A DEAD MAN'S HEAD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 650, 14 March 1879, Page 2

A DEAD MAN'S HEAD

A Californian exchange tells the following 1 singular story :— "A wfelli dressed man stepped off the ferry boat! at Oakland (San Francisgo), onto the wharf and shot himself. The body wa& picked up without identification, an inquest held, and burial ordered, and he was' butied' by the peputy-Gorondr. \ Sometime after, His Tbrbthera m this > city identified: some trinkets found. on r the corpse and they applied for an order of exhumation, .that, they, might give him decent burial m the city. The District Attorney was ! "about granting the order, when the Deputy-Coroher came m. Do not make this order,: for God's sake. ;It can do no. good. ' The man is dead and buried, anil iib will bnfy .shock His relatives to open th'e coffin' • for identification. 1 ' The ' District Attorney was unmoved : ; again he protested and implored, but all to no .purpose. " What interest have you m this matter, that you are so earnest about it V' he 7 " inquired of the deputy coroner. 'None * ,at all, said that Humane official ; ** onlr I want to spare the brothers the sight! m store lor them.. , To : itiake. ra,lotigstory 'short,, the brothers Went to the petter's field, and theW j the diputy coroner tpld.him he Would r^f tHe)n { if .they did not prosecute.' : . .'.; yas done, and ah examination of the shell disclosed the facts. The naked bocly of their brother lay,, but headless thfa"-*' official having sold it to « su rjreon, for 6dol 50c. The skuUfyd a pistol ; bulles . hole m it, and he wanted: it as a specimen. The new suit of funeral black the man had on, he Having dressed,, for burial, was safe m the deputy coijoners. wardrobe. A searceh for the doctor, was , made, the head recovered, and the .' naked but mutilated ' body was brought across the bay and buried m San Francisco. No judicial action was |taken \