Bag of Bones

by J. North Conway

  All the evidence presented so far to Jones seemed legitimate. Even Superintendent Walling was convinced that whoever Romaine was, he had Stewart’s body. In all the volumes of anonymous crank letters the police, the newspapers, and Judge Hilton had received right after the theft, there had been one that lent some credence to the Romaine missive. The letter in question, filed away among all the other messages in the police files, had been written using words cut out from a newspaper and pasted to the page. “In one hour I will be in Canada with A. T. Stewart’s body. A woman has the remains,” the message said. And there was yet another. This one, sent directly to Superintendent Walling, stating, “Farewell and tell Judge Hilton that the body will never be found unless he pays princely.” It was signed, “Canada.”

  Now that Walling was convinced he was dealing with the real grave robbers, rather than enter into negotiations with them as they requested, he decided to concoct a plan to capture the thieves and put the A. T. Stewart grave robbery to rest at long last.

  POLICE DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,

  No. 300 MULBERRY STREET, NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 1879,

  Received of Gen. Patrick H. Jones, a package containing plate supposed to be taken from the coffin of the late Alexander T. Stewart, and marked as follows: “Alexander T. Stewart, born Oct. 12, 1803, died April 10, 1876.

  —receipt given to Patrick Jones from New York City Police Superintendent George Walling, February 1879

  Regardless of all the work Walling and Jones had done, the ultimate decision would be made by Hilton. Walling arranged a meeting between Jones and Hilton in the hopes that Jones could persuade the judge to open up negotiations with the thieves. But this proved futile, as well. Jones had a brief meeting with Hilton but felt that Hilton had made a fool out of him. Jones left the meeting angry and frustrated. Instead of viewing Jones’s information as a breakthrough in the case, Hilton only railed at the unknown robbers and dismissed Jones’s evidence as another elaborate ploy to squeeze money from the Stewart estate. He wouldn’t be a party to any of it. Hilton dismissed any idea of negotiating with Romaine or anyone else outright. Hilton didn’t even thank Jones for his involvement in the case.

  Despite Hilton’s rigid stance, Jones decided to negotiate with Romaine on his own. As instructed, he posted an ad in the Herald again, this time acknowledging the receipt of the evidence he had been sent thus far and declaring that Hilton was ready to negotiate for the return of the body.

  Romaine responded to Jones in a February 11, 1879, letter that was sent from Boston. In it, Romaine wrote that the price for the safe return of Stewart’s body was two hundred thousand dollars. After payment of the ransom by Hilton, Stewart’s remains would be released to Jones and Hilton at an as yet unnamed location near Montreal. No one except Jones and Hilton would take part in the exchange. Romaine wrote that Jones could hold the two hundred thousand-dollar ransom until such time as Hilton was satisfied that the remains were indeed those of A. T. Stewart. Once Hilton made this confirmation, Jones would deliver the money to Romaine’s designated go-between. Finally Romaine demanded that the entire exchange and every detail of it must be kept secret before, during, and ever-after the transfer. Romaine required that Jones deal directly with Hilton in the negotiations. If Hilton accepted the terms of Romaine’s arrangement, Jones was told to place yet another ad in the Herald. In it, Jones was instructed to write: “Canada terms accepted. Counsel.”

  Jones was hesitant to respond immediately to the mysterious Romaine. He had made no headway with Hilton, and Walling had abdicated his role in the matter, instructing Jones to deal directly with Hilton since he was in charge of the case.

  When Jones didn’t contact Romaine again, another letter from Boston arrived at Jones’s offices. The letter contained $250 in cash, as payment to Jones for his efforts. Jones made another appointment to meet with Hilton to discuss what had transpired. Regardless of the news, Hilton remained steadfast in his refusal to deal with anyone for the return of Stewart’s body.

  “If these scoundrels imagine that they are to get any money from me to compromise their crime they will get tired of the busi­ness too. I will hunt them down if it costs a fortune!” Hilton said.

