The Washington herald., 1920-04-04
Girl Tortured
WMHot Irons
Accuses Fathe,
Marked from Head to Foot
With Scars, Cuts and
Livid Bruises.

New York. April 3.-Msrked from
head to foot with the scars of hot
irons. livid cuts. and tissues NAL
formed and hideous from blows, IL
year-old Minnie Gall nder in the
Jersey Avenue Police Court told
Magistrate Harry Howard Dale such
a story of ferocious cruelty and tor
ture as rivals in compxfison the
horrors of medieval dungeon halls.
During the girls halting recital
her father, John Gallander, wrung
his hands and called upon God 10
witness that he was innocent of
felonious assault. with which he
was charged.
For il was her father, together
with her stepmother, now dead. who
burned and cut and beat her, ac-
cording to the story of the girl.
Saw Irons Heated.
They made me stand In the kitch-
en- without any clothes on while
they heated irons in the fire until
they were red Then they put the
irons on me. First 1t hurt SO that
I screamed and cried. But they
laughed. Then tainted. They would
stop then until some other time"
This. repeated over and over,
varying only in degree and degen-
eracy of cruelty. was the story of
Minnie. a shrinking. frightened girl,
who does not look her age.
Gallander, who is 56 years old,
is a clay-modeling vaudeville actor.
The charge, made against him after
an investigation by Charles Har-
stcdt of the Brooklyn Children's So
ciety. assisted by Assistant District
Attorney Helen P. Mccormick. in
wolves alleged cruelty dating from
the time of his second marriage to
May, 1919, when Minnie escaped
Fl ON his home through the window
of a coal cellar and found refuge
with the Protestant Sisters of Man
hattan.
Fed With whisky.
when l was hungry and asked
for something to eat they gave me
whisky" the girls story went on.
My stepmother gave my half broth
ers and sisters a package of needles
and told them to stick them through
my arms. Then she gave a pair of
plyers to my half-brother Albert
and told him to pull out my teeth.
He broke off four at the roots be-
fore 1 tainted. They laughed and
had good time because I lasted
that long"
Some of the other cruelties in
volved in the charge are these:
She was made to stand, practically
nude. while knives, forks and broken
dishes were hurled at her.
She was moved, when the family
changed residence, in a trunk.
A grave was dug for her in the
cellar and several times a week she
was taken, with threats and beat
ings, to view the yawning hole.
Biames Dead Wife.
According to a statement made bv
Gallander's attorney, he blames his
second wife, who died last FaI, for
the cruelties practiced on his
daughter. Her four children. tho
half-brothers and sisters who as
sisted In the alleged torture, are
three girls, eleven. nine and six
years old, and a boy of fourteen.
All were put in an institution when
the father married for the third
time last August.
Minnie testified that after she es-
capped from her fathers house she
wandered about the city several
days and finally tainted on the
streats. She was taken to a Jamaica
hospital. where needles were ex-
tracted from her arms and her
wounds healed.
Oath SeaIs Lips.
Mindful of the oath she had been
to take upon the Bible
by her parents. binding her not to
inform outsiders of the cruelties,
she told a fantastic story of hay-
ing just arrived in this country
from England.
Removed to the home of the Pro-
Sisters in Manhattan, she
was given care and affection and
thrived mentally and physically. 1t
was when she was prepared for
in February that. in
gratitude to the sisters and re-
morseful for the falsehood under
which she was living, she revealed
her identity and told her story.
Gallander is held in s2.5o0 bail