New Britain herald., 1915-02-23
PARDONfD OF MURDER
 HE SEEKS HIS FAMILY
Alfred Fields Rhodes Killed Gen. eTal in J. s. AIm] in Fh liDpneS.
SURVIVED HORRIBLE MASSACRE
Released From Federal Prison at Alcatraz Islard Nov. ,, 1914, After Serving Eleven Years of Fifty-Ycar Sentence
Sentence,

Sentence.
 Alfred Fields Rhodes, survivor of one Of the most horrible massa cres in the annals of Filipino warfare. sen fenced to fifty years in prison by Gen eral Fred D. Grant and pardoned on Nov. :, 1914, by President Woodrow Wilson after serving ten years, eleven months and twenty-one days of his sentence, slept in the police station in this city last night and this morn ing left on the last part of his jour- ney across the continent for South Windsor, Conn.,, where he enlisted in Company c, Ninth Infantry, in 1887.
 The case of Quartermaster Ser Seant Rhodes has been before the military authorities for the last ten years and has been reviewed time and again. Presidents Taft and Roose- welt denied him pardon. but this was done partly because of Rhodes threat that he would get General Grant as soon as he got out of prison. Gen eral Grant died in the Waldorf As tora Hotel in New York two years ago this month, and the efforts to secure the pardon of Rhodes were re-
  petition for pardon sent to President Wilson was accompanied by the sworn statements of 750 army officers.
 Massacre Was Inhuman.
 Rhodes is only forty-two years old, but he looks older than many a Civil war veteran. He still clngs to a slouch hat, but his clothes have been given him by civilians that have be- friended him on his way eastward from AIcatraz Island, the federal prison situated just outside of San Francisco bay. His hair is gray and his gaunt frame is stopped a re- i suit of the tortures he suffered at the i hands of the. Filipinos in 1899 and | his later Imprisonment.
 The story of this massacre, told in i a matter of fact manner by Rhodes, i is one. of. incredible cruelty. Com pany c was eating breakfast in the i camp at Catebeloen, on the Island Of i Samar. on Sunday morning, June 6, 1 1901, when the "goo zoos" as the f natives are known by the soldiers, led { by a deserter from the army, broke in upon them from all sides in over wheIming force The soldiers were taken unaWares and unarmed, but they fought desperately. There was no hope, however, and only four men and one of the nurses survived. Not one of these escaped uninjured and 126 were killed
 The Twenty-siXth Infantry, which anne to the rescue, found life in. the bodies of Rhodes, three other men and a nurse. What the Filipinos did -o Rhodes would have meant the death of the ordinary man. His body was badly mutilated by their bolos. He is now living without several organs and minus eighteen inches of his intestines Seven months and sixteen days were spent by Rhodes in he hospital, after which he was de- , ,ailed on guard duty.
 Seeks Survivors Here. Rhodes came to New Britain on a , earch for two of the survivors or I he massacre, whose names he gave .s Thomas Hickey and John Birming T lam. The other survivor was John i Coleman of Pittsfield, Mass. The 2 lurse who survived is Miss Buck, still i wing in Germantown, Pa, who has With Rhodes several e ines during his term of imprison- Q nent She and her three compan- C ons, the Misses Roland, Dicrick and ''
 
 avage natives and then buried alive n n the sand Members of the 26th c uncovered their bodies and q he physicians revived Miss Buck af- t CT several hours of artificial respir- tion.
 pr. Harry Griswod of Wethersfield, ,as not in the camp at the time, but as lying on a cot in his room when S' he natives burst in upon him. He mpted his Colt automatic before he -as overpowered. seven natives fall lg before his fire. The savages be- m eyed that the fighting qualities of ds ne American soldiers would descend ;,, pon those who ate their hearts. The cart of Dr. Griswold was one of o' nose devoured by the savages and his '" cad was carried around on a pole. re General Jacob Smith was in com- land of the troops in the Philippines IT the time of the massacre and he fic as so enraged by it that he ordered ar le soldiers to shoot every Filipino tn n sight It is said this order was le reason for the placing of General eff red D. Grant in command, who ar lopted a different policy toward the hi atives. dr
 Rhodes Kills General.
 Rhodes, however, lived with a ter ble hate in his soul for all Filipinos hich his officers believed influenced 6 later actions. He was on sentry E' Ity one day in 1903 when two F'ili- co nos came through the gate in a cara fri 70 cart and just inside began fight fir 2. According to the story told b. E, nodes, General Alengo Seivo, a Fil- in mo who had gone over to the United su ates forces, was at the gate at the De
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