On Thursday, March 16th, the sloop “E. A. Johnson,” sailed from the foot of Spring street, New York, for Deep Creek, Va., for a cargo of oysters.
The same sloop was ashore near Tottenville, S. I. on Friday, getting scrubbed, and having some carpenter work done. There she laid till Sunday morning, when she floated off, and proceeded down the Bay.
Again, she arrived in Gravesend Bay on Sunday afternoon, and remained there waiting for a fair wind until Tuesday at sunset, when she set out to sea, Captain Burr, a man by the name of Wm. Johnson, and two boys, named Smith and Oliver Watts, being on board.
The next morning, Wednesday the 22d of March, the sloop was picked up by the schooner “Telegraph” of New London, in the lower bay, between the West Bank and the Romer Shoals. On being boarded, she was found to have been abandoned, as also to bear the most unmistakable evidences of foul play having taken place at some time, not remote. It was also evident that a collision had taken place with some other vessel, as her bowsprit had been carried away, and was then floating alongside, attached to her by the stays. Upon further examination, her deck appeared to have been washed with human blood, and her cabin bore dire marks of a desperate struggle for life. The Telegraph made fast to her, and started for the city, but was failing in the effort (as both vessels were fast drifting ashore), when the towboat Ceres, Captain Stevens, being in the neighborhood, took them in tow, and brought them both up to the city, when they were moored in the Fulton Market slip.
The story of bloody traces was at once communicated to the Police Authorities, and soon it spread throughout the city that a terrible massacre had taken place. Speculation accused river pirates of the crime, but there was a doubt on the public mind. Throughout Wednesday, the circumstances connected with the case were canvassed thoroughly, but no new light could be obtained as to the mystery. The daily press served up the story to the public on Thursday morning. Scarcely had the papers been issued when two men, named John Burke and Andrew Kelly, residents of a low tenement house, No. 129 Cedar street, called at second ward station-house, and gave such information as led the officers to the conclusion that one of the hands who had sailed on board the sloop “Johnson” from the foot of Spring street, was implicated in the mysterious transaction. They said that a man, named Johnson, who had lived in the same house with them, had come home suddenly and unexpectedly the previous day, having with him an unusual amount of money, which he said he had received as prize money for picking up a sloop in the lower bay. They gave the man’s description, told which way he had gone with his wife and child. Immediately Officer Nevins and Captain Smith started on their way toward Providence, to which city they had reason to believe Johnson had gone.
Meantime, other facts came to light in connection with the mystery. The ill-fated sloop had run into the schooner “John B. Mathew,” Captain Nickerson, early on Wednesday morning, at which time only one man was seen on board, and this man was subsequently observed to lower the boat from the stern, and leave the sloop. This collision took place just off Staten Island, and was so severe as to render the “John B. Mathew” unfit for sea. Hence, she returned to the city for repairs.
On the same afternoon that the officers started after Johnson, officers Burdett and James, accompanied by our reporter, set out in search of the yawl belonging to the sloop, which was said to be adrift off Staten Island. This they succeeded in finding, and bringing to the city, after a tedious passage on a rough sea with a cold wind. The boat contained two oars, a right boot, a tiller, and part of an old broom. George Neidlinger, the hostler at Fort Richmond, south of which the boat was found, said that shortly before six o’clock the previous morning, he had seen a man land from the boat, whom he described in such a manner as to show that Johnson might be the individual.
It was next ascertained that a man answering the same description had made himself conspicuous at the Vanderbilt landing, where he had indulged freely in oysters, hot gins, and eggs. He was seen on the seven o’clock boat coming up to New York, by a deck hand, who had, by his own solicitation, counted a portion of his money, which he carried in two small bags, like shot-bags. Here the matter rested for a short time, while the people were waiting for news from the officers at Providence. It was during this interval that our artist succeeded in procuring the sketches herewith presented.
Meantime the sloop lying at the Fulton Market Slip was attended, day after day, by multitudes of the curious and the excited. The story of blood was the topic of conversation, and the spirit of revenge found a limited relief in verbal expressions of bitter desire for the punishment of the perpetrator, if he should be arrested.
Mr. Selah Howell, of Islip, L. I., part owner of the sloop, was on hand. He suspected William Johnson, the man who took supper with Captain Burr and himself in the cabin, on the evening before the sloop left the city. The theory that the murder had been committed by one of the crew favored this suspicion, and the idea floated from ear to ear until it became a settled conclusion in every mind. Mr. Howell viewed the boat, and identified it as belonging to the sloop.
The carman, who conveyed Johnson’s baggage to the Fall River steamboat, also described the man who had employed him, and the woman who was with him.
During Friday, Captain Weed and Mr. Howell searched the cabin of the sloop, and found in the captain’s berth a clean linen coat and a clean shirt, both neatly folded up, and each of them cut through the folds as if with a sharp knife. The coat had a sharp, clean cut, about seven inches long, through every fold; the shirt had some shorter cuts in it. They ascertained that an auger, which lay on the cabin floor, had been used to bore two holes immediately behind the stove, for the purpose of letting off the blood, which constituted a little sea. Instead of running off, it collected in the run beneath, where it remains. In brief, the cabin, the deck, and the starboard side of the vessel bore the most unmistakable evidences of a tremendous crime having been committed on board, and committed with the utmost regard to a previously arranged plan in the mind of the murderer, for three persons had been dispatched, two on deck and one in the cabin.
Public excitement continued on the increase; the public were waiting with all anxiety for a report from the pursuing officers, when, on Friday night, at a late hour, a dispatch was received from Providence, intimating that the murderer had been tracked to a private house, where he had taken lodgings, and would be arrested during the night. On Saturday, this news having been ventilated, the public excitement became greatly intensified, and it was anticipated that an effort would be made to lynch the prisoner on his arrival in the city. Crowds repaired to the railway depot, at Twenty-seventh street and Fourth avenue, also at Forty-second street, at the upper end of the Harlem Railroad. At 5 o’clock, P.M., the train arrived, containing the officers and their prisoner. But the multitudes who waited and looked for the prisoner were doomed to disappointment, for the officers had prepared themselves before reaching the city for avoiding any attack from infuriated mobs, by taking their places in the first or baggage car, thus avoiding suspicion. In this way they came down to the lower depot, and were transferred to an express wagon, and rolled down to the Second Ward station-house.