Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1887 — AWFUL BRUTALITY. [ARTICLE]

AWFUL BRUTALITY.

A Frightful Story ot Savage and D«v. ijish Inhumanity, A Sick Coni -Benver Buried onder Live Coals by the Chief Engineer of aSteaui■hip and Roaited to Death* Upon the arrival at Galveston, Texas, of - the Mallory steamship Comal, New York, Wednesday, the master of the vessel, Captain John Risk, reported that a coal-handler, Jolin H. Graham, of New York, had died of overheat and cramps, and was buried at, sea. This was the substance of Captain Risk’s report at the naval office, as required by the United States statute in such cases. Nothing more was thought of the matter during the day, and no suspicion of foul play existed at the custom house. It was therefore a matter of very great surprise when later one of the coal handlers, named Riley, who made the trip- with Graham, visited the office of the United States Commissioner and made affidavit charging Wm. R. McCullough,, chief engineer of the Comal, with the wilful murder of Graham. Riley’s story, for savage and devilish surpasses belief. In eubslanse he swears that he was working in Ine same watch with Graham. When they were four days out from New York, Graham'while in the fire-room at work,, 'complained to him (Riley) and others of being sick and unable longer to hold up bis end. • Shortly after this, Chiftf Engineer McCullough found Graham lying down, apparently sleeping, whereupon the engineer remarked, “I’ll wake you up.” Suiting the action to the word, he deliberately tooK a large shovel, and scooping it full of red-hot coals from the furnace, he poured them over the prostrate form of the sick man, and followed up the work" by beating and abusing Graham as he lay writhing under the burning coals. Riley further swears that within fifteen minutes after Engineer McCullough assaulted Graham the latter was a corpse, and was immediately removed tojthe engineer’s room and laid upon a grating. Perhaps the most extraordinary statement made by Riley is that the body of the dead man was kept on ice until the steamship was within twelve hours’ run of Galveston, and then buried at sea. The commissioner immediately issued a warrant, charging McCullough with murder on the high sea, and he was arrested while aboard the vessel by a deputy United States marshal and committed to jail. Five witnesses were also arrested to await the sitting of the federal grand jury. Engineer McCullough is ab jut forty-three years old and is a resident of New York City.