When the church moved its congregation farther uptown, Stewart bought the property on Amity Street, near Broadway, to accommodate his department store. The stable was considered one of the best in the city and housed thirty-one variously sized horse-drawn wagons to deliver a variety of goods both large and small.
The anonymous writer of the letter claimed Stewart had excavated the cemetery to build his stable and hauled away wagons full of old bones and skulls. Stewart put a fence up around the excavation, but it did little to stop angry crowds from gathering there to protest the callous disposal of the bodies. A riot nearly broke out, and the police had to be called to disperse the angry crowd and guard the site. Stewart, it was said, never responded to the entreaties of relatives who wished to have the remains of their loved ones taken away and buried elsewhere. According to the anonymous writer, a curse was on Stewart for the desecration and he would never be allowed to rest in peace.
Henry Hilton was quick to dismiss the letter as hogwash. According to Hilton, all the bodies buried at the church had been removed before Stewart’s excavation, and although a few random bones and skulls had been uncovered during the digging, they had all been rightfully turned over to the city morgue. Hilton had no time to waste on supposed curses and retribution from beyond the grave. He had real matters to contend with.
“I do not wish to conceal from the public the fact that I have the best detective talent in the country covering every possible point,” Hilton told the press.
Another potential lead surfaced in the village of Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York. The luxurious Stewart mansion on Fifth Avenue was built with stone from the Tuckahoe quarry. The costs associated with the construction of the mansion had caused the building contractor, Alexander Maxwell, as well as the stone quarry’s owners, to go bankrupt. Maxwell and the owners underestimated the expenses they would incur, and it was rumored that Stewart refused to release either business from their original contracts. Maxwell had died before the mansion was completed. Rumormongers contended that the dispute gave the Maxwell family a motive for stealing Stewart’s body. Nothing ever came of the rumor, however, and no one in Maxwell’s immediate family was investigated. It was more of the same—grasping for straws.
Another angle that the police entertained was the involvement of a former employee of Stewart’s who had embezzled fourteen thousand dollars. Although the man offered to repay the money, Stewart refused and the thief was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The embezzler vowed revenge, and the police began a search for the former employee in case the theft of Stewart’s body was his handiwork. The police were never able to locate the man, and so another rumored motive turned to dust.
Authorities turned some of their attention to locating a man identified as William H. May. A man of English descent who spoke with a thick northern English accent, May worked at 30 Chambers Street as a soda maker. Known as a big drinker, he had been reported to the police as being obsessed with the Stewart grave robbery, often telling his drinking mates how a man could get rich pulling off such a caper. May reportedly told one drinking companion that any stolen cadaver could be easily preserved and hidden away in a sealed container filled with soda water. Most barroom patrons shrugged off May’s ramblings as alcohol-induced. Still, when informed of his ramblings about Stewart, the police became interested in questioning him.
There was another reason. May, a tall, pot-bellied, gregarious man with bushy muttonchop sideburns and a reddish handlebar mustache, readily recognizable by anyone who met him, was reported to have been a visitor to the East Fourteenth Street boardinghouse where the mysterious Dr. Douglass, later identified as the infamous resurrectionist George Christian, had been staying. It was reported that May had actually been seen in the company of Douglass/Christian. And there was more. A report out of Chicago linked May to the 1876 attempt to rob Lincoln’s tomb. Two unidentified men reported to the Chicago Tribune that May had tried to recruit them to help steal Stewart’s body, promising a share of the ransom. The men reportedly refused but took their information, not to the police, but directly to the newspaper.
New York police became even more interested in finding May when friends revealed that he was an avid reader of the magazine Scientific American and was especially interested in studying chemical composition. He bragged to drinking buddies that he knew all there was to know about how to preserve dead bodies. Although all of the evidence was purely circumstantial, it led the police to an all-out search for the Englishman, one that proved futile. During the investigation it was learned that May had left the city in a hurry, packing up a few belongings and selling all his known possessions, including his soda-water-making business, to his landlord. Coincidently, May had fled the city on or about November 8, the day after the theft of Stewart’s body had been discovered. The police had no leads as to where he had gone, and he was never again linked as a suspect in the case.
HOW GRAVE-ROBBERS WORK
CONFESSION OF A
DETECTED THIEF—
A COUNTRY PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANCE.
Special Dispatch to the New York Times.
CLEVELAND, Ohio, Nov. 12—Important developments giving some inkling of the plan pursued by grave-robbers in despoiling graves have just been made here. Joiner, one of the villains who robbed Mr. French’s grave in Willoughby about a month ago, confessed to Mr. French’s son that his gang went to Bedford, a suburb of this city, about the middle of August, to get the body of a young woman whose name was Cutchlow, who had died of consumption. They did not know where the cemetery was, nor where the grave was in the cemetery and so they decided to find a doctor first. Joiner pretended to be very sick, stopped at a store and called a physician. One was called, and by giving him a sign the thieves induced him to retire with them. The latter made their business known. The doctor told them that he did not know where the body was, but his daughter did and if they would be at a certain place within an hour he would have the required information. They did so and were directed to the spot but warned to be very careful as the grave was very near to that of Thomas Patterson, father of W.D. Patterson, Superintendent of the Workhouse of this city and as he had been buried for a year his corpse would be of no use. The robbers proceeded to the grave and digging down applied their usual test—that of trying the ear; if this pulls off, the body is too far decomposed to be of any use. The ear came off and a horrible stench arose, which made all sick and they decided to retire and get something to drink. When they returned it was thought to be so late that it was not practicable to open another grave and so the Patterson’s grave was refilled and the party returned to the city.
