The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-08-22
JAPANESE CABIN BOY AND COOK
UNDER ARREST.
STORY TOLD BY The GREW
Boy Refused to Work and Resisted
an Attempt to Compel Him to
Obey Orders.

San Francisco, Aug. 2O-Advices
have reached this city from Honolulu
per steamer Alameda of the murder
OF Captain j. j. Jacobson, of the lum-
ber schooner Fred J.. Woods, by the
cabin boy, a Japanese named Tana-
bara Gesaboro. S. OFT, the Japanese
cook is charged with being an acces-
sorry before the fact. The murder oc-
Cured on the high seas July 80, the
captain being stabbed with a butcher
knife.
The four-masted American schooner
Fred J. Woods, bound from Portland
to China, with cargo OF lumber, an
chored off the port Of Honolulu early
on the morning of August 5, flying
signals of distress and in charge Of
Mate H. Meyer. The customs officer
who went out to her found Captain j.
J. Jacobson lying dead and mutilat-
ed, wrapped in a canvas shroud in the
fore part of the vessel. The Japanese
cabin boy, who had butchered the
captain, was in the. hold, heavily iron
ed. with lumber piled around him.
The Japanese cook was found locked
in the cabin.
In another cabin, with her five
months-old baby in her arms and
21-months-old girl playing about her,
was Mrs. jacobson, the widow of the
dead commander -
The story Of the murder patched to-
gether from details given by differ
ent members of the crew is as fol-
lows:
Both the cook and the cabin boy
were picked up in Portland. After
sailing, the cook and the boy refus-
ed to do any work that did not please
them. Between $3.50 and Z a. m. on
July 80 the captain tried to learn why
the boy had not done certain work
which had been ordered. The COM
mander found the boy sitting in the
cooks galley and when questioned
as to his negligence he drew from
under his coat long butcher knife
and made a lunge at the captain The
latter got out of harms way and or
dered the boy to give him the knife.
At this command small panel,
which is used to pass food from the
cooks galley to the sailors quarters
was opened by French sailor nam
ed More. He saw the boy with the
knife and noticed that the captain
had the boy by the shoulders, but
More was powerless to go to the as
sistance of the commander, the hole
being too small to allow his body
to pass through. The cook was not
in sight.
The boy and Jacobson struggled
to the donkey room, where the pas
sage way is only two and a half feet
wide. The boy was seen to bend his
knees and run the knife up through
the captains body. The captain fell
over the little assassins body. and
in a moment the whole ships crew
and Mrs jacobson was on the scene.
It was only the determined stand TAX
en- by Mate Meyer which prevented
the crew from throwing the murderer
in the sea. The captain was carried
on deck, dead.
Captain Jacobson is spoken of in the
highest terms by the entire crew, who
claim that he treated them as we'll
as the boy, in the most gentlemanly
manner. The cabin boy expressed no
sorrow for his deed. When the cook
was leaving the boat he was heard to
say to the boy. Don't give me
away" This remark caused an in
vestigation to be made and he was
charged with being an accessory to
the murder.