Record—Ghouls in the Stewart Vault in
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Yard.
What the Sexton Discovered this
Morning—Amazement of the Police
Authorities—The Probable Motive for the
Outrage.
—Brooklyn EagleNovember 8, 1878
A NEW YORK SENSATION
A.T. STEWART’S REMAINS
CARRIED OFF
The Casket Cut Open and the
Body Stolen
—Montreal Gazette
November 8, 1878
STEALING THE BODY OF A DEAD MILLIONARE
INTENSE EXCITEMENT IN NEW YORK.
Body Snatchers Invade St. Mark’s Church,
And Steal the Remains of A.T. Stewart. Unsuccessful Efforts of the Police to Discover Traces of the Robbers.
—Boston Globe
November 8, 1878
“It is an infamous attempt to extort money from me—one of thousands. It was my intention to have the body removed shortly to the crypt preparing for it in the Garden City Cathedral, and I had made my plans accordingly. It is a beautiful crypt, octagonal in shape, inlaid with solid marble, ornamented with statuary and stained plate glass,” Hilton told newspaper reporters.
While he was living, Stewart had intended to construct a new church as the centerpiece of Garden City. Following his death, Cornelia Stewart announced plans to build the elaborate cathedral as a memorial to her late husband. Work on the project had begun in 1876 shortly after Stewart’s death, and plans called for his crypt to be completed in November 1878. However, because of delays in construction, the crypt would not be completed until the spring of 1879.
According to Police Superintendent George Walling, an unnamed, semi-anarchist newspaper wrote: “There is a sort of grim justice in it, and the very irony of greed, that this cruel, avaricious, hard-hearted man, who oppressed his employees, ruined his creditors and drove his poorer competitors to bankruptcy should now have his flesh drop off and his bones rattled in a thieves’ bag, while the millions he earned are enjoyed by others.”
The police were able to identify where the robbers purchased the shovel they had left behind. Detectives traced the shovel’s origins to Seymour’s Hardware store located at the intersection of Chatham, Broadway, Division, and Cathedral Streets, a mere stone’s throw from the churchyard. The salesman at Seymour’s did not know who the man was who bought the shovel and couldn’t recall any distinguishing features. He did inform the police that the man returned a short time later and purchased a small lantern. It was the same lantern that the grave robbers had left at the scene of the crime.
Despite this, the investigation remained at a standstill, even with the number of police officers and detectives assigned to the case. According to the New York Times, the theft of Stewart’s body was the first case of body snatching that had ever come to the attention of the authorities within the borders of New York City. According to a Times report, “It is remarked as exceedingly strange that the first case of such a nature should be not only extraordinary in its details, but should have for its subject a man among the most extraordinary that ever lived in the country.”
It was no secret that Judge Hilton suspected one or both of the St. Mark’s sextons, Hamill and Parker, of being involved in the crime. It seemed logical since only four people knew the location of Stewart’s underground vault—he, Libbey, Hamill, and Parker. Hamill seemed the more likely culprit as far as Hilton was concerned. Hamill not only knew the location of Stewart’s grave, but he had also discharged the night watchman Hilton had hired without notifying Hilton. And, if the robbers had a key to the churchyard gates, as the police suspected, then Hamill must have been the one to give it to them. Who else would? Hilton remained insistent that Hamill or Parker were somehow involved, if not directly in the gruesome act of stealing the body, then as accomplices, providing the robbers with information and keys.
The Rev. Dr. Rylance, rector of St. Mark’s, stood steadfastly behind the sextons. Rylance pleaded directly to Hilton concerning Hamill’s and Parker’s complicity in the robbery.
“So honorable, Judge Hilton, has Mr. Hamill been in carrying out your instructions of secrecy, that when he asked me some time ago for my gate keys so that he could have them readjusted, he did not tell me why that readjustment was necessary and I did not know until this day,” Rylance told Hilton.
