The Herriges Horror in Philadelphia Part 2

Mrs. Hurtt said:

"Then move out of the neighborhood, and I will pay you back what rent you have paid, and will make you a handsome present, if you will leave the city."

"No," said Mr. Gibson, "I would not leave the city for ten thousand dollars."

He then whispered to his mother:

"You keep her here till I go out and get an officer to arrest her."

He then went out; and finding an officer on the corner, told him the facts, but the officer said he could do nothing in the matter.

Mr. Gibson then started up to the Mayor's Office, but he met the Mayor in Fifth Street above Walnut, to whom he stated the facts. The Mayor walked along to the Office with him, and there told Lieutenant Thomas to have a warrant issued for the arrest of the sister, who had thus endeavored to get Mr. Gibson out of the way. Mr. Gibson having made the charge under oath, the warrant issued.

When he returned, Mrs. Hurtt had left his house and gone into her brother's house. He stood on the pavement awhile to see if she would come out. She did not do so, and then he went to the door and asked where that lady was who had been in his house that morning about that business.

Old Mrs. Herriges said:

"Come in and see her."

"No," said he, "let her come out here."

She then came to the door, and Mr. Gibson told Officer Koniwasher to arrest her, that there was a warrant in Lieutenant Thomas' hands and that was on his order. Koniwasher told Mr. Gibson to go up to the Station House, get the warrant from Lieutenant Thomas, bring it down and he would wait till he came back. Mr. Gibson did so and Lieutenant Thomas gave the warrant to Mr. Gibson and sent an Officer along with him, who came back with Mr. Gibson and Mrs. Hurtt was arrested.

In about half an hour the party started back to the Central Station accompanied by Joseph Herriges, the brother, who said to Mr. Gibson:

"Just look at the trouble you have brought on me now!" to which he made no reply.

At this moment the mob began to yell out:

"Lynch him! Knife him! Kill him!"

Herriges said to the Officers: "Officers protect me!"

The Officers closed round them to protect them, and when a car came, put the whole party in it and so reached the Central Station House, where Mrs.

Hurtt denied in the most positive manner having ever said anything on the subject to Mr. Gibson more, than offering him whatever rent was coming to him, in fact she denied having made any other proposition about the matter at all.

At the same time we must insert here also the following paragraph, which is taken from _The Day_ newspaper of Thursday June 16th. The article is headed: "_Poor Idiot Caged Up In a Filthy Room For Many Years_."

"The defendent * * * claimed that he had given his brother all the necessary attention and that the condition of affairs at the house was exaggerated by the witnesses. _That this is not the case, our reporter who visited the premises in company with Chief Mulholland, Coroner Taylor, and other officers can testify._"

"Alderman Kerr stated that he had known the defendant for twenty years, and knew him as a man of property and owner of real estate. * * * never knew he had a brother living; he was abundantly able to furnish him with better accomodation."

The friends of Herriges have a.s.serted that the matter of his brother's being kept locked up in the little room was made public by the Gibsons for malicious purposes or to obtain money from him; because the neighbors all around knew for at least seventeen years past that this insane man had been kept in the house and that none of them had ever complained about it.

So far from this being true, the Gibsons utterly refused all offers of reward made by the Sister to induce them to leave the city and drop the case of Herriges. Moreover they not only did not owe any rent but as will be seen from the receipt already given paid their month's rent in advance fully and honestly. Still further after Herriges refused to give them back what rent would be coming to them, if they removed, they secured another house down town, and moved away from the one they rented of Herriges, though they did not give up the key till the full month had expired. Mrs.

Gibson and her son told us they did this because of Herriges refusal to refund them the rent that would be due them.

