Part 1
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THE HERRIGES HORROR IN PHILADELPHIA.
A Full History of the Whole Affair.
A Man Kept in a Dark Cage Like a Wild Beast for Twenty Years, As Alleged, in His Own Mother's and Brother's House.
The Most Fiendish Cruelty of the Century.
Illustrated with Reliable Engravings, Drawn Specially for This Work.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by C. W. ALEXANDER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
THE HERRIGES HORROR.
"Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands morn."
Every now and then the world is startled with an event of a like character to the one which has just aroused in the city of Philadelphia the utmost excitement, and which came near producing a scene of riot and even bloodshed.
John Herriges is the name of the victim, and for an indefinite period of from ten to twenty years has been confined in a little cagelike room and kept in a condition far worse than the wild animals of a menagerie.
What adds an additional phase of horror to the case of this unfortunate creature is the fact that he was thus confined in the same house with his own brother and mother. To our minds this is the most abhorrent feature of the whole affair.
We can imagine how a stranger, or an uncle, or an aunt possessed with the demon of avarice could deliberately imprison the heir to a coveted estate in some out of the way room or loft of a large building where the victim would be so far removed from sight and sound as to prevent his groans and tears being heard or seen. But how a brother and, Merciful Heaven, a mother could live in a shanty of a house year after year with a brother, and son shut up and in the condition in which the officers of the law found poor John Herriges, is more than we can account for by any process of reasoning. It only shows what perverted human nature is capable of.
THE HOUSE OF HORROR.
The house in which lived the Herriges family is a little two storied frame building or more properly shanty, rickety and poverty stricken in its appearance, more resembling the abodes of the denizens of Baker street slums than the home of persons of real wealth as it really is. It stands on the northeast corner of Fourth and Lombard streets, in Philadelphia.
Immediately to the north of it is an extensive soap boiling establishment, while directly adjoining it in the east are some frame shanties still smaller and more delapidated than itself, and which, belonging to the Herriges also, were rented by Joseph Herriges, the accused, for a most exhorbitant sum. To the credit of the occupants of these shanties, we must say that by means of whitewash they have made them look far preferable to that of their landlord--at least in appearance.
On the north of the soap boiling establishment referred to stretches the burial ground of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, with its hundreds of monuments and green graves, while on the opposite side of Fourth street lies the burial ground of the Old Pine Street Church, with its almost numberless dead.
The writer of this recollects years ago, when a boy, often passing and repassing the Herriges house, and noticing on account of its forlorn appearance and the comical Dutch Pompey which stood upon the wooden pedestal at the door to indicate the business of a tobacconist.
How little he thought when contemplating it, that a human being languished within its dingy wooden walls, in a condition worse than that of the worst-cared-for brutes.
A fact in connection with this case is remarkable, which is this. On a Sabbath morning there is no one spot in the whole city of Philadelphia, standing on which, you can hear so many different church bells at once, or so many different choirs singing the praises of Almighty God. And on every returning Sunday the poor prisoner's ears drank in the sacred harmony. God knows perhaps at such times the angels ministered to him in his dismal cage, sent thither with sunshine that could not be shut out by human monsters. Think of it, reader, a thousand recurring Sabbaths found the poor young imbecile growing from youth to a dreadfully premature old age. The mind staggers to think of it. Could we trace day by day the long wearisome hours of the captive's life, how terrible would be the journey. We should hear him sighing for the bright sun light that made the grave yard green and clothed all the monuments in beautiful flowers. How he would prize the fragrance of a little flower, condemned as he was to smell nothing but the dank, noisome effluvia of the soap boiler's factory.
Hope had no place in his cramped, filthy cage. No genius but that of Dispair ever found tenement in the grimed little room.
But though so long, oh, so long, Liberty came at last, and the pining boy, now an old man, was set free, through the agency of a poor, but noble woman, Mrs. Gibson, who had the heart to feel and the bravery to rescue from his hellish bondage the unfortunate.
