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.