Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-12-22
WRONG BODY SENT
GIRL, WHO FINDS
FATHER IN ASYLUM
Story Told F~reehOlders Shows
Confused State of HOspi-
tai Records.

A gruesome tale Of Il young woman
who, having been informed that her
father had died in the South Orange
avenue insane asylum, had the body
brought home. only TO discover it was
not that of her father, and then found
thai her father was alive in the in
~stitutien, is the latest development in
the investigation of the tangled af-
fairs at the asylum following the dis
: covery of a eharred skeleton in the
abandoned South Orange avenue build
ing.
Another case is. that OF a man who
was notified in 1905 that his wife had
died in the institution. 1t developed
that she a been discharged from the
hospital as cured in 1882 and had been
living with her husband since that
time.
Both of these TRANCE tales were told
f~reeholders' hospital committee. which
is Investigating the management
e the institution. They were
offered by Supervisor Fred l..
Baldwin. who obtained them from
Prosecutor Mott Here is the story Of
the mistake in bodies as it was tod
in affidavit form by William Gold
sticker. an undertaken, of 176 Cour
street:
'In the latter part of the year 1905
Mrs. Mary Igler requested me to get
the body of her husband q being an
undertaker). an inmate of the South
Orange Avenue Asylum, she having re-
ceived word that he had died. l went
10 the asylum with my helper and saw
an orderly. whose name | do not know.
but who, I think, is still there. He
showed ms a body which had a tag OH
il bearing the name of Anton Igler, and
a burial permit. l told him this was
not the body, as ] knew the man be-
fore he was committed to the institu-
ton. I told him that some other I'M
dertaker must have had my body, ana
he said
mo. there has been no death for days
and the records must be correct. You
are a funny undertaken, as most under
takers are glad to get a body.
Il asked him to let me see DR.. Dean,
whom ! knew. | saw DR.. Dean. who
was at dinner, and told him that this
was not my body and also told him
that my man was an older man. He
old me that this was the body and
Illness had changed it. ] then en-
halmed the body at the institution and
took it to the Igler home at 126 Bruce
street.
Il draped the room and put Grape on
the front door and then told his daugh-
ter TO come in. She asked me how her
father looked. l then told her that the
body had changed considerably and |.
doubted whether this was the body of
her father. When she looked at the
body she exclaimed;
1t is not my father. Ny father had
a thumb off one OF his hands,
We then examined the body and
found Tic thumbs were intact. She
got excited and wanted to know what
they had done with her iatner's body.
/ took the body and she went with me
70 the asylum. When we got there
Drs. Dean and Stiles, and told
them what I thought of them. We
up in the elevator, and on enter
ing a ward Miss Igler saw him there
DR.. Dean asked the asylum su-
pervisor. Conover. how this thing hap
pened. and he said that the cards must
have got mixed up"
Anton 1gler died at the institution
February %, 1906, at the age of 10
A statement. submitted by De-
-eetive Mason. of the prosecutors office.
reads as follows:
Michael Cofey says: On June /. 1879
my wife. Mary Coffoy, was admitted to-
The old hospital in Camden street. and
April 30, 1882. she was discharged
cured"
Five years ago I learned that my
wife was on the records of the asylum
as being dead. My wife went to see
Or Dill and he promised to mail her a
copy of the record, and early in 1895
my wife received through the mail a
slip of paper which read as follows:
Mary Coffey, admitted June /. 1879:
died April 30. 1882. Daniel A. Dill
My wife is now in good health and
living with me at my present home in
West Orange"
coffey today denied that he made the
attributed to him by Mason.
Showing the tangled condition of the
records, Expert Accountant Conant
submitted the following entries on some
OF the records:
Anna Kelly, admitted February :
1904. died July 2s. 1909; another Anna
Kelly is o alive and in Ward Q: a