And Mrs. Gibson who is a lady of nervous temperament, a.s.sured us that her constant dread was that at some time this maniac or idiot would break out of his little cagelike room and get into her house and kill herself and her children. And it requires no fervid imagination to believe this, when it is remembered that her window and that of the crazy man were not more than twelve feet apart with a shed between them extending seven or eight feet. Then in the day time she would see him handling the wooden bars at his window and glaring out between the slats, while in the stillness of the night she would hear him mumbling, cursing and making noises as she thought like some one trying to get loose. If that would not terrify a mother lying alone with her little children at night we hardly know what would.

_The Above is a correct Narrative._

THOMAS J. GIBSON, Jr.

THE VICTIM RELEASED.

When the Policemen arrived for the purpose of releasing John Herriges, they found that great efforts had been made to cleanse him as well as the room in which he had been kept. They at once took the captive down stairs and out in the street where the light seemed to stun him. Joseph Herriges was now arrested and taken to the Central Station, where he was bound over in the sum of five thousand dollars to answer the charge of thus inhumanly treating his unfortunate brother. John was, on the evidence of Doctors Mayers and Betts sent to the Insane Department at Blockley Almshouse.

THE HOUSE MOBBED.

Of course it spread like wildfire in the neighborhood of Herriges house that the police had visited it, and found there a man who had been confined for nearly his whole life-time in a little cage of a room. In consequence a great mult.i.tude of curious people at once collected on Fourth Street and Lombard Street, and as the story was repeated from mouth to mouth, a feeling of anger spread through the a.s.sembled hundreds that quickly broke out into violent demonstrations.

Hoots and yells and curses were indulged in, and such cries as:

"Burn the d----d house down! Bring out the infernal wretches! Lynch them!

Tear them out! Hang them! Poor fellow! how horrible to keep him that way!

Down with the shanty boys!"

At this moment some person in the midst of the mob hurled a stone at the wooden image that stands at the entrance to the store. This was like a spark in a train of gunpowder, and amidst a shower of missiles a rush was made for the apparently fated dwelling.

But at this juncture some one shouted out:

"Back! back! there's only old women in the house! He's run away for the police!"

This stopped the rush, and without doubt saved the building from speedy demolition at the hands of the enraged mob.

Meantime Herriges himself had walked out of the house and started up Fourth Street, on his way to the station-house to obtain a force of policemen to protect his property from the threatened attack. He was at once discovered and recognized by the infuriated people, who with one accord dashed after him with frightful yells and cries of

"Kill him! Run him up to the lamp-post!"

It was about this time that several gentlemen connected with the newspaper press arrived on the scene for the purpose of obtaining particulars of the case.

On entering the dwelling, Herriges' mother, a very old; and as the reporters describe her, "weasaned faced woman," seized one of them and begged him to save her.

"Oh, save me! for the mob is throwing bricks and stones at the house! They are going to burn it down, and burn us all alive in it."

She was a.s.sured that she would be protected, and that no harm would befal her; and a special messenger was despatched to the police station to have a powerful posse of men hurried down to save the place. Each moment the mob was growing larger and increasing in the violence of its demonstrations, and had not the force of police arrived shortly after this, there is no doubt but that the house would have been torn completely down, and perhaps burned. Happily, however, such a result was averted by prompt action on the part of the authorities.

The newspaper gentlemen, thereupon, had ample opportunity to proceed with their visit of inquiry.

A respectable looking woman led the way up stairs ascending which required more than ordinary effort, not only on account of their wretched condition, but also on account of the frightful stench that came from the late abode of the imbecile.

This person informed the visitors that two rooms had been set apart for the use of John. The "parlor" as she called the den on the first or ground floor was entirely dest.i.tute of any furniture but the remains of an ancient sofa, a regular skeliton with nothing left but the wooden slats.

Over this was a horribly filthy quilt. This was the imbecile's "parlor."

His "bed-room" was the cage to which reference has already been made. The scanty glimmering light that forced its way in between the wooden slats nailed across the window was just sufficient to show the efforts that had been so hurriedly but abortively made to cleanse the den.

Most prominent was a bed freshly placed there and covered with a middling good coverlet. One of the gentlemen remarked as he noticed this.