Aberdeen (SD) Daily News, March 21, 1890, p. 4. NOTE: Consider Pierce a
spelling variant of Pearce.
NIGHT DOCTORS
The Recent Grave Robbery Case at New Albany
Indiana has another sensation in the ghoulish line. The last from that
state to thrill the country was the exhuming of the body of Gen. Harrison's
father and the shocking discovery of it in a medical college by the son, now
president of the United States. But in the recent case, the usual process
was reversed; one resurrectionist was shot dead and three captured while a
fifth escaped to Louisville, Ky., by making the best time on recent record.
The circumstances were very peculiar, and if the doctors had intended to be
caught, they could hardly have managed it more to the purposes. The party
consisted of three Louisville white men and two or three colored men. Of
these, Dr. W. Edward Grant, Dr. J. T. Blackburn and one colored man are in
the custody of the Indiana officers while George Brown, colored, is dead,
and the third white man and a negro, if there was another, escaped. The
doctors were evidently what skilled resurrectionists call "guy blokes," that
is they knew nothing about the technique of the business, went at it in the
most awkward way possible, violated the ethics of grave robbing at the very
start, and took a citizen of the offended town into their confidence thus
insuring detection. It is gravely suggested in Louisville that the Indiana
court may acquit them on the ground of temporary insanity.
Thomas Johnson, for many years a resident of Louisville and in the ticket
department of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and later provision
superintendent of the Wagner Palace Car Company of Chicago where he died,
had been brought to his old home at New Albany by his friends and buried in
what is known as the North Cemetery. He was a man of magnificent physique
that, perhaps, caused the resurrectionists to violate their usual rule which
is to obtain the corpses only of paupers and friendless people.
Edward Pearce, a policeman in New Albany, was less prominent than Mr.
Johnson but very popular. It is a very curious fact that during his last
illness, consumption, he often expressed a horror of grave robbers and
requested that extra precautions should be taken.
They were buried near together on a Sunday afternoon, and the next day Dr.
Blackburn took a careful observation of the cemetery. He asked William
Dubbs, a lad living nearby, to point out the graves, and with what seems
incredible folly, gave him a hint of their intentions and a small bribe
promising more if they succeeded. The lad promptly informed the
authorities, and that night a guard of five men was set, including two
brothers of Johnson and a devoted friend of Pearce, the destined victims of
the ghouls. At midnight, in the midst of a fearful storm, the robbers
entered the cemetery and went straight to the graves.
"Throw up your hands and surrender!" Such was the greeting they received.
George Brown, colored, drew a pistol, but before he could raise it, there
was a shot from one of the Johnson brothers, and a load of buckshot went
through Brown killing him instantly. The two doctors and a colored man were
taken. The driver of their vehicle and a third colored man escaped. All
the captured were well armed, but as they had only stuck a spade into one of
the graves a nice question arises as to whether they can be convicted of
"desecration." Tuesday morning found them in jail in New Albany and their
story widely known in Louisville. Tuesday noon found a mob collecting in
New Albany and the medical men of both cities much disturbed over the
accident. A little later the prisoners were taken to the Jeffersonville
prison for safety, the matter of bail was arranged, the grand jury at New
Albany found indictments for "desecration" and "conspiracy," and the
usual
legal battle began.
J. H. Beadle