The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-07-17


The old frame house known as the
Bulls Head Inn" standing on Grand
street not far from the Junction, is fast
e~runfbling to ruins and In a few years
more the place which knows it now will
know it no more. Once on a time. as
the story books say, 1t was a remarkable
house and its fame spread far and wide.
It stands now with its shutters drawn,
the windows gone. the doors hanging
TO the hinges by a few screws, and lis
weather boarding rotting into finder; the
ghost of former greatness as a hosiery
n country hotel. M 4aa4
When first its head lowered above the
little houses then clustering into a viz
lage or suburb of rseySC City, 1t was
the resort Of fashionable people. Drags
and elegant ~equipages drove up to its
doors depositsng wealthy people from New
York, who sought It's good cheer and
the pleasures of the beautifully kept
garden, whose avn extended to the
canal. But as years rolled on and other
houses hemmed it in and stuck their
wooden elbows into the sides of the old
inn It's Cory began to depart and 1t de-
generated into a common 'spub"-a
tayern-and If the police told the truth.
as they are expected to do, a very ques-
tionable resort.
Man a queer thing happened inside that
old house. Many a young man took there
his first step on the broad pathway of
crime, which leads inevitably to the cell
or the scaffold; many a home was dark
ened because of the influences of that
wicked old place on some of it's members.
and many a mother mourned for a
daughter whose fair reputation was
blemished by her association with the
Bulls Head. Those who know rhe house
WIN say that black crimes were once
traced to that spot, and ever Murder left
the imprint of his bloody fingers on
the walls of one of the rooms. The dark
deed was for a long time a mystery and
bafTted the police at the time. who had
or course plenty of clues. none Of which
LED TO satisfactory results. The story
One bright warm morning IN septem-
psr, many, years ago, two boys foundt the
almost naked body Of a man in the canal
at the foot of the garden Of the inn. It
Mas2lhat or a man of about forty years
OF age- The hair on the head was brown.
but II was impossible TO identify the
I~eaJures; they were fearfully decomposea
and partially destroyed by crabs nr eeis
The body was removed to the rnorene
ana the newspapers published the fact
q is discovery but no one knew who
y WAS anu IN a few days it was buried
II the dreary little cemetery on Snake
Hill, Potters Field.
NO one suspected a crime had been
commltfed. It was generally supposed
tnat the body was that of either a sui-
eide or an unfortunate batber MT tbe
sharp eyes of a Jersey City captain If
ponce who now sleeps in the West Side
catholic Cemetery discovered something
ing. eAtf
Happening not long after the body was
found to be In one of the rooms of the
Buis Inn ne noticed on the wan near
the Walnscoting a dark stain. Similar
Stains were on the wainscote and the
1oorIng underneath the carpet. They were
plood ana a subsequent analysis proved
human blood. Recalling the mystery ~
the dead mans death he made a secret ex-
animation OF the room. He found that an
attempt had been made to remove the
ssalns; and that the window sill had
evidently been planned and q portion of ii
reprinted. The carpet, too, at the place
where the stains were had been treated
with some chemical to remove the stains,
pscsuse ~ dye Of the pattern was lighter
there than az other places. Outside the
window he noticed that some of the fow-
ers directly underneath had been broken
as r some heavy weight had fallen on
thems the wfthered, broken stems showed
that clearly. From that point to the canal
there was a trail of feet Enthusiastically
clear.
He questioned the then proprietor. who
oS 9 ~ ANopCGtab4c Eli1lts pQ{ III CQIilt
not recall any row or any guest missing.
The proprietor willingly gave every as
sistance, and with the police captain ex-
amiEed every inch kof the ground in the
garden, but they were baffled.
Years went by until one day this captain
Of police happened to visit a lunatic asy-
lum in Pennsylvania, and while there
one of the keepers pointed out to him a
tall, powerfully built man who had been
committed to the institution two years
before from Scranton.
What Is his mania?" asked the cap
tain.
s.Oh, he has delusions. Sometimes he
thinks his father is going to kill him and
sometimes he says that he killed his
brother somewhere in Jersey; but Lor'
according to him. He has no brother that
/ know replied the keeper.
The captain made inquiries about the
patients anteeedents and found that he
came 10 live in Scranton about the time
of the discovery of the body in the Morris
Canal behind the Bulls Inn. Pursuing
his Investigation further he found that
the man had d brother who had myste-
riously disappeared. and his father re-
peatedly accused him of numbering him.
In a frenzy he assaulted his father and
was arrested in Scranton. During his im-
prisorment he cut his throat with a nail
he took from his shoe and for a long
time lowered between life and death. VI
tinately he was committed to the asy-
lum. where he died.
Il am convinced" said the captain at
the close of his story, THAT the man who
dered by his brother in the Bulls Inn and
fh m " n intQ tia aan adj "