“Doctor, you know me to be blunt and to the point,” Hilton said. “You always know where to find me. It is strange. I do not believe that any person living knew how to find the entrance to that vault so accurately except the sexton and his deputy. And unless the knowledge came from them in some way I cannot imagine how it was obtained. Whether they gave it or whether it was ingeniously drawn from them you can judge for yourself. …”
Rylance suggested that the robbers had been planning the theft for a long time and had probably marked the grave at the very beginning when Stewart was buried two years previously. They had only been waiting for the right moment to strike. Besides Rylance, the entire congregation of St. Mark’s stood behind the sextons and was openly offended by Hilton’s suggestion.
Seventy-five-year-old Cornelia Stewart had been ill for some time prior to the robbery of her husband’s body. The news of the theft overwhelmed her with grief, and she took to her bed, where her physician and several trusted servants tended to her. Those closest to her feared that the news of the robbery would kill the frail old woman, but she hung on. The responsibility of breaking the news to her fell upon Hilton’s shoulders.
Hilton was forced to inform Cornelia when reporters converged on the Stewart mansion and later newsboys hawking the latest editions carrying the story lined up in front of the Stewart home. He knew she would want to know what was going on. She was always interested in current events and stayed abreast of all the latest news. Hilton preferred that she hear it from him rather than anyone else or read it on the front page of the newspapers.
According to newspaper accounts, Mrs. Stewart “bore the shock with wonderful heroism, but it proved at length too great a strain on her weakened strength and she sank perceptibly under the blow.”
Hilton assured her that he was absolutely certain of recovering the stolen remains and of having the guilty parties in custody within a short time. It was another one of Henry Hilton’s empty promises.
6
THE BEST DETECTIVE TALENT
In which the theft of A. T. Stewart’s remains causes a national media sensation and expends the resources of the entire New York City Police Department, as well as private detectives hired by Henry Hilton. While several suspects are apprehended and then released, new clues in the case are uncovered and followed but only lead to a series of dead-ends. Hilton receives hundreds of letters from unnamed sources claiming to be in possession of the body and demanding ransom payment for its return.
Given the state of A. T. Stewart’s decaying corpse, reporters asked Henry Hilton if he could, beyond a shadow of a doubt, recognize the remains of his late friend if they were returned. He told reporters that it would be absolutely impossible for anyone to deceive him. According to Hilton, he had two casts of Mr. Stewart’s head taken before he was buried and dental records could be used to verify the identity. The dental records Hilton spoke of were a far cry from the intricate records maintained today. What Hilton was referring to was the particular operations Stewart had done on his teeth that the dentist who had performed them could easily identify.
Michael Bruton was the night watchman hired by Hilton to watch the grave following the first theft attempt back in October. Bruton was questioned by the police and explained that he had been hired on or about October 7 or 8 that Sexton Hamill did not point out any particular place in the churchyard that he was supposed to guard, and that Hamill didn’t say anything to him about the attempted grave
robbery. His orders were to watch over the cemetery and to keep people out after the churchyard was closed. If he came across anyone in the yard after dark, he was ordered to throw the person out himself. Bruton explained that he inspected the cemetery at half-hour intervals and that he felt uneasy about his duties. He had no reason other than the location of the job for feeling uneasy. The idea that someone would try to rob a grave never crossed his mind, he said. He checked all the gates every time he made his rounds and never found them unlocked. He never encountered anyone in, or trying to get in, the churchyard after it was closed, and his entire employment was uneventful. He told the police he was employed for about a month and had only been recently discharged. Bruton said he was never told why he was hired or why he was let go. The police found nothing suspicious about Bruton’s testimony, and he was not considered a person of interest in the case.
Police detectives reported that the bottom of Stewart’s casket was covered with a foul-smelling slime, thought to be remnants of Stewart’s decomposing body. The slime was also on the cover of the casket, where police surmised that the robbers had placed the body before transferring it to some type of rubber or sealed bag to transport it.