  Hilton then gave Jones the message he wanted published in the Herald. The message read: “Canada-Terms not accepted. Counsel.”

  “Judge, I think the best thing I can do is to close this whole business. I am getting tired of it,” Jones said.

  The ad Hilton had given Jones ran in the Herald the next day. Jones broke off all communications with Hilton following the publication of the ad. He had become apprehensive, fearing that Hilton might begin to suspect him of being part of the conspiracy. He wasn’t far off the mark. Hilton had several Pinkerton detectives follow Jones for several months after, and detectives staked out Jones’s Nassau Street office, but their investigation into Jones’s affairs turned up nothing. Romaine continued to write to Jones, even after the ad appeared in the newspaper. On February 19, 1879, Jones received a letter postmarked from Montreal. In it Romaine called the unmoving Hilton “the vilest of human reptiles.”

  Jones responded in a return letter that “I do not care to have much more to do with this business,” and he expressed his opinion that Hilton did not appear to want the remains returned.

  Romaine wrote back, again from the Montreal post office. This time his letter sounded more cordial. He was, at least based on Jones’s interpretation, willing to listen to any proposal Hilton might come up with regarding the exchange of the body for some unnamed ransom amount. This sudden change in Romaine’s previously unwavering stance—two hundred thousand dollars or nothing—was enough to prompt Jones to make another attempt at persuading Hilton to negotiate with the robbers. He took the new letter from Romaine to Hilton, but the judge once again was unwilling to entertain the arrangement proposed by Romaine. However, Hilton did begin to bend his stance slightly. He told Jones that he might be willing to negotiate for the return of Stewart’s remains if the ransom was reduced to five thousand dollars. He had other demands. Hilton refused to go to Canada to identify and retrieve the body, if indeed it was the body of Stewart, which he was still skeptical of. Instead, he proposed that the robbers return the body to New York.

  When Jones wrote to Romaine of Hilton’s new demands, the robber told Jones in a letter dated February 28 to end all his negotiations with the stubborn, tightwad Hilton and instead take the ransom deal directly to the attention of Cornelia Stewart. According to the letter, Romaine promised that if his demands were met, Mrs. Stewart would have her husband’s body back within two days. She, unlike Judge Hilton, was sure to agree to the ransom arrangement.

  Cornelia Stewart had wandered around in a dreamlike state, floating in and out of reality, grieving to the point of near physical exhaustion, since the theft of her husband’s body. Surely she would pay whatever price for her husband’s return. Although Jones could not make direct contact with Mrs. Stewart, whom Hilton kept under close surveillance, he did manage to contact Mrs. Stewart’s personal physician, Dr. Sidney Carney. The doctor informed Jones that he, working under the sanction of Judge Hilton, was authorized to pay twenty-five thousand dollars, the initial amount Hilton offered in his reward to anyone aiding in the capture of the grave robbers and for the safe return of Stewart’s body. Again Jones wrote to Romaine with the new offer. Romaine refused to negotiate with Carney, but he had a new stipulation to offer to Hilton. If Hilton himself would not travel to Canada to view and retrieve the body, then he could send his son-in-law, the attorney Horace Russell. But the measly twenty-five thousand-dollar ransom was out of the question.

  Jones was determined. He insisted that Romaine reconsider the twenty-five thousand-dollar offer and agree to allow Dr. Carney to make the trip to Canada to pick up the body. Romaine replied to Jones’s entreaty on April 5, agreeing this time that he didn’t care who came to pick up the body. However, he made no
mention of what he had previously viewed as a paltry ransom amount. Jones’s plan to become the hero of the A. T. Stewart grave robbery was over. Whoever Henry G. Romaine might have been, he thereafter discontinued his correspondence with Jones.

