The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-03-17
GETS REPR|EVE ON
EVE Of EXECUTION
GOVERNOR SULZER ORDERS AN
INVESTIGATION OF STORY OF
CONDEMNED MAN.
CLAIMS POLICE JOB
DIsCREDITED INSPECTOR CHARG-
ED WITH FORCING CONFESSION
ny PLYING MORPHINE AND,
WHISkEf.
CLAIMS POLICE ]

! NEW YORK. March 16--Governor
/ Sulzer has granted reprieve of sixty
/ days to John Mulraney, who was TO
have been electrocuted at Sing Sing
4 tomorrow morning for the murder
F OF Paddy the Priest. saloon
keeper, at Tenth avenue and Forty
second street on the night or October
+ s. 1874.
Warden Kennedy, Of Sing Sing,
called Sheriff Hamburger on the long
I! distance phone today just as the
sheriff was about to start for the
prison. and informed the sheriff that
the governor had ordered a reprieve
for the purpose OF investigating the
condemned mans story that he was
framed by the police
Mulraney, known in the Helis
Kitchen district as Happy Jack, in
tereSted several persons in his case
after ne was placed in a death cell
at Sing Sing. Among these were
I Father Cashin the priest Who de-
votes much of his time TO the con-
ISOLATION of condemned men, and Will
liam a. MeCabe, the confidential
agent of the superintendent Of prisons,
The facts of record are that Null
raney was convicted and sentenced TO
death after ii had been shown IN court
that he subscribed in the West TWEEN
ty-fifth street police station to con-
fession made by q friend of his. named
bowling. that they had killed Paddy
the Priest
Admits Crimes. Bat Not Murder.
Mulraney's story, which is now to
be investigated by Governor Sulzer, is
very different. Admitting that he had
been a burglar a drunkard and a
morphine user, Mulraney insisted that
he was innocent of the murder OF the
saloonkeper. He said that on the
night of the murder he was helpless
from drink in his mothers fiat on
! East 108th street, far away from
Paddy the Priests" place. He had
been that evening with 81 chance ac-
quaintance named Downing. The next
day he left the city and tried to get
work in Massachusetts. Failing, he
returned 10 New York and was ar
rested for the murder of the saloon
keeper.
Mulraney has told investigators at
Sing Sing that after Inspector Hughes
(then head of the detective bureau)
had offered a confession from Dowi-
ing. that Hughes attempted to make
him confess. but that he refused
Then, he said. he was taken to the
West Twenty fifth street station,
where a detective gave him whiskey
and morphine and got him in SO mud
died a condition that he signt some
sort of paper. not knowing exactly
what it contained.
Witnesses Swear to a Lie.
Three witnesses have told the dis
trict attorney that Mulraney was un-
conscious from liquor in his mothers
home at the time the saloonkeeper
was murdered. They are Nicholas
Jacobs, William Reilly and Emma pa
wilson Other witnesses VIII appear
before the governor in Mulraney's
behalf Mutraney's counsel is JOS
eph A. Shay. who is Charles Beck
er's lawyer.
An outcome Of the governors in
vestigation Of Mulraney case may
be an inquiry by the district attor-
neys office of the conduct of police
men who investigated the murder of
the saloonkeeper. District Attorney
Whitman is examing the record Of
Mulranys trial and questioning
witnesses as to the actions OF the po-
lice officers involved