Hilton, still certain that Hamill and Parker were somehow involved, asked the police to scour all the church buildings. Since no trace of the body had been found in the churchyard, Hilton suspected that whoever stole it might be hiding the remains somewhere inside the church or its adjacent buildings. Police officers and detectives thoroughly examined the church from the cellar to the steeple, and not a single sign of the remains was discovered.
G.W. Dilks, Acting Superintendent:
Sir: Under orders received from you, we, the undersigned, proceeded to St. Mark’s Church and burying grounds, corner of Stuyvesant-place and Second-avenue, for the purpose of making a thorough search of the building and grounds. We examined the grounds carefully and found no trace of their having been disturbed. We also examined two receiving vaults, one containing two and the other thirteen bodies. We then searched the entire basement, tower and several other places in the building without obtaining any evidence of the whereabouts of A.T. Stewart. Respectfully submitted.
F.F. ADAMS
GEORGE G. RADFORD
THOMAS FERRIS
GEORGE H. DILKS
—letter submitted to superintendent of police on November 8, 1878
Police Captain Henry McCullagh stumbled on what he thought was a break in the Stewart case when he interviewed twenty-two-year-old George Brown. Brown worked at a saloon on Third Avenue and claimed that he had been returning home around 2:15 a.m. the morning of the grave robbery when he ran into a group of six men carrying a wooden box on their shoulders. The men were dressed in long dark coats and tall silk top hats. According to Brown, the men were joking and laughing among themselves and when they saw him, they asked if he wanted to give them a hand. McCullagh discounted the absurd story. Those involved in such a ghastly deed would have taken great pains to conceal their activity and would not have broadcast it by hauling around what appeared to be a wooden casket on their shoulders and marching down the street. Brown’s information was disregarded as the police continued their search for the culprits and the missing corpse.
The question of how the grave robbers were able to locate Stewart’s vault in the dark during a rainstorm without any distinguishing marker remained a mystery to the police. Some, like Hilton, continued to believe it was an inside job with either Hamill or Parker or both providing the robbers with the information and a set of keys to unlock the churchyard gate. Although the police initially considered the idea, it was ultimately dismissed. There was no hard evidence to link either of the sextons to the crime, and the nature of their characters had been wholly supported by the Rev. Dr. Rylance, rector of St. Mark’s, and nearly all the members of the church.
Besides that, the police slowly began to uncover evidence that supported another theory, thanks in no small part to the reporting of the New York Times. An unnamed enterprising New York Times reporter pointed out to the police and readers alike that “an examination of the fence shows that at the extreme western end there is a spot which can be scaled with the greatest ease.”
According to a front-page article in the November 9 Times, “Outside there are two low railings, either extremely convenient for stepping on, and the iron balcony of the adjoining house and the large latticed iron end-post of the fence afford just what is needed in the way of support in getting in or out.”
The next day, police investigators began a further examination of the western end of the churchyard and soon enough uncovered evidence showing the way the grave robbers had entered and fled the crime scene.
The detectives say that on Thursday morning they found a blue penciled letter ‘B’ on one of the iron fence posts on the Second-avenue side and two posters bearing the name ‘Augustus Sebell’ crossed on a post on the Eleventh-street side. These have since been removed, but the detectives say that by drawing imaginary lines from the two marked posts to two opposite trees the spot where the lines cross would be directly over the hole that was dug.
—New York Times
November 9, 1878
The police soon discounted the theory that the robbers must have had a set of keys to unlock the churchyard gates. Based on the New York Times story the previous day, an examination of the iron fence on the western end of the churchyard confirmed the theory that there were several places along the far western end where the iron fence surrounding the yard could have been easily scaled. Outside the spots were two low railings that could have been used to climb on and a conveniently located iron balcony nearby that could have helped the robbers enter and exit.