  THE BODY OF A.T. STEWART

  NEW STORIES CONCERNING THE

  GRAVE YARD ROBBERY

  How Gen. P.H. Jones Acted As Counsel

  For The Thieves—The Coffin Plate

  Sent To Him Through The Mails—An

  Italian Stone-Cutter’s Remarkable Yard

  It is asserted that the body has not yet been recovered, although Judge Hilton knew of its whereabouts, and the haunts of the thieves as long ago as January last. The thieves, according to the story, tried to enter into negotiations with Judge Hilton, with a view to a compromise, through the agency of ex-Postmaster P.H. Jones. So far from denying his connection with the matter, Gen. Jones told a TIMES reporter yesterday a story of a brief but most remarkable experience as the counsel of the grave-robbers, how he received the missing coffin plate and some other articles, and what conversations he had on the subject with Police Superintendent Walling and Judge Hilton. For many months past it has been pretty generally believed that the body has been recovered and placed in the unfinished crypt at Garden City, which is now guarded by four watchmen. … Moreover, Mrs. Stewart had recovered her former cheerfulness and mingled once more with her friends, and from this it was argued that the great source of her grief had been removed. But it is now asserted that Mrs. Stewart had simply been deceived. And that Judge Hilton’s composure and the engagement of extra watchmen at Garden City were in accordance with a plan designed to produce precisely the impression it was so successful in producing: that no compromise has been effected with the thieves and that they are still beyond the reach of the law.

  —New York Times

  August 14, 1879

  WHAT GEN. JONES SAYS

  His Mysterious Correspondence With

  “Romaine”—The Coffin Plate, The

  Scrap Of Paper, And The Screw Tops

  The body of Alexander T. Stewart, it is asserted, is concealed somewhere in Canada, although it is admitted that its precise whereabouts is known only to the men who took it away. The story was made known to Judge Hilton last Winter. … [According to Jones] “The letter was postmarked Montreal and addressed in a scrawling hand, with which I was perfectly unfamiliar. Upon opening it a one hundred dollar bill dropped to the floor. The writing inside was even more peculiar than on the envelope. It was the most perfect attempt at a disguise that I have ever remember to have seen. … I have been receiving letters from Romaine ever since last January, until within a few month’s past. Lately I have heard nothing from the robbers. They may be in prison by this time, or they may be dead. If they are dead their secret has died with them, and the body of Mr. Stewart will never be recovered.”

  —New York Times

  August 14, 1879

  The controversy regarding the return of A. T. Stewart’s body swirled out of control in an ongoing tornado of misinformation and wishful thinking, with each New York City newspaper periodically heralding a scoop on the case. In January 1879, the New York Sun reported that Stewart’s body had been recovered, delivered to Judge Hilton, and placed in a guarded and secure vault awaiting the completion of the crypt at the cathedral in Garden City where it would be entombed. According to the Sun, Judge Hilton had been approached by a representative of an unnamed law firm serving as an intermediary for the grave robbers. Negotiations were begun with the robbers and concluded with the return of the body in payment of fifty thousand dollars in ransom. When reporters from other newspapers tried to verify the story, they were met by one denial after another.

  New York City Police Superintendent George Washington Walling told reporters: “If Stewart’s body has been recovered, I have no knowledge of it.”

  Responding to the Sun story, Captain Kealy, the chief of detectives, told reporters: “Another ghost story, I see. I have no knowledge of any new features in the Stewart case and certainly cannot know that the body has been recovered.”

  Not even Henry Hilton would confirm (or deny) the story.

  “Having no information I desire to communicate, I prefer at present not speaking on the subject further,” Hilton said.

  A.T. STEWART

  THE REPORTED RECOVERY OF HIS BODY

  Judge Hilton Declines To Say Anything

  And The Police Authorities Say That

  They Know Nothing

  It is stated upon authority so trustworthy as to leave but little if any doubt of the entire correctness of the report, that Mrs. A.T. Stewart has said to at least two persons … that the body of her husband has been recovered.

