The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-10
SERS RAN 4 FUNERAL COACH,
POLICEMAN BUCKLEY, MOURNER,
CRUSHED TO DEATH.


W2
srhrOuKh Procession Strikes Team
s--6OuthbOund MOtOFman Loses His
Head and Completes the Disaster.
The motorman is no respector Of funerals
that cross bis course. That IL the aphorism
tk Undertaken z. Z. Donovan, who has had
much experience in journeys from the west
ade OF town to Calvary by way Of the Thirty
fourth street ferry. The superstition per-
Eats In the Gas House district that II 10 bad
mck and bad form to cross a funeral, and
when the residents Of Thirty eighth street
and Second avenue saw two Second avenue
motorrnen try to divide the procession that
followed the hearse bearing the body OF
Mrs. Bridget Dineen Of Fifty-sixth street
and Ninth avenue to the ferry there were
murInnrs OF disapprobation, to put 1t mildly.
The course Of the procession was through
qhSrty-eighth street 10 First avenue and
down First avenue to the Thirty-fourth
street ferry. Seven OF the t~wenty-seven
coaches had crossed Second venue. In the
MAShth coach were Policeman Joseph Buckley
Of the Harlem substation Of the harbor
scuad, his wife and his niece. He was a
cousin Of Mrs. Dneen. As his coach,
driven by Daniel Doran, a veteran OF 6S,
started across the car tracks north and
kouth bound cars started simultaneously
Ia cut through the procession.
The motorman OF the ~northbound car,
william Gallagher, drove the hood Of the
front platform against the heads Of Doran's
horses. They reared, and the driver turned
them north and west. He saw the south
bound car impending, in charge OF Motor
man Francis Ryan, who apparently lost nus
head. Ryan's car smashed against the
right hand door Of the coach, which bad
whirled around and was heading west.
Policeman Buckley, who is stout, had
etarted to open the door when the horses
were hit by the northbound car, His foot
was on the step when the southbound car
TANNED the coach. Buckley was crushed
between the lamb and the door and the
coach was shunted several yards. Doran
was iostled from his seat to the pavement
on his head, and the policeman, who was in
plain clothes, fell unconscious on the track
when Motorman Ryan backed his car away
from the coach.
There was a great cash in the right temple
Of Buckley and Doran's head was smeared
With blood. Neither man moved. The Gas
House district indignation over the incident
rose to the height Of incipient riot at once.
The corner swarmed with men, boys and
women, who poured from the doors of a
hundred tenements. The interest of some
b the multitude might not have been so
Acute IL they had known that one OF the
Unconscious men vas a cop. There was no
doubt, however, that the sentiment of the
hob was for smashing the motormen.
Policemen Henry Kratch n Vernon
Bushnell forced their way through the
Eowd and took charge Of the morormen,
who had retreated into their cars and were
gripping their controllers, ready for at
tack, Policeman Kratch said it was the
first time in his experience that. he had
ever heard aUdS SnSy i%I. 4 H. an a. East sc SIDE w Grow sS
ugly mob, apd bushnell and ] had all we
&uld do to keep il from doing harm to
the prisoners. We had to use our billies
on the nearest persons to us before they
The motormen were taken into a florists
ehop on the west side Of the avenue, the
crowd following. uttering boots and threats.
Cops from adjoining posts arrived, and
with the assistance OF reserves from the
Thirty-ffth street station house the neigh
borhood Of the florists shop was cleared.
Doran was carried into a drug store on the
east side Of Second avenue and Buckley
was taken into the florists shop. The sur
Reon who came with the ambulance from
Bellevue said that Buckley had been killed
almost instantly. Doran came to just
before the arrival Of the surgeon and was
taken to Bellevue.
The horses meanwhile had broken from
the coach and dashed through East Thirty
eighth street toward the East River. They
tore over piles Of building material right
dow TO the pier. At every fifty feet or
less men ran out to intercept them. Some
were bowled over. The team would have
plunged overheard If there had not been a
sand barge moored there to receive them.
They tumbled exhausted on to the deck
OF the barge and we're caught and led back
10 the stable OF their owner, George Kelly
6f East Twenty-second street
The head Of the funeral procession stopped
within a couple Of minutes after Doran's
coach had been hit. The undertakes him
self went back from the hearse n found
that one Of the mourners was dead. Buck
ley's widow and her niece were unhurt.
They had made no effort to get out Of the
coach. II Buckley had not tried to do so
he would not have been injured, as only the
right side door Of The coach was broken.
the body OF it being unchanged save for
o few scratches. Undertaken Donovan will
bury Buckley in Calvary. Buckley was As
naara Of age and lived al anR East lasth street.