. DR.. Sullivan
| told PRESS reporter last night that the
man evidently had come to his death by
| drowning.
| Coroner Perry impanelled a jury.
| among whom are Messrs Micah Higgins.
N. o. Cram, Ariel C. Pitman and j. N.
| Tolford. They will hold an inquest at 2
o'clock Wednesday,.
Deputy McCallum had ascertained in
the meantime that the woman found in
a drunken sleep on the wharf-whose
name is Mary E. McLane-and another
woman named Kate Feeney, were to-
gether Saturday night, so he brought
| both of them to the station. The Nc
Lane woman said she was walking with
| the Feeney woman down Commercial
| street that evening, and they met Fields.
who they knew. Fields addressed them
/ and joined them; they walked down
the pier together, and on the pier they
met Cahill. She said the two men knew
each other and spoke to each other.
| That's about all she had to say.
| The Feeney woman said that she and
the McLane woman were walking down
Commercial street when they met Fields.
| Cahill joined them afterwards. The
party went and bought quart of rum
and then went down the wharf to enjoy
| it. After they had drunk it she and Ca
hill sailed two or three times back and
forth on the ferry boat.
| The women do not tell very satisfac-
tory stories and the affair will bear in
vestigation. 1t seems very doubtful
whether Fields, in falling from the pier.
could have suffered the bruises which
| his body shows. Cahill's course seems
to have been very queer, and his story
seems rather thin. When Cahill report
ed to Libby that he saw man fall off
the wharf he did not seem to know the
man, although by the story of the girls,
Cahill and Fields had been together
! short time before. 1t also seems strange
| that the men whom Cahill says he saw at
the end of the wharf should not have
seen or heard Fields fall in. Those men
| also are mysterious personages whom no
| one seems to know about.
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