Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-09-18
THE TRUE STORY.
Official Advices as to the Olive
Pecker Tragedy.
Steward Anderson Did the Murders
He and Crew Sent Back.

BOSTON. Mass, Sept. 1.-THE first official
Intelligence regarding the awful murders
on board the Olive Pecker has just reached
here In communication received by Col
lector Warren from the commissioner OF
navigation at Washington. C. The murders
we're committed by Steward John Ander-
son. native Of Denmark, but naturalized
American citizen. After the crimes were
committed the murderer held the crew in u
state of abject terror and compelled them to
do his bidding. In previous reports OF the
horror the name OF the murderer has been
variousy given rs Horsbrough. the engi-
neer Seaman Lind and Peter Thompson,
but neither OF these committed the crime; in
fact, there was no man named Thompson on
board the Inflated schooner. According to
the report, the murderer, with the remain
der OF the crew, will be forwarded to the
United States bya United States war vessel,
which will undoubtedly be the Lancaster.
The csblegram received by the state
department, a copy OF which was sent to
Collector Warren, reads AS follows John
Anderson, naturalized American citizen,
steward Of schooner Olive Pecker, killed
Captain Whitman and Mate Sanders. appar-
emily under provocation, after which the
crew, seemingly under threats of the stew
ard, fired the vessel, leaving her in their
boats 100 miles from the Brazilian coast.
They drew lots to go in pal 5, the
steward leaving with sailor named
John Lind, Swede, while the
other four embarked in the other
boat and denounced the occurrence at the
first place they reached. Anderson and
Lind were taken prisoners oil board Nor
wegian vessel at Port Bahia and fully con-
IeSseu tne crime TO int. All si,s mon are now
prisoners In the house of correction. and
await an American war vessel to send them
to the States. as ordinary steamers are I'M
able or unwilling to take tine men. The be-
havior Of the Brazilian authorities is
worthy OF great praise. The names of
the four other prisoners are Engineer
William Horsbrough, IN Englishman Juan
Dios BARREL Gumierrez Spaniard An
drew March, an Englishman. and Martin
Barstad, Norwegian. Dispositions of all
the men have been taken by me and will be
sent by the first steamer, together with pho
tographs OF the men.
"BRICE Vice-Consul"
The murderer, John Andersen, instead of
being burly, sinister-looking individual, is
a man Of rather weak physiognomy, with
mild manners. But fear, remorse, anguish
and horror can be read in every line Of his
countenance. At the examination Andersen
declared that nothing worth mentioning had
occurred on board the schooner for the first
three weeks OF sailing, but that after that
he, as we'll as the remainder of the crew,
was subjected to rough treatment both by
captain and mate, their lives being threat
ened over and over again; that one day,
after having been struck violently on the
mouth by the captain and this for the second
time, he asked the mate for protection until
coming into port. and that his demand was
repealed in brutal language !: that after this,
scared to death and afraid of his life he al
ways carried n revolver. and the captain
striking him later on. when called into his
cabin, and In the act Of hitting him with an
unified bottle he had fired one shot at him.
which, striking him In the head, killed him
instantaneously that after this he had
rushed on deck, and finding there the mate
had fired shot at him and that then the
mate had tried to .grapple with him.
when he fired another shot and yet
another, the last one killing the mate.
Then he went on to narrate how
on one occasion he had overheard con-
versation between the captain and mate, in
which it was planned to throw him over
board, and how the attempt was made later
on to put this plan into execution by the
mate. When asked by Mr. Brice to state
what happened after the captain and mate
were dead, he said: "They came together,
and 1t was agreed to throw the bodies over
board. I then proposed to them to take me
which they refused to do as they considered
had only. acted In sef-defence We
then consulted together what to do, and
all agreeing that we would not know how
to navigate the vessel, we thought that we
could do nothing else but set fire to her,
and this we did. We then took to the boats,
and after about 20 hours sailing we arrived
ON shore with no other clothing but what
we stood up in, as we had taken nothing
from the ship. In Bahia wo hoard that q |
Norwegian vessel was about to sail. We
went to the consulate of that country,
where we found the captain of said vessel,
who only engaged me- not requiring my
mate. l was one day on the vessel, which
had to sail early the next morning. when 1 |
was arrested by the police of the port"
Anderson's testimony Is corroborated by the
other prisoners.