THIS MONTH IN 1877: A HN glance back at a murder most foul…
HN NOTES: Every now and again we catch ourselves looking at our world as if it’s more violent… more cruel…
… at worst, it’s the same these days. At best, it’s slightly more civilized.
Parts of what follows were initially published in The Illustrated Police News (sort of like HyannisNews.com, but with drawings and intricate crime sketches instead of photos and video…) this month in 1877, 139 years ago…
RUM AND THE KNIFE
South Boston the Scene of the Tragedy – A Young Woman the Victim – An Old Junk Dealer Arrested on Suspicion.
On Wednesday evening, Nov. 14, was enacted another tragedy in the long list that has occurred in South Boston, in which a young lady was foully murdered in a most mysterious manner.
The victim was Miss Bridget Frances Kenneally, a respectable Irish lady of thirty years, who was employed as a coat baster [a type of tailor, dressmaker, or custom sewer…] at the Continental Clothing House, and lived at No. 138 Hudson Street, where she has boarded for about three years.
She was of medium stature, of good appearance, and is represented by her friends as an estimable [worthy of great respect] young lady in every way.
She was suddenly and mysteriously stabbed, only one blow being struck, as she was about to enter the house [at] 149 West Sixth street, where her married sister, Mrs. Lynch, lived.
Mr. Lynch is a builder, and lives in very easy circumstances.
Mr. and Mrs. Lynch had just got through supper, and were sitting in the kitchen – they occupy the second floor of the building in which they live.
While the Lynches were sitting near the table, the kitchen door opened with a jerk and Miss Kenneally appeared standing on the threshold, her face very pale, and wearing an expression of greatest distress.
The right hand was gripped firmly upon the doorknob, her left hand was gripped over her heart, and, after catching her breath in gasps and with great labor for a moment only, she fell headlong [/head first] to the floor upon her face, bruising her chin in the fall.
Mr. Lynch, thinking it a mere faint, ran to her and attempted to raise her, but a few slight convulsions caused her to work out of his arms, and he then turned her upon her back, not for a second suspecting a dark crime had been perpetrated, and that a murder was yet in the shadow of his dwelling.
Finding that she was rapidly sinking, he placed her upon a sofa, and a Catholic priest was sent for.
About four or five minutes after entering the apartment, and within ten minutes after receiving her wound, the young woman breathed her last without having uttered a word or a syllable, nor giving the slightest [clue] as to how she came by her death.
When the priest arrived her bosom was bared at his request, and that for the first revealed to the astonished gaze of all present, a small cut in the middle part of the breast, immediately under the collar-bone.
The cut was a deep one, and severed the main artery, causing internal hemorrhage and death.
The officers of station 6, about half an hour after the tragedy, arrested on suspicion an old rum-drinking junk-dealer named Peter Mahoney. He was found in an ale shop directly opposite the house in which Kenneally died. He was very drunk when he was arrested.
Mahoney is a brother-in-law of Fitzgerald who occupies the tenement under the Lynches, where the murdered girl was visiting.
Mahoney had a wrangle [long argument] with Miss Kenneally at a christening party recently, in which she slapped his face.
During the early part of the evening of the murder, [Mahoney was reportedly] on Sixth street, threatening children with a knife, [where he also reportedly] attacked and fought a man.
When arrested, a large two bladed jack knife was found on his person, having a fresh blood spot on one of the blades.
Mahoney has [a history or record or “BOP” of serving] in the penitentiary as a common drunkard.
Further details show that Mahoney never had any [other previous] difficulty with Miss Kenneally, and [further details] indicate that his stabbing of her was a mistake.
On the evening of the murder, it appears that [Mahoney] had trouble with with his sister-in-law, Mrs. Fitzgerald, living in the lower part of the house, [at] No. 149, and that during the trouble he was struck on the head with a stove-lifter [a cast iron cooking stove-top tool] by the woman, who was forced to resort to this means of defense, and that he left the house swearing he would kill Mrs. Fitzgerald.
