Friday, October 24, 2014

Love and Death

Feb 14 1885
Died on Her Wedding Day 

Willam Duffy and Miss Mary McCrystal, sister of Dr. McCrystal, were married at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Minersville, at six o'clock Sunday evening. The wedding was the fashionable event of the season. The couple held a reception until midnight. The bride complained of feeling badly all day, and at two o'clock Monday morning the young husband startled the household by announcing her serious illness. A doctor, on arriving, said that the case was hopeless, and the priest who but a few hours before had pronounced the benediction at the completion of the wedding ceremony was called to administer absolution. She died at five  o'clock Monday morning, of paralysis of the heart.

How sad this is! She was married only 11 hours before she died.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Hit by a Freaking Train!

March 9, 1907
Aged Man Run Down In The North End

R. W. Sillick Was Struck by an Engine Last Night

R. W. Sillick, an aged resident of Brighton Avenue, met with a peculiar accident shortly before 9 o'clock las evening.
He was walking along the Delaware and Hudson tracks towards his home and had reached a point about 100 yards from East Market street crossing, when he was run down by a rapidly moving coal train.
Luckily the unfortunate man was tossed to one side out of harm's way, thus saving him from being run over and terribly mangled.
His cries for help attracted the attention of Gateman Gallagher, who summoned assistance and the injured man was removed to the home of his son on Deacon street.
Despite the fact that Mr. Sillick suffered excruciating pain, no bones were found to be fractured, his injuries being chiefly bruises of a serious nature.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Child Murderer Wylie Morgan

Feb 27, 1923
Mob Threatens To Lynch Fiend 
Murderer Of Girl
Guards Have Hard Time Keeping Mob Back in Philadelphia

A Fiendish Crime
Confessed Slayer Led Police to Tiny Body Frozen in Creek
Philadelphia, Feb 27 -
A fiendish crime was revealed here at midnight last night when Wylie Morgan confessed to abducting Lillian Gilmore, a six-year-old child, and directed the officers to where the body was found.
When the facts in the case were learned, Morgan narrowly escaped lynching at the hands of an angry mob.
The body of the six-year-old victim of the fiendish kidnapper was found frozen in a creek near Croyden, Penn., at midnight last night. Morgan, the girl's self-confessed abductor, will as a result be formally charged with the murder of the little girl. When it was learned that Morgan had confessed and following the finding of the girl's body, a crowd of several thousand people gathered at the police station here and threatened to form a mob and lynch him. Extra guards were thrown about the station and it was with great difficulty that they prevented the mob from taking Morgan and lynching him.
After he had confessed to the crime, Morgan took police to the scene of the crime, where the body was found and recovered. There was every evidence that the little girl had been terribly beaten by Morgan. Her jaw had been broken in five places and there were numerous cuts and bruises found on the body.

Feb 28, 1923
Swift Justice To Be Meted Out 
Child Murderer
Detectives to Question Morgan About Other Child Murders

Philadelphia, PA., Feb 28 -
"Swift justice" is to be meted out to Wylie Morgan, confessed abductor and murderer of little Mildred Gilmore, the six-year-old child found by the police frozen in a nearby stream after Morgan confessed to the crime. This is the plan of officials here.
Present plans call for the coroner's inquest to be held Friday, an indictment on a murder charge to follow from the grand jury on Saturday, and the trial of Morgan will begin next week. Detectives from Baltimore and New York are now arriving here and will question Morgan in regard to several unsolved child murders which have occurred in those cities within the past few months.

Jan 31, 1924
Respite For Murderer

Harrisburg, Jan 2 - Gov. Pinchot today issued a respite in the case of Wylie Morgan, Philadelphia, convicted of murder in the first degree, changing the date of execution from the week beginning Monday, Jan. 7, to the week beginning Monday, Feb. 4. The respite was granted because the case is pending in the Supreme Court.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Murder in Luzerne County

Apr 18, 1885
A Murder Near Wilkes-Barre.

A Wilkes-Barre dispatch of the 13th to the Philadelphia Press, says:
About 11 o'clock on Sunday evening, the body of Andrew Macnack, a Pole, was discovered lying on the Lehigh Valley Railroad track two miles from Wilkes-Barre, at Mill Creek, bearing unmistakable evidences of foul play, and evidently placed there in hopes a train would mangle it. The head was cut and bruised almost to a jelly, and a bullet hole was discovered in the back of the neck and another in the right arm. Tuesday morning Charles McNamee, the keeper of a saloon near the point where the body was found, Hugh Trainer, John Kennedy and William Kennedy were arrested and charged with complicity in the murder.
The crime had created great excitement here and at the trial Monday night a crowd was in attendance. The testimony showed that on Sunday evening Macnack and three Hungarians entered McNamee's saloon drunk, and began a fight. They were thrown out by those present and went away, but came back in a few minutes and renewed the fight. A hard struggle ensued, windows and furniture were broken, chairs, pokers and other weapons used, and Macnack, who seemed mad with drink, was badly beaten.
The Hungarians finally went a way, two in one direction and two in another. A few minutes after a pistol shot was heard but no attention paid to it. John Madure, the Hungarian who went off with Macnack, swore that when they had gone a short distance, Macnack said he was going back for his hat, which he had lost in the fight. Madura tried to persaude him not to do so, but he went, saying he would get his bad or they would have to fight for it. Madura went home and did not see Macnack again.
When the body was found the pockets were turned inside out and there was evidence of a struggle near by, and foot prints, as if two men had gone away from the body. The prisoners were all discharged, except McNamee, who was held in $500 for assaulting Macnack. Later developments point Joseph Maduro as the murderer, who fled upon learning that he was to be arrested.