The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-09
LIMBLESS BODY IN RIVER.
FOUND BETWEEN ri PILING OF
TWO EAST sIDB FERRY SLIPS.

Tho dismembered body OF q man was found
floating In the Enclosure between the ferry slips
Of tho Roosevelt Street and the James Slip
ferries about 10 O'Clock yesterday morning. 1t
10 almost certain that the man was murdered
and that his murderers endoavorod to conceal
his identity and their crime By destroying the
body before they disposed Of It In the river.
Just before 10 o'clock in the morning Peter
Petersen, who 10 n deckhnnd on the ferryboat
Montauk of the Roosevelt street line. went into
the Enclosure between the slips for the pur-
pose of collecting the driftwood. Tho tides
bring In great quantities OF driftwood
to this slip, and the men connected with tho
ferries gather 1t and carry II homo for 1rewood.
Petersen had gathered quite q bundle Of the
wood when no discovered the ~dismembored body
floating about midway the length Of the in
closure and on tho Jamos's slip aide about three
feet from the pilinR. He ran and told Police
man Hawkins. who Is on duty at the ferry. and
Hawkins sent word to the Oak street station.
Then no got a rope. and, with the aid Of some Of
tho men who hang around the dock. he fastened
it about the body and drcw 1t up out Of tho
water.
There was tho trunk entire, but both arms
were gone at the shoulders, the right leg was
entirely gone. and the left log had been chopped
of just above the knee. There was eleven and
q quarter inches of 1t left. About two-thirds Of
the head had been cut of, beginning at the
throat under the chin and cutting aslant up
ward, taking Off the left car and leaving about
one.half Of the right ear. There was O little Of
tho skull bone left, and a patch Of skin from
tho back Of tho neck, perhaps two and o half
inches up the skull. On this patch Of skin
there was n fringe Of hair. dark brown in color
and mixed with gray. There was an oval Of
bare scalp above this fringe Of hair, showing
that the man had been bald.
Two or three policemen went down to the ferry
from the Oak street station and TANNED tho
body. They made up their minds that a murder
had been committed, and notified Headquarters
accordingly. Inspector Adam Cross and Detoc-
tive Sergeant Reap came down and examined
tho body. They also were convinced that the
man had been murdered. The suggestion was
made by some of the reporters present that per-
haps the body was tho unused part of q cadaver
that medical students had been working on.
The hacking manner of the cutting was in itself
enough to disprove any theory Of tho kind.
Among the reporters who examined the body
was q physician. He said it was not possible
that the work had been done by any medical
student. and he gave half a dozen reasons for
this view.
1t was moro than two hours after Petersen
discovered the body in tho river when Coroner
Fitzpatrick and his deputy. DR.. Donlin. arrived
at the ferry. The body, which had been hauled
up on tho piles, was covered with a rubber sheet.
and tho police and detectives began a further
investigation to satisfy themselves how it had
como inside the cribwork. In the meantime
tho news of the discovery had spread all
over Cherry Hill. and several hundred per.
along the streets. Several hundred more
on the BROOKLYN Bridge saw that come;
along the ratings and stared down. The ferry.
houses were filed with crowds that paid . cents
apiece to get a Look !, { out It. Of the back windows:
:6ey could do to fight back tho people who
OF %" the boats % e."% Morbid ID Curiosity Dn i o yo ED n women eae Sa inpo
the struggle NIs. az !, T ;naLs as HSs w and they hey demanded ssrS 6rsi
vented from seeing themselves:
The %cribwork between these two slips extends
out from the shore about 200 feet, l. is seventy
end. In the Centre Of this oribworE the bed Of
low tide is visible. but is covered at high tide.
On both sides q the stone pilo the water 70
and boxes. some Of which has been confined
tnere for years. The piles all around the two
s side ,S 81 this ci inc apit, :, Are he, w set close iSsm toggHIth her:
stuff inside the Enclosure drifted in through the
spaces. about six feet in width. at the ferryhouse
on each side OF the inolosure.
As stated before. The body was found about
ldlI way up Lnc lnClObuTt. oeIWe6n IL ana Inc
open space where it must have entered were
two barriers. in the shape OF logs. The men
S around b.sn ,h Infer ferry y, Esme'n 21eses a that the these sn logs
emily blocked the passage OF any object and
would keep it from floating to that part of the
inclosure where tho body was. In carrying on
their investigation the police questioned all The
ferry hands and all of the men who work around
the docks In the neighborhood; They, found a
boy named Connors who said that he had been
In the Enclosure late The previous afternoon
hAan there fhrn he WOuld surely haya aeon IT
and ho know that 1t was not there. 1t was
plain. therefore, that the body must have drifted
&c sSgf Petersen ea%s enT went tn to p get his is wood sessi PbS 1t hoW
it got beyond these two logs that blocked the
loss serious BELIEF that perhaps 1t had been car
ried into the i%nclosure and dropped down into
When Coroner Fitzpatrick and DR.. Donlin
arrived the first careful examination of the
body was made and measurements were taken.
1t was seventeen inches across the shoulders
and the trUnk was twenty-siI inches long. Tho
body was. that OF a large man. DIR. Donlin said,
man was, probably nearly, six feet high and
weighed between 22O and 240 pounds; There
muscular man. The skin. where it was, not dis
colorcd. WAS soft and white. On the left hip
there was a wart: the right ear. part OF which
eased. Evidently the man had had something
There had undoubtedly been abscesses there.
Around the neck there was q complete circle
WncTC Inc Heon was ulbcOlOTeu, ana IL ALMOST
warranted the assumption that the men, had
been choked to death. Before tho doctor had
finished his examination he said that he
thought that the discoloration was natural.
There was red blood left In the body, showing
that it had not been in the water q very long
time. There were no marks on the body itself.
On the part of the leg remaining there was a
wound very nenr the spot where the leg was
amputated. This wound apparently went
through the leg. and there was a mark
though blood had coaRulated under, the
AKIN. and III had every ADneAranCa Of being
n wound made by a bullet. But that was only
q surmise. the doctor said. The amputetions
were examined carefully. The flesh around
each arm had been cut and then tho arm dis.
sharp knife. and probably by some one who did
not know much about II body. because the cuts
were not straight. though they were not Jagged.
and the person who inflicted them had evidently
felt with his knife to discover the joints. The
mutilatorh had underworld IN tho same way to
discover the hip joint, but had failed In that.
the body. The left ley had boon either chopped
no effort apparently to find the Joint on that leg.
left indicated that the skull had been fractured
by blows or by a bullet or something OF that
Kind before the effort to remove the head had