  —Brooklyn Eagle

  January 16, 1879

  The credentials of Patrick Jones were impeccable. He was a lawyer, a former postmaster of New York City, and a decorated Union army veteran. There was no reason for the authorities, Mrs. Stewart, or anyone else, including Henry Hilton, to mistrust his intentions. Hilton, however, was suspicious of anyone who came to him with information that might lead to the return of A. T. Stewart’s remains.

  Born in Ireland, Jones immigrated to America in 1840. He became a lawyer in 1856 and established himself as one of the most prominent lawyers in western New York. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he enlisted in the Union army. He rose quickly through the ranks, displaying what was reported as “gallant conduct.” In 1862, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and later led his troops in the Battle of Chancellorsville. Jones was wounded during this battle and captured by Confederate forces. He was a prisoner of war before being released in a prisoner exchange in 1863. He took part in General William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea and was commissioned as a brigadier general. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him postmaster of New York City, a position he held until 1872. He then returned to private practice. Jones’s role in the Stewart case was not one he sought or desired, and it became an albatross around his good name chiefly because of the actions of Henry Hilton.

  According to George Washington Walling’s 1887 account, published in Recollections of a New York City Chief of Police, “No trace of the body or thieves was found until January of the following year, when General Patrick H. Jones, of No. 150 Nassau Street, called upon me at police headquarters. He brought with him a parcel and showed me the contents. They were the silver knobs and several of the handles belonging to the coffin in which the body had been buried. He also showed me some letters which he had received. They purported to have been written in Canada, and were signed by ‘Henry G. Romaine.’ With the first letter a hundred-dollar bill was enclosed as a retainer for him to act as attorney for the return of the body, upon the payment of the ransom.

  Walling recalled how this initial act of goodwill by Jones led to little more than contempt from Hilton. “Judge Hilton refused to agree to the terms proposed, and, further, declined to negotiate through the medium of ‘personals,’” Walling wrote.

  Besides refusing to negotiate with the thieves, Hilton, in his usual brash manner, impugned the reputation of Jones. Jones had supplied Hilton and the authorities with all the various correspondence he’d received from the mysterious “Romaine.”

  “I took that letter to Judge Hilton and he was even more offensive than on my first visit,” Jones told reporters.

  “I see that he has not been giving me a very enviable character … but during our intercourse in this business he never said anything to me that could be construed as an insult, or evincing any want of faith in my honor,” Jones told Times reporters.

  “I suppose from what I read this morning that he was under the impression all the time that I was simply an agent for the robbers. … I find that I have been abused and misrepresented in this business throughout,” he said.

  “If J
udge Hilton attempts to impugn my motives I will make public the entire correspondence, from last January until now, and leave my friends to judge whether I have done right or wrong in the course I have taken.”

  SENSATIONAL

  THE GHASTLY STORY OF A

  NEGOTIATION WITH GHOULS

  The Recovery Of The Body Of A.T. Stewart

  Denied—A Strange Account Of An Attempt To Make A Big Stake

  Not long ago a certain Nassau street lawyer received a letter from Montreal signed “Romaine.” The writer wanted to know if he would take charge of negotiations for the return of the body of Mr. Stewart and the securing of the sum demanded for its delivery—namely $250,000. … The package contained the silver knobs and part of a handle of Stewart’s coffin. … The lawyer took his letters and ghastly proofs and had a personal interview with Superintendent Walling. … Judge Hilton was next sought. He declared the payment of $250,000 for the remains as preposterous. He would not pay one red cent. He wanted not the body but the robbers and would have nothing to do with the lawyer. The twain parted angrily and Judge Hilton had the lawyer “shadowed” by detectives. … At last communication with Judge Hilton was closed entirely and transcripts of the letters were laid before Mrs. Stewart. It was ascertained that she believed the remains had been recovered and that they were reposing them in Hempstead Cathedral.

  —Brooklyn Eagle

  August 15, 1879