Although the police had scoured the churchyard looking for clues, finding nothing, upon reexamination they discovered two large, greasy, dark stains near the western gate that emitted a nauseating smell—the same odor that permeated the Stewart vault. Similar greasy, foul-smelling stains were discovered on the sidewalk and street outside the gate leading from the churchyard. The police surmised that the liquefying body of Stewart caused the stains as it was being carried away. Bloodhounds were brought in to follow the stench. The trail led past the church to the western gate and out onto the street. Mud was found caked on several of the iron fence braces and on several spikes at the top of the fence, leading the police to believe that the robbers had hauled Stewart’s body up and over the fence at that exact spot. They followed the trail of stains up East Tenth Street to the courtyard of a nearby boardinghouse. There in the courtyard the stains disappeared. The police believed that in this courtyard the body of A. T. Stewart was loaded into the back of a wagon or carriage and spirited away under the cloak of darkness.
The boardinghouse stood back from the sidewalk. The iron fence surrounding the churchyard ran back toward it. At one particular point along the fence, there was a tree with low-hanging limbs. One limb forked out over the fence and into the street, making it a convenient stepping stone for the robbers to scale the fence in and out. More importantly, the police discovered an iron balcony that ran along the length of the boardinghouse at 129 East Tenth Street. According to the police, the low iron fence at the western side of the churchyard along Tenth Street, the forked tree limb leading over the fence, and the adjacent iron balcony on the boardinghouse gave the grave robbers perfect access in and out of St. Mark’s.
The courtyard of the boardinghouse was hidden from the road, giving the robbers concealment from prying eyes to carry out their ghoulish business. And there was more. The police also discovered several small patches of clay caked on the fork of the tree, indicating that someone had climbed onto it. Further examination revealed that the balcony on the boardinghouse was also caked with similar mud, showing a distinct mark of a boot heel in it. Several iron spikes on top of the fence had a greasy, foul-smelling substance stuck to them. It became evident to the police that the ro
bbers had entered the churchyard using the western side of the fence, done their business, and exited with Stewart’s remains using the same location. The existence of the stains led the police to discount the theory that the robbers had placed Stewart’s remains in a rubber or airtight bag since neither would have allowed the substance to leak or leave behind such a foul-smelling trail. The police began to surmise that the robbers carried the remains out in a blanket or cloth and that they had a box or casket waiting for them in the wagon or carriage parked in the boardinghouse courtyard. There the robbers transferred the body to some airtight container for transportation and subsequent storage.
No one could have been more ecstatic over the new developments than Sexton George Hamill, who maintained that the new evidence cleared him of any complicity in the case.
THE GRAVE DESECRATORS
TRACING THE ROBBERS OF
MR. STEWART’S GRAVE
The Manner Of Their Entrance To And
Exit From The Yard—Route Taken
In Removing The Body—The Police
Working On Several Clues—
The Suspicions Against The Sexton
Late on Friday afternoon Capt. McCullagh, of the Seventeenth Precinct, strolled over to St. Mark’s church-yard and began another careful examination of the premises. … The Captain noticed on the flags directly behind the two screens large stains, looking at first glance like dried tobacco spittle, but proving on closer examination to be of a greasy nature. He knelt down and smelled them. They gave out a sickening odor. He took out his penknife and scraped the spot, and then smelled the scrapings. He immediately became sick to the stomach. … The officials all bent down and smelled of these spots. The odor was horrible and satisfied them that the stains had been caused by oozings from the body through some kind of cloth. On the side of the western screen above the two blotches were many clayey marks, as though someone had wiped his soiled fingers on it in a downward direction. … In yesterday’s TIMES it was pointed out that at the extreme westerly corner of the cemetery the fence might be readily scaled with the assistance of a forked tree, the balcony of the adjacent house and the top of the courtyard railing. The Police officials went there and saw in an instant that the TIMES’ suggestion was a correct one. The house, which is No. 129 East tenth-street, and is a boarding house kept by a Miss Newton, stands back several feet from the sidewalk and the cemetery fence runs back toward it being joined to its side wall at the top by a strip of iron let in to the bricks.
Bag of Bones Page 12