THE GIBSON'S HISTORY OF THE AFFAIR.
On the 1st of June 1870 Thos. J. Gibson and his mother rented the frame house 337 Lombard Street from Joseph Herriges. The house adjoined Herriges cigar store. Mr. Hoger, a shoemaker, living next door to Mrs. Gibson's, told her at the time she moved into the house, that she would see a crazy man in Herriges house and not to be afraid of him. Mrs. Charnes, living next door but one, for seventeen years, laughed at her, when she asked about the crazy man living locked up in Herriges house, as though making light of the whole matter.
VERBATIM COPY OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN JOSEPH HERRIGES AND THE GIBSONS.
This Contract and Agreement is that the rent of sixteen dollars per month is to be paid punctually in advance each and every month hereafter, and if the terms of this contract is not complied with I will leave the house and give up the possession to the lessor or his representatives.
THOS. J. GIBSON.
Received of Ann Gibson sixteen dollars for one month's rent in advance from June 1. To 30 1870 rent to begin on 1. June and end on the 30.
Rented May 27 1870
J. HERRIGES.
THE DISCOVERY.
On Monday, June 14th, Mr. Gibson's little sister was sent up-stairs to get ready for school, and on going to the window she was frightened by seeing a man looking through the crevices of an upper window in Herriges house, which window was in the second story. This window was closely barred with pieces of plank from top to bottom.
The man was mumbling and singing and making strange and singular noises. The little girl came running down stairs in the utmost terror exclaiming:
"Oh, mother! mother! there is a man up in that room! I saw him poke his nose through the boards just like a dog!"
Being busy, Mrs. Gibson did not go up at this moment to verify the child's statement, but when she did find time she went up. By that time the man had withdrawn his nose from the window, but shortly afterwards she caught a glimpse of something that she thought was the hand of a human being, covered with filth, resting against the space between the bars.
At this moment Mrs. Gibson saw Mrs. Herriges, John's mother, in the yard, and called to the prisoner, saying:
"What are you there for? Why don't you pull off the boards and get out?"
The man made some response; but in such indistinct tones of voice that Mrs. Gibson could not understand what he said. It was enough to convince her however, that there was a human being confined in the room.
Mrs. Gibson hoped by thus continually talking to the prisoner to get the mother to say something about it, but the old woman did not notice her at all, but after doing something about the yard went into the house.
On Tuesday morning at about 3 o'clock, Mr. Gibson was awakened by noises at the same window. He at once arose and dressed himself and called his mother up and told her he heard some one at Herriges window. These noises were mumbling and singing and a strange noise as though some one were clapping his hands together.
At this time Mr. Gibson got out upon his own shed which leans down toward Herriges fence, and would have got up to the prisoner's window to tear off the bars and get the man out but his mother would not allow him to do it.
It is not more than eleven or twelve feet from Mr. Gibson's window to the window of the little cage like room in which John Herriges was confined, so when Mr. Gibson got down to the edge of the shed he was not more than about three or four feet from the prisoner's window.
Listening a while he could shortly distinguish words being uttered by the prisoner. Among them were these:
"Murdering! Murdering! George! George! they want to get me out of the way."
Mr. Gibson then spoke to him saying:
"Why don't you try and get out of there?"
The prisoner instantly replied:
"I'll promote you! I'll promote you!"
Mr. Gibson remained upon the shed from three o'clock until seven in the morning, while his mother stood at the window.
Being fully satisfied that there was a poor miserable man kept confined in the little room of Herriges house, deprived of his liberty, and not only that but that he was kept in a filthy condition to judge from the horrible stench that issued from the window, the watcher resolved to report the fact to the authorities.
REPORT TO THE POLICE.
The same morning Mr. Gibson went up to the Union Street Station House and reported what he had seen and heard. But instead of investigating the affair, the lieutenant told Mr. Gibson to go up to the Central Station House at Fifth and Chestnut and report the matter to lieutenant Charles Thomas in charge there.