He had been drinking hard, as already stated, and either mistaking Miss Kenneally for his sister-in-law, or being so angry and crazed with drink that he did not know what he was doing, he probably stabbed the young woman as she entered.
The autopsy of the body of the victim was made at the house where she died by Medical Examiner Harris.
The knife was found to have made a cut exactly one-half inch in width, and to have penetrated the breast bone and two of the largest blood vessels in the body. It was aimed directly at the heart, but failed to reach it by about an inch and a half.
Beneath the breast bone the cut was wider, showing that the knife had moved from side to side, probably in the endeavor to wrench it from the bone, where it was firmly held.
The knife is still in the charge of the police, and will not be subjected to an examination until after the prisoner is arraigned, which will probably be in a few days. [The knife] is of a pattern which would make precisely such a wound as that in the body of the unfortunate woman.
Dr. Harris in his examination found that the victim was an unusually healthy woman, was not a partaker of alcoholic liquors, and had no vices of any kind.
The stories of any love affair in which she was implicated are wholly discredited.
Mahoney is still in confinement at Station 6, and maintains a dogged silence in regard to the affair. When charged with the murder he said that he had no recollection of the occurrence, but refused to give any account of himself on the evening of the tragedy.
When under the influence of liquor [Mahoney] is very ugly and troublesome. The offense for which he was arrested some time ago was assault with a knife, and then he was badly intoxicated. He was sentenced to the House of Correction for fourteen months.
[Mahoney] is forty-three years of age, of about medium stature, dark complexion, and, on account of his debauchery, has sharp features and a thin face, which give him the appearance of a man much older than he really is. He is classed as a junk dealer, but has not been very regular at his business. He has a wife and two children, the latter sixteen and seventeen years of age.
The South Boston Police Court was crowded on Friday, the 16th, in anticipation of the arraignment of Mahoney. Judge Burnham occupied the bench. Mahoney appeared cool. He wore a soldier’s blue blouse, dark pants and a vest, check shirt and carried a gray slouch hat [a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat most commonly worn as part of a military uniform…]
While the complaint, which accused him of feloniously, willfully and maliciously assaulting Bridget Frances Kenneally with a dangerous weapon, to wit, a knife, and inflicting a mortal wound, from which she died a few moments afterward, was being read, the accused leaned against the rail, crossed his hands under his chin and paid close attention.
When asked whether he was guilty or not, he changed his position, and quietly answered, “Not guilty, sir,” and then sat down.
Officer Leighton, who made the arrest, was the only witness to take the stand, but before he had given any direct testimony, the request was made that, as the arraignment was simply for the purpose of holding the prisoner until after the inquest had been held, a continuance might be granted, and the accused was remanded to the county jail until Friday, Nov. 23, without bail.
Some question has arisen whether Miss Kenneally had not been “keeping company” with a man with whom she quarreled, and who, it is possible, may be the murderer. The police are making investigation.
The funeral of Miss Kenneally occurred Friday, the 16th, at the residence of her mother in Quincy. The remains were interred in the Quincy Catholic Cemetery.
HN Note: According to whatever online records I could dig up and decipher, in March of 1878, Peter Mahoney, accused of Killing Bridget Kenneally in South Boston, retracted his plea of “not guilty” and pleaded guilty of Murder in the Second Degree. Also, records from the office of the Attorney General, maintained as Suffolk County SJC abstracts, Commonwealth v. Peter Mahoney, the plea of guilty of Murder in the Second Degree appears to have been accepted, and there was a sentence of imprisonment in a state prion for life.
[The above Illustrated Police News archives and drawings where obtained for republication with permission from the University of Minnesota’s literature research collection. HN made some minor updates by adding some notes here and there, which are inserted in brackets. Updates were also made in some slight instances of punctuation, but for the most part the copy was retyped almost word for word, as it was initially published by the Illustrated Police News Company; Boston, Massachusetts, 1877 – although its paragraphs were often deconstructed by HN, and often set apart by single sentences… HN also further researched the above crime in an effort to add to and update the account under “HN Notes.”]
11/3/2016
Robert Bastille
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© 2016 Robert Bastille, HyannisNews.com
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