The Banished Children of Eve (83 page)

Finally
, using the alias of Henry G. Romaine (a play, perhaps on the name of a variety of lettuce—“lettuce” was current New York slang for money), the body snatchers contacted an intermediary and demanded $250,000 for the return of Stewart's body. Stewart's executor indignantly refused. He made a counteroffer of $25,000. The negotiations collapsed. It wasn't until two years later, in 1880, that Stewart's distraught widow insisted the negotiations be reopened. She had been unable to sleep. Her dreams had been haunted by the image of her husband wandering about the streets outside the Cast-Iron Palace, vainly seeking to gain entrance.

The word was circulated that the Stewart estate was ready to pay, and the body snatchers once again got in touch with an intermediary. Mrs. Stewart said she was willing to pay $100,000. The body snatchers said they would take $200,000. The two sides seemed to be making progress. But the executor stepped in again and said that the estate of Alexander Stewart would make a once-and-final offer of $20,000. If it wasn't accepted, the possessors of Stewart's mortal remains were free to keep them forever.

A few weeks later, on a deserted country road in Westchester, a relative of Mrs. Stewart's met with three masked men who gave him a gunnysack filled with human bones and a piece of cloth cut from the lining of Stewart's coffin to prove that the bones had, indeed, been lifted from St. Mark's. The masked men took the $20,000 and ran. They were never seen or heard from again. Mrs. Stewart regained her ability to sleep. The bones, whether they were Stewart's or some substitute's drafted to the purpose, were packed off to Long Island, there to sleep in heavenly peace amid the suburban fastness of the Garden City Cathedral.

—Richard Blaine,
Ghoul's Night Out: A Short History of Grave Robbing, Tomb Looting, and Assorted Mayhem Against the Dead
(New York: The Center for the Strange, 1990)

A BRAWL IN
GERICH'S TAVERN
LEAVES ONE DEAD,
TWO WOUNDED

ACCOUNT OF THE EVENT BY
AN EYEWITNESS

ASSAILANT STILL AT LARGE

At 10 o'clock Wednesday evening, a member of Monaghan's Grand Cake Walk and Minstrel Burlesque Company, which is engaged at the Fremont Theatre this week and next, was shot dead in the barroom of Gerich's. The deceased is identified as Mr. John Mulcahey, of New, York City, age approximately 60. The two wounded men, Louis Anderson and Michael Farrell, also members of the theatrical troupe, were shot in the hand and leg respectively. Both were treated by Doctor Horstwine, whose office is next door to Gerich's.

Deputy Andrew Dusenberry of the Sheriff's Office, who was called immediately to the scene, reports that Mulcahey was struck between the eyes by a single round and died upon the spot.

According to Widley Armbruster, a clerk with the Western Union Company and a patron of Gerich's at the time of the incident, the minstrel trio arrived soon after giving their last performance of the day, exactly as they had done for the last several evenings. They consumed “copious amounts of whiskey,” says Armbruster, “and sang in a loud manner.” A man whom Armbruster describes as “stout and well-set, wearing the jacket and cloth cap of a sailor,” asked the trio to stop. A shouting match ensued. Mulcahey and the unidentified man traded insults, which led to an exchange of blows.

The combatants were separated by the other patrons of the barroom. “And then,” says Armbruster, “just when it seemed to be over, the fellow turned around and shot the three of them.”

Dr. Horstwine says that neither of the two wounded men is in any danger.

James
Gaffney, the manager of Monaghan's Minstrel Company, described the deceased man as “a respected and admired practitioner of the black-faced art.” He added that “despite this tragic loss, the abundant talent found in our show means we can proceed with all our scheduled performances.”

The Sheriff's Office requests that anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of the assailant make himself known to Deputy Dusenberry.

—The San Francisco Republican,
November 12, 1897

    The American Irish Historical Society

    254 West 42nd Street

    New York City

    December 4, 1899

Hon. Stuart R. Stover

The State Historian of New York

The Capitol

Albany, New York

Dear Mr. Stover:

Per our discussion of September last, you will find enclosed the manuscript containing a description of the formation of the Irish Brigade. It also represents, I believe, the most detailed account ever given of the 69th Regiment's role at Fredericksburg, Va., in December, 1862. I hope it will fill in the gap that has, up until now, existed in the Official Records of the Rebellion and bring due honor to the Irish New Yorkers who so bravely fought to preserve the unity of our Nation.

As you suggested, I interviewed as many of the survivors as could be located, but though the Old Guard never surrenders, most of its members are dead! The few still alive, however, offered a vivid and lively account of that day they crossed the Rappahannock. It seemed to them as fresh as if it happened yesterday.

Whilst I had some difficulty locating Colonel Robert Noonan, Commander of the 69th on the fateful day, after some investigating I found him living in Brooklyn. Again following your suggestion, I have written the narrative as though it were all from the mouth of the Colonel himself, and, in accord with the practice of the Official Records, have signed the Commander's name to the article, for which he has given his consent.

Ironically,
in view of these facts, it was Colonel Noonan who was the least communicative of all with whom I spoke. I interviewed him on several occasions, but he seems a man whose constitutional bent toward taciturnity is exacerbated by advanced age, exceedingly poor health, and the particularly deteriorated state of his eyesight, which has left him nearly blind.

When the work was done, and the manuscript near to its final form, I took the precaution of reading it aloud to the Colonel, telling him to stop me at any part of the narrative that he felt needed to be either amended, or shortened, or expanded.

The Colonel sat silently through most of my reading, several times loudly clearing his sinuses, which I mistook for a signal to pause, but he waved with his hand, signalling for me to read on. He did, however, stop me at the point in the account of the engagement at Fredericksburg wherein it is related how Father Willet, Chaplain of the 69th, blessed the men as they prepared to undertake their heroic assault. Recounting the event in Noonan's words, the text reads as follows (p. 16): “Although not a Catholic myself, I was the first man to receive the good Father's blessing.”

The Colonel said in a tone I can only describe as challenging, “Who told you that?”

I replied that several of those I'd interviewed had made a point of mentioning he was a Protestant, but I assured him there was no intent to raise the issue of religious sectarianism. The only purpose was to underscore the unity that existed in the Regiment. I read on (pp. 16–17): “He [Father Willet] then went along the lines blessing each man, Catholic and Protestant alike. As soon as the Father had finished his religious duties to the regiment, I [Colonel Noonan] placed in his hat a sprig of boxwood which I had received from General Meagher, telling the men of the regiment that I would make an Irishman out of the Father that day—the good Father being a French Canadian—and the men had a good laugh for themselves, then stepped as cheerfully to the fray as they would into a ballroom.”

At this
point, the Colonel seemed taken by some sort of seizure of the brain. An incoherent flow of words sputtered from his lips, and his face turned a vivid shade of purple. I summoned his nurse immediately, and she ordered me from the room. She emerged several moments later to inform me that the very delicate state of the Colonel's health, and the severe turmoil that sometimes clouded his brain, required an end of my interview. I told her of our deadline, and she then instructed me to leave the manuscript with her. She informed me that as soon as the Colonel seemed recovered she would read the remaining part to him, carefully noting any reactions, and send it to me directly.

She has proved as good as her word. I received the manuscript last evening, and as you will see, there isn't a mark upon it. In the end, it seems, we passed the Colonel's muster, and so added a missing chapter to a brave and noble history.

Sincerely,

Michael R. Patterson

Librarian-Historiographer

Proceedings of the State Historian, Comprising Reports to the Legislature, Correspondence, and Other Papers, Vol. XXIII,
published by the state of New York (1900)