Superintendent Patterson has just been investigating this whole case, and upon opening his father’s grave he found the ear missing from his father’s corpse as described, and the coffin broken open. The suburban doctor who assisted in the case has since died. He was a leading church member, and died very much respected.
—New York Times
November 13, 1878
On November 15, 1878, the New York Times ran a story claiming the ghouls had been identified and would be in police custody soon. The story was based on reports given by unnamed sources, and much of it was predicated purely on speculation. The Times reported that not only had the body been found but that the grave robbers, all of them unnamed, had been identified.
The Times story maintained that all the sufficient evidence against the robbers had been secured and that all of the culprits were under surveillance and would be arrested shortly. This, the Times stated, was based on information provided to them from “the highest authorities connected with the Stewart body-snatching case.”
According to the Times, the case had been solved through the concerted efforts of both the New York City Police Department and the private detectives hired by Judge Hilton, working in unison. The Times contended that the authorities had learned that there were two distinct bands of
villains in the case: those who had actually stolen the body and those who had hired them and had the Stewart remains in their possession. Although the Times reporter wrote that he was not at liberty to divulge the names of the robbers, he claimed that according to one of his unnamed high-ranking sources, their identities “will raise the hair on the heads of the people of New York.”
The culprits were, according to the Times, people of unquestionable respectability, including one very prominent attorney. The arrests had not been made because Stewart’s body had still not been recovered. When the body was safely in the possession of the authorities, then and only then would the robbers be taken into custody. According to the Times, “The entire ‘gang’ has been known for two days past, but the evidence against all was not considered complete until last evening. Hence the delay in making the arrest. Judge Hilton does not want to let a single man escape by any possibility. It is believed that the guilty parties know that they are shadowed for they all exhibit considerable nervousness.”
Despite the Times headline of November 15, purporting the arrests of the grave robbers as imminent, anonymous letters claiming to know the whereabouts of Stewart‘s body continued to pour in.
The police received the following:
DEAR SIR: One week last night Mr. Stewart’s body was taken. Your detectives have been within a block of it within 48 hours, and they may hunt until doomsday, they cannot find it, but for $200,000 and no questions asked it will be delivered. A personal in the Herald saying you will pay this amount with guaranty, will be answered. Yours, XERXES.
Judge Hilton received the following unsigned letter on the same day:
DEAR SIR: My opinion is that the Jews have something to do with the affair. It would do no harm to search the large safes in and around Broad-street. In one particular office the smell is far from pleasant. Excuse pencil.”
Regardless of the unsubstantiated news story in the New York Times, the headlines the next day seemed to confirm the initial report: Two of the grave robbers had been apprehended, and this time the Times named them—Henry Vreeland and William Burke.
THE CEMETERY ROBBERY
TWO OF THE GHOULS ARRESTED.
The Whole Gang Said To Be In
The Power Of The Police—
Name Of The Leader Engaged In
The Robbery—How The Body Was
Stolen And Where It Was Taken To.
—New York Times
November 16, 1878
8
VREELAND AND BURKE
In which the noted investigator, New York City Police Captain Thomas Byrnes, makes a breakthrough in the sensational case and arrests two men, Henry Vreeland and William Burke, charging them with the heinous crime. The two men lead the police on a merry chase through parts of New Jersey where they claim the body is buried.
At 1 A.M. on Thursday morning Capt. Byrnes arrested a man and took him manacled to the Fifteenth Precinct Police Station. He was described on the police records as Henry Vreeland, aged 25, of No. 38 Chauncey-street, Brooklyn, suspicious person. He was kept entirely secluded until yesterday morning. He was not put into a cell, and the place of his confinement is not known even now except to the authorities.
—New York Times
November 16, 1878
Henry Vreeland was taken to the Jefferson Market Police Court under a shroud of secrecy. Judge B. T. Morgan held a private hearing with Vreeland, Captain Thomas Byrnes, and four police detectives. The hearing lasted a matter of minutes. After the hearing, the details of which were kept secret, Vreeland was taken from the courthouse to police headquarters under heavy guard. Later that same day, Byrnes along with Inspector William Murray arrested a second man whose identity and charges against him were kept from the press. He was described in newspaper accounts as “of medium height, of athletic build, but slim, has regular features, sallow complexion, close shaven face and dark hair. He walked as though lame and had a handkerchief around his head.”
