Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1908-07-14
CLAIMED SON
WAS A MESSIAH
Little Boy Branded With
the Name.

New York, July 13:-(SpeciaD-
The case of Mrs. Collar and the lat
ter's daughter, Mrs. GoodselI, who
were taken there on last night suf-
fering from the effects of a delusion
that Mrs. GoodselIs 6-year-old son
George is the Messiah of the Jews, is
one of the strangest case ever re-
ceived in Bellevue. The women rave
about the child being the son of
God, crying out that he has come
into the world to redeem it a second
time
The boy is now in BeIlvue recov-
ering from the effects of severe
burnings to which his mother sub
jected him in attempting to brand
the word, Messiah" on his fore
head and neck. Only the arrival Of
the police at the Goodseu fiat, on
Thursday night saved the boy from
being further tortured by his dis
tracted mother and grandmother
There was evidence that the boy
had been tortured on occasions prior
to last night, as indicated by several
scars of burns on his forehead and
neck. The branding had been done
with a curling iron.
With her mother, Mrs. Mary Collar,
the woman moved into the East
Sixty-sixth Street house three days
ago. 1t was through the kindness of
some person who took the little boy
to Roosevelt Hospital to have the old
burns on his head and neck dressed
that the police learned what had been
going on in the Goodsell fiat The
boy had burns on his head and neck
and black eye. He had evidently
been aWed by his mother, for at
first he refused to tell how he had
been burned. Late Thursday after
noon, however, in answer to persis-
tent questioning of Dr. Mills, one of
the hospital physicians, he confessed
that it was his own mother who had
inflicted his injuries.
DR. Mills sent to the Goodsell
apartment to investigate the matter
and they reported that conditions
were as the boy said. The police
were notified and Thursday night
decided to investigate after the boy
had returned home. AS they entered
the apartment house they heard
screams in the Goodsell apartment.
All the tenants were awake and
there was great excitement in the
house, many of the women thinking
that murder was being done.
When the police broke in they
found Mrs. Collar and Mrs. Goodsell
raving and crying out that they be-
lieyed in publication by fire. In
the midst of the disorder something
that sounded like an explosion in
tensified the excitement, and to
make matters worse some hysterical
person turned in an alarm Of fire,
adding the clang of fire gongs and a
bigger crowd to the scene
The reserves from East Sixty-eighth
Street Station came also, and were
stationed on various floors of the
tenement to quiet the excited ten
ants
1t required all the strength of half
a dozen policemen to subdue the
two crazy women. They kept dis
claiming disconnected passages, about
the crucifXion, publication by fire.
and the boy Messiah, and fought hard
when the police started to take them
from the house They continued
screaming and fighting all the way
to Bellevue.
The women repeated their wan
dering statements to the doctors
there, and when they were sent to
the psyocopathathic ward exclaimed:
Cruelty us, that is what we expect;
the child is the Messiah, the long
expected Messiah of the Jews"
Mrs. Goodsell admitted to the po-
lice that she had struck the boy
with piece of wood and given him
a black eye
The doctors say the boy will re-
cover, but that he will carry the
marks of his mothers mad cruelty to
the grave.