Cross-examined.—The prisoner met me when he came ashore on Tuesday, and asked me if I was Oliver; I had no conversation with the prisoner; heard him talk with the captain; I can swear positively that this is the man.
Patrick McCaffrey deposed—I am a deck hand on the Staten Island ferry-boat Southfield; I know the prisoner; I saw him in the gentlemen’s cabin about seven o’clock on the morning of the 21st of March; I was brooming off the cabin; he was sitting down, and he called me over and asked me if I was a judge of this country’s money; that he was afraid them fellows were cheating him; I said I was a pretty good judge of gold and silver, but did not know much of bills; he asked me to count the money; I counted out three or four gold pieces and told him what they were; the bag was a kind of a shot bag; he asked me where the water closet was and I showed him; he told me to mind his canvas bag and he would give me the price of my bitters (identifies the coat); my attention was particularly called to the coat by it being bare in some places and having patches on the elbow.
Mr. Dwight asked that the prisoner now put on the coat.
The Judge said that he could not compel the prisoner to do so, as it might aid other witnesses for the prosecution, who are now in court and have not yet been examined.
Examination continued.—Next saw the prisoner in the Second Ward station-house; he denied having ever seen me; I looked all around the station-house, and when I saw him I said, “There’s the man.”
To the Court.—There were forty or fifty in the station-house; my attention was not directed to him; no one pointed him out to me.
Cross-examined.—Had never seen him before I saw him on board the Southfield; he had whiskers up to his ears, but no moustache; his whiskers were blacker when I saw him in the station-house than they are now; I have not a doubt about the coat; I can swear positively to it and the man; I cannot swear positively to the shot bag; I was born in Ireland; I am only two years here; I have lived at Staten Island ever since; I have been a coachman, and have been now nearly eighteen months on the ferry-boat; I can’t tell how many passengers were in the ferry-boat that morning.
William Drumm, a lad, deposed that he met the prisoner on a Wednesday morning, about eight o’clock; can’t tell when; met him at the South ferry; it was about the 21st of March; I saw him at a coffee and cake stand at the ferry, kept by Charley McCosten; he got a cup of coffee and a piece of pie; he put down a gold piece, and the man said, “Oh, ——, have you no smaller change than that!” he then gave him something else. I carried Johnson’s bag to the corner of Cedar and Greenwich streets. I asked him fifty cents, and he gave me three shillings, and said if I did not go out of that he would kick me (laughter); there was a Dutchman there who told him two shillings were enough; I pointed out the prisoner on the following Sunday, in the station-house.
Cross-examined.—I testified before the commissioner that the bag was very heavy and cut my shoulder, and that it did not seem to be filled with clothes; I stated before the commissioner that the prisoner wore a greyish coat; I saw him first at the coffee stand; he wanted a carriage first.
Patrick Burke, deposed—I know the prisoner for about three years, by the name of William Johnson; he had a room from me in Cedar street, near Greenwich; the last time I saw him was on the Wednesday before his arrest; I did not remark his dress; he had nothing with him that I saw; I saw him again that day, in my house, about four o’clock; I saw some bills with him that day; I do not know how much; I do not know that he made any change in his clothes or his whiskers; he went away by the boat that evening; he took his wife and child with him; he took some things with him; he left a ship’s instrument (a compass, I think) behind at my house; I had no conversation with him that day more than to bid him the time of the day; he always paid me my rent like an honest man.