The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-09-14
STEW Ard THE MURDERER
John Anderson Killed Captain and
Mate Of Olive Peeker.
THE FIRST OFFICIAL REPORT RE-
CEIyED AT BOSTON.

Deed Was Committed Apparently Under
Provocation-Steward Afterward Dom
mated the shipsand Compelled Men Ito
Fire andssLeave Her--Men AreI All Pris-
oners and Will Be Brought to Boston,
Boston, September 13.-The first official
tidings Of the awful tragedy at sea on the
Boston schooner Olive Pecker, in which
Captain Whitman Of Rockland, Maine,
and First Mate Saunders were murdered,
came to this city today in letter to
Collector Winslow Warren of the port in
closing copy of the cablegram from
Bahia, Brazil, transmitted to the State
Department by Vice Consul Brice. The
cablegram reads as follows:
John Anderson, a naturalized Ameri-
can citizen, steward of the schooner Olive
Pecker, killed Captain Whitman and
Mate Saunders apparently under provoca-
ton, after which the crew seemingly un-
der threatssof the steward fired the,vessel,
leaving her in their boats one hundred
and twenty miles from the Brazilian
coast. They drew lots to go in pairs, the
steward leaving with sailor named John
Lind, a Swede, while the other four en-
| barked in the other boat and denounced
the occurrence at the first place they
reached. Anderson and Lind were taken
prisoners on board a Norwegian vessel at
| Port Bahia, and fully confessed the crime
| to me. All six men are now prisoners in
| the house of correction, and await an
| American war vessel to send them to the
states, as ordinary steamers are unable or
+rA nlrn+ I-E
of the Brazilian authorities is worthy of
great praise. The names of the four
| prisoners are Engineer VIM. Horsbrough
an Englishman, Jaun Dies BARREL
| Gumierrez, Spaniard, Andrew Larch,
an Englishman and Martin Barsted a
Norwegian. Dispositions of all the men
have been taken by me and will be sent
| by the first steamer, together with the
photographs of he men.
| (Signed) "BRICE, Vice Consul
| A copy of the cablegram was also sent
to the owners of the vessel in this city.
The first authentic account of the
murders transfers the guilt to other
| by Steward John Anderson, q native Of
| Denmark. but naturalized American
citizen. After the crimes had been COM
mitted the murderer held the crew in q
| state of abject terror, and compelled them
to do his bidding. In previous reports Of
Il
| been variously given as Horsbrough, the
| engineer seaman Lind and Peter Thomp-
! son, but neither of these committed the
crime, in fact there was no man named
Thompson on board the Inflated schooner
| The first news of the crime reached Bahia
| by the German steamer Sohonburg on
August IA, her captain reporting passing
burning vessel on the night of Augut 6.
He stated that as the steamer ap-
preached he saw she was a large lumber
laden schooner with her foremast over
board and spanker hauled out. She was
burning fore and aft and as no boats were
in sight, and nobody appeared to be on
board the steamer continued to Bahia
where she reported the circumstances.
The prisoners will be brought to the
United States on the cruiser Lancaster
which has been ordered to the Charles
town navy yard for an overhauling. 1t is
therefore quite probable that the men will
be landed here and their trial held here,
not only the home of the illfated craft,
but the scene of the trial of the men
charged with committing that other
ocean horror, the barkentine Herbert
Fuller murder.