Mr. Gibson did so and Lieutenant Thomas replied:
"Excuse me, but you tell the Lieutenant down at the Station House, that I cannot open an insane asylum."
At this moment the Mayor chanced to pass down through the basement, and the matter being called to his attention, he said to Lieutenant Thomas:
"Send Reeder down to investigate it."
Lieutenant Thomas replied:
"Had I not better attend to it myself?"
Mr. Gibson then left the office.
The officers came down about four o'clock that afternoon.
About an hour before the arrival of the officers, Mr. Gibson and his mother went into the cigar store, kept by Herriges.
"Good afternoon," said Mr. Gibson.
"Good afternoon," replied Herriges.
"What have you got that man locked up in that room for?" asked Mrs. Gibson.
"Is that any of your business?" asked Herriges abruptly.
"Well, I don't know, that it is, but I would like to know what he is penned up there for?"
"Does my brother annoy you?" inquired Herriges.
"Well, yes, he frightens my children," replied Mrs. Gibson.
"You must have very funny kind of children to what other people have" sneeringly remarked Herriges.
"I don't know that they are any funnier than anybody else's children" said Mrs. Gibson.
Herriges then turned upon Mrs. Gibson and said in a very provoking manner.
"Why, it is a wonder, he don't frighten you, too."
Mr. Gibson, taking it up for his mother, then said:
"Yes, he did frighten my mother very much last night."
"Well, if my brother frightens you so, you had better move out of the house, as quick as you can" said Herriges.
"I will, if you only will give me back what money is coming to me" said Mrs. Gibson.
"No, I won't give you any money back" answered Herriges.
"Well," said Mrs. Gibson, "I can't afford to pay you a month's rent in advance, and then move some where else and pay another month's rent in advance too."
Herriges then began to talk so offensively insolent, that Mr. Gibson and his mother were obliged to leave the store. They at once went down town to see about another house, for Mrs. Gibson had been rendered so exceedingly nervous by the startling events of the past few days that she was almost sick.
By the time Mr. Gibson and his mother had returned home from their house hunting, the officers had arrived, and brought the insane man down stairs.
After that the back of Herriges house was shut tightly up. The next day the officers came down again and removed the insane man in a carriage to the Central Station.
During the time that Gibsons lived in the house, if Mr. Gibson at any time got up to drive a nail in the fence or side of the house to fasten a clothes line to, or, as on occasion to fix wire to bold stove pipe, Herriges would come out in a hurry and order him to get down and not do it; saying it would destroy the property; but as Mr. Gibson now thinks to prevent him getting near the window of the room where John was.
THE EFFORT TO GET THE GIBSONS AWAY.
After the discovery of the affair, on the following Thursday June 16th a sister of Herriges, Mrs. Mary Ann Hurtt came down to Mr. Gibson's house.
"Good morning, Mrs. Gibson," said she.
"Good morning, ma'm," replied Mrs. Gibson.
"I am Joseph's sister."
"Do you mean Joseph Herriges?" asked Mrs. Gibson.
"Yes," answered she, "and I want to know, whether you can't move away from here? I will give you every cent of the rent you have paid, back again. I will make you a handsome present besides, and reward you and be a friend to you as long as you live. Perhaps when you get old you will need a friend. I will do this if you will not appear against Joseph."
Mrs. Gibson answered:
"Charity begins at home, and it is not likely you will befriend me, if you couldn't befriend your own brother, fastened up there in that cage of a room!"
At this moment Mr. Gibson came in, and his mother whispered to him:
"That's that Herriges sister in the corner there."
Some neighbor in the room said to Mrs. Hurtt:
"There is that young man," referring to Mr. Gibson.
Mrs. Hurtt then said to him:
"Can't you drop that case?"
"No," said Mr. Gibson, "it is in the hands of the authorities."
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 asserted 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, assured 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 multitude 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 assembled 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 assured 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 destitute 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.
"Ah, I see you have put a bed in here. There was none when John was taken out."