The police refused to divulge any information about either man, but the rumor circulating through the New York City press corps was that Byrnes had finally captured two of the grave robbers. The district attorney’s office let it slip that four arrests had been made in the Stewart case but that only these first two suspects, Vreeland and the unnamed young man, had been physically brought to police headquarters.
According once again to unnamed police sources, authorities now knew the exact time the grave robbers entered St. Mark’s Cemetery, when they left, and where they went. The Times reported that the ghouls entered the cemetery at 3:17 a.m. and had Stewart’s body outside the cemetery fence within an hour. According to the Times, a man named Mahoney, who had previously worked at one of the city cemeteries, did the principal work on securing Stewart’s body from the tomb. Mahoney, it was reported, fled the city the next day but was under police surveillance and would be apprehended shortly.
Stewart’s body had been placed inside a canvas bag and carried out of the cemetery to the sidewalk, where it was put in the back of a wagon and taken to a notorious “fence” (someone who dealt in stolen goods) named Murphy. Stewart’s body was kept at Murphy’s office on Forty-second Street near the ferry landing and had since been moved to another unnamed location. None of the published reports were substantiated by anyone in authority. Yet it was clear that one Henry Vreeland of Brooklyn and another man, who was later revealed to be William Burke of 402 East Twelfth Street in New York City, had been arrested and were being held in connection with the case.
CLOSING ON THE GHOULS
SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS TO CATCH
THEM
A Telegram Announcing The Recovery
Of The Body Expected Every Moment
—The Police Starting Out To Make
Wholesale Arrests Last Night—The
Two Captured Ghouls In Court—
Their Antecedents.
Late last night the TIMES reporter learned that a grand movement was taking place to capture the robbers of Mr. Stewart’s grave, and that the body was on its way to New York. … Shortly before midnight, Inspector Dilks, who was on duty at the Central office, was visited and told that the reporter had positive information that Chief of Detectives Kealy had gone to Weehawken to take possession of the body in the name of Judge Hilton. The Inspector was a little staggered at first and said that Mr. Kealy had been on the track of the body four days. On the story being repeated to him, however, he acknowledged that he was expecting a telegram every moment from Mr. Kealy announcing that the body had been found.
—New York Times
November 17, 1878
When the Jefferson Market Police Court convened at 2 p.m. on November 16, Vreeland and Burke sat in the prisoners’ dock. Seated in the first row of the courtroom were two women. One was a tall, gray-haired woman wearing a dark dress, a bonnet, and a shawl. Seated next to her was a younger woman: tall, slim with hazel eyes and dark hair, dressed in a black silk dress and black velvet bonnet. They were Burke’s mother and sister. Burke was described as being about thirty-eight years old, about five-foot-ten or five-foot-eleven in height, well shaped, and “decidedly handsome.” He was bald and had a flaxen-colored mustache.
Vreeland was described as being approximately ten years older. According to the New York Times, “His head was covered with a thick, strong growth of dark hair, plentifully sprinkled with gray. He wore full close-cropped whiskers and mustache of the same color. He looked like a well-to-do business man.”
The courtroom was filled with uniformed police officers and detectives. Police Captain Thomas Byrnes first met with Judge B. T. Morgan in his private chambers where he outlined the evidence against the two men. When the door to Judge Morgan’s chambers opened ten minutes later, Burke and Vreeland were escorted into the chambers under heavy police guard. Court-appointed attorney Joseph Stiner was allowed to acc
ompany the two men into Morgan’s chambers, and again the door to the private chamber was closed. Nearly a half hour later, the door to the chamber opened and Captain Byrnes stepped into the courtroom and beckoned the two women, Burke’s mother and sister, into the judge’s chamber, once again closing the door behind them. Byrnes informed the court that he would be filing a formal complaint against the two men, charging them with being two of the robbers of Stewart’s grave. Byrnes asked the court to hold the two men without bail until then, to allow him to secure additional evidence. The judge granted his request. The two prisoners were escorted from the court, under heavy police guard, out the rear of the courthouse to the Mercer Street Police Station, where they were confined to cells to await a further hearing. Attorney Stiner accompanied Burke’s mother and sister to the station, where Stiner was allowed to meet privately with his two clients.
POLICE COURT — SECOND DISTRICT
State of New York, City and County of New York.
Thomas Byrnes, Captain of the Fifteenth Precinct Police, being duly sworn, says that on or about the 6th day of November, 1878, at the City of New York, in the County of New York, Henry Vreeland and William Burke (both now here) did, then and there acting in concert together, feloniously remove the dead body of a human being from the place of its interment, for the purpose of selling the same, and for the purpose of dissection, and with mere wantonness did remove the dead body of the late Alexander T. Stewart from the vault in the church-yard of St. Mark’s Church, situated on the Second-avenue, between Ninth and Tenth streets, being a grave-yard in the said City, from the fact that the said Henry Vreeland and William Burke did acknowledge and confess to this deponent, in the presence of witnesses, that they had possession of the aforesaid dead body of the said Alexander T. Stewart, as more fully appears from the sworn statement of deponent hereto attached, and forming part of this complaint.
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