Person Page - 484

Two Wandering Lunatics, Who Tried to Obtain Summer Lodgings at Patchogue.
Mother and Son are Both Unbalanced.
On Their Failure to Take Possession of the Quarters They Had Secured by Letter, They Returned to Brooklyn and Moved Into a Flat They Had Not Hired—The Son Spends Part of His Time in a Trance and the Rest Fighting With His Mother—The Husband and Father of the Pair Was Joseph W. Quibell, Who Was Burned to Death in the Brooklyn Theater Fire—They Will Be Taken Care Of.
     Investigation in the case of Joseph Walter Quibell and his mother still further confirms the belief that both are insane and on this hypotheses only are the strange actions of the pair satisfactorily accounted for. Early Saturday morning Mrs. Quibell and her son are said to have made their appearance in a coach at the door of Mrs. Deborah Bell's Summer lodging house on Railroad Avenue in the village of Patchogue. Quibell was laying on the floor of the vehicle, seemingly in a trance, and his mother's explantions of his condition were so incoherent that the landlady refused them accommodation, although they had previously written and secured quarters there. After being also turned away from Roe's hotel the coachman drove off with his strange load. Where he went no one knows, but at 4.30 p.m. on Monday a coach drove up in front of William H. Friday's real estate office at 243 Reid avenue and an elderly woman alighted and asked Mr. Friday's clerk for the key to the adjoining flat at 237 Reid Avenue. She said she was Mrs. J. W. Quibell, and that Mr. Friday had given her permission to occupy the flat. As Mr. Friday was absent the clerk, accepting the story as true, told her to take possession of the premises. The neighbours were not a little surprised when they saw the other occupant of the coach, a slender young man of medium height, lifted in the arms of a policeman and one or two bystanders and carried upstairs. The flat they occupied was the second one in a brick structure, the lower floor of which was used as a Chinese laundry. They brought no furniture with them beyond a few bundles, and a cot was purchased from a neighboring furniture store for the accommodation of the sick man. About 8 o'clock in the evening the other tenants in the house and some men who were lounging on the street near the doorway, heard a woman's scream and the noise of a scuffle in the hallway above. They found Mrs. Quibell struggling with her son in the hall. He was grasping her by the throat and arm and his hold was only loosed with difficulty; his actions were those of an insane man and his mother's explanation of the affair was almost unintelligible.
     An Eagle reporter called at the flat this morning. The door was opened by a small nervous woman, whose iron gray hair was twisted on curl papers. She said she was Mrs. Quibell. Her conversation was disconnected and incoherrent. "It's all a lie, it's all a lie," she began excitedly without being interrogated and slammed the door of the flat behind her as though she feared intrusion. "This story about my son and I driving around Patchogue on Sunday night and Saturday morning is a lie. We were at a hotel, but I will not say where it was, and we stayed there until we came back to Brooklyn. My son is still in a trance and you can't see him; he sleeps all the time. I don't know what caused his illness, but I think it was produced by some nervous affection that followed the extraction of a tooth. I would like to get hold of that tooth because it had been filled with gold and I think the dentist used brass instead of gold. I won't give you the dentist's name.
     "Is any physician attending to your son?"
     "Yes, but I won't tell you who it is."
     Mrs. Quibell said she intended to stay in the flat as long as she choose, but through the crack of the door, as she closed it behind her, the bare floors and walls of the apartment gave small signs of permanent occupancy. When Mr. Friday, the agent of the flat was seen, he said that the Quibell's had taken the premises without his permission and that he had notified them to quit this afternoon, threatening, in case they refused, to communicate with the charities commissioners. Mr. Friday said that Quibell had an income of $50 per week from business interests in New York.
     On March 10 Mrs. Quibell rented five rooms on the second floor of an apartment house at 635 Halsey Street. Her landlord was a Mr. Lupton, who occupied the flat below. Mrs. Lupton was seen at her house this morning and gave a detailed account of the strange conduct of her tenant and the latter's son. She thinks that both are insane. The young man had a penchant for blowing out lamps and gas jets. The first night after they took possession there was a scuffle between mother and son and when Mrs. Lupton went upstairs in response to Mrs. Quibell's calls for help, she found young Quibell, who had been brought into the house in a trancelike condition, sitting bolt upright on the side of the bed. He rushed at her and attempted to drive her from the room. Peace was temporarily restored, but in the morning Mrs. Quibell had a black eye and an ugly mark on her throat. After that Mrs. Mary Callahan, Mrs. Lupton's mother, was engaged to stay for a night or two with the Quibells. During the first twenty-four hours which she spent in their company Quibell drank a bottle of milk and ate some jelly; he then relapsed into a trance and for the next two weeks scarcely a mouthful of nourishment passed his lips. When he left the place on the last of March he was nothing but an animated skeleton. Mrs. Quibell gave up the flat at the request of Mr. Lupton, and sought quarters in the country with a result that led to the Patchogue visit. During her stay with the Lupton's Dr. Cardoza of the homoepathic dispensary, on Patchen Avenue, made one visit to the sick man, but was not asked to repeat his call. He said the case was one of the queerest he had ever seen, but ventured no opinion as to its origin or nature.
     S.G. Quibell of 472 Madison Avenue, a brother of the unfortunate man, says that both his brother and mother are insane and he will take immediate steps to have them placed under proper surveillance. Joseph W. Quibell is a member of the firm Conron and Quibell, who are manufacturing chemists at 18 Platt Street, New York. His mind has been disordered for the last seven or eight months and early last fall he became violent. His father was Joseph Walter Quibell, a commercial traveler, who was burned to death in the Brooklyn theater disaster of 1876. This shock unsettled his wife's mind to such an extent that she has never since been considered entirely responsible for her conduct.

—Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, 5 Apr 1893, p 10

The Quibell's arrested.
Mother and Son Taken to Raymond Street Jail.
The Young Man Was Still in a Trance and Could Not Be Roused—Both Will Be Examined as to Their Mental Condition by the County Physician.
     There was legal interference this morning in the case of Mrs. Sarah M. Quibell and her insane son Joseph W. Quibell. Both are at present in Raymond Street jail awaiting examination by the county physician. S.G. Quibell of 472 Madison Avenue, the woman's other son, who has hitherto kept modestly in the background, materialized this morning. He is a young man of small physique, who relates harrowing stories of personal violence at the hands of his crazy brother. He appeared at the office of the charities commissioners and told Clerk Short that something ought to be done toward caring for his mother and brother, but declined to personally mix himself up in the case, on the ground that he dreaded a repetion of his former experience. Mr. Short sent him back to William H. Friday of 243 Reid avenue, the agent of the flat at 237 Reid avenue, which the Quibells have occupied since Monday afternoon. Young Quibell took a letter from Mr. Short suggesting that, as the charities department had not been given power to interfere, Mr. Friday had better take out a warrant and have the Quibells dispossessed. Mr. Friday immediately called upon Justice Connelly at the Gates avenue police court and, on legal advice, warrants were issued by the magistrate for the arrest of the Quibells on charges of vagrancy. Charles McLean, a member of the Kings County wheelmen and a former acquaintance of Quibell, who once belonged to the organization, ordered a coach at his own expense and avoided the disagreeable necessity of serving the warrants with the aid of a patrol wagon. Justice Connelly detailed Court Officers Tracy and McElroy to serve the papers. When they reached the place Mrs. Quibell opened the door in response to Tracy's knock, and, after some irrelevant conversation, flatly refused to accompany the officer downstairs. Tracy picked her up and carried her, screaming and struggling, to the coach. She was carefully guarded there, while the officers returned to the flat, accompanied by a squad of reporters and half a dozen interested spectators. The apartments were almost entirely destitute of furniture and carpets. In the kitchen a fire was burning in a dirty range, and on the floor nearby lay a heap of scattered coals; on the table were three or four oranges, some few dishes in which was a little oatmeal and milk and some scraps of bread. The only sign of furniture in the apartment was a cane bottomed chair whereon lay a sheet of notepaper on which was scrawled, presumably in Mrs. Quibell's handwriting, for the ink was not dry, a nearly unintelligable and almost illegible appeal to someone for money. In a dark room just off the kitchen lay the semblance of a man, reclining in a profound stupor on a cot. He was covered with ragged bedclothes which were stained with ink and otherwise soiled. He was worn and emaciated, his brown hair was long and matted and he had a beard of more than a week's growth. He was half dressed in a pair of doe skin trousers, while his feet were covered with shoes and coarse woolen stockings. All efforts to rouse him from his comatose condition failed, and he had to be carried to the coach wrapped in a blanket. Although a man of medium height and good build it is probable that Quibell, by reason of his long fasts, now weighs no more than a hundred pounds. When the coach returned to the court Justice Connelly went down to the door and gave the necessary authority to remove Mrs. Quibell and her son to the jail.

—Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, 7 Apr 1893, p 1

Are Mother and Son Insane?
Joseph Quibell and His Parent Committed for Examination.
     The Charities Commissioners of Kings County this morning removed Mrs. Sarah M. Quibell and her son, Joseph Quibell, of 237 Reid avenue, to the Flatbush Hospital for examination as to their mental condition.
     Mrs. Quibell said her son took possession of the flat where they lived a few days ago without permission.
     Agent William H. Friday was obliged to invoke the aid of the police to evict them.
     The Quibells were arrested yesterday. Last week Mrs. Quibell and her son indulged in an all night ride in a coach to Patchogue, L. I. They went to see a Mrs. Bell of that town.
     It is alleged that Mrs. Bell would not let the Quibells in her house. They then drove back to Brooklyn. Young Quibell is a physical and mental wreck.

—The Evening World, New York, New York, 8 Apr 1893, p 3

Joseph Quibell Dying.
He Refused to Be Examined as to His Sanity.
     Word was sent to-day by the doctor of the Flatbush Hospital to the Charities Commissioners that Joseph Quibell was dying and could not live until to-morrow. He only weighs ninety-six pounds.
     Joseph Quibell and his mother, Mary, are supposed to be insane. Some weeks ago they wandered about Patchogue, L. I., looking for a place in which to live.
     They came back to Brooklyn and took possession of a flat in Reid avenue, where they resisted the attempts of the authorities to examine them as to their sanity.

—The Evening World, New York, New York, 11 Apr 1893, p 3

Joseph Quibell Committed.
     Joseph Quibell, the young man who was removed to Flatbush several days ago with his mother, Sarah M. Quibell, both of whom werealleged to be of unsound mind, was regularly committed to the insane asylum this morning. and his case is regarded as hopeless. The mother has been improving since her removal from her son's influence and there is a chance of her recovery.

—The Brooklyn Daily Times, Brooklyn, New York, 13 Apr 1893, p 8.

2349. William Post Sackett, of New York City, son of (922) James H. and Jerusha Post Sackett, was married to Margarette Elizabeth Garner, daughter of Henry Garner and Elizabeth Scott Maken.

Defalcation in the Market Bank
     Yesterday morning the principal officers of the Market Bank, in Pearl street, discovered that William P. Sackett, the receiving teller, has proved a defaulter to the amount of $25,000. He managed this by balancing his books fraudulently. The first information of the fraud was obtained through the assistant receiving teller, who observed the discrepancy in Sackett's account and last Sunday morning informed the Secretary of the Bank. This led to an immediate investigation of the books, which furnished sufficient grounds for Sackett's arrest. He was taken into the custody of a Committee of the Bank on Monday last, but has not yet been handed over to the officers of justice. The directors of the bank are awaiting the arrival of Sackett's father, who resides on Long Island, when an examination will take place.
     Sackett has a wife and one child and resides in Brooklyn. The bank think they will secure a portion of the amount taken, and that their loss will not exceed $15,000.

—New York Times, 8 Dec 1854 p 4

The directors of the Market Bank were engaged yesterday afternoon in investigating the defalcation of the second teller, Mr. Sackett. It was said that the bank would, under no contingency, lose more than $12,000 or $14,000. It was reported that when Sackett was asked what he had done with the money, he stated that he had spent it in "spreeing" it with Candee; that he had enjoyed good things at Mr. Candee's, and gave them in return, and that if the directors had allowed him four days he would have added $20,000 more to the sum [?] his defalcation. It was said that he used to drive a pair of very fast gray horses, and dash about Y[?]kers with them, where he had a country residen[ce] and frequently in company with his fast confrére of the same place. Sackett was formerly assistant teller of the American Exchange Bank. From what we could learn, the bank directors were trying to see if they could not, through the aid of the young man's father or otherwise, fall upon some plan to have the amount of the deficiency made up.

—The New York Herald, 9 Dec 1854

New-York City
The Market Bank Defalcation
The Recent Embezzlement of $25,000
Arrest of the Receiving Teller
     Yesterday evening Sergeant Mansfield and officer Patterson, of the Lower Police Office, returned to the City from the South end of Long Island, having in custody a young man named William Post Sackett, Receiving Teller of the Market Bank. In December last Sackett was detected in embezzling a large amount of funds from the Bank. An investigation was at once commenced by the Bank officials and the result of their labors exhibited a deficiency in the accounts of Sackett, to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars. At the time of the discovery of the felony, the Teller was privately arraigned before the President, Cashier, and Directors of the institution, where he confessed his guilt, and restored a large portion of the missing funds. The brief particulars of the affair were given in the Daily Times, shortly after it occurred, and the Bank officers made no attempt to bring the offender to justice, and the case has been kept in secret until within a few days past.
     Meanwhile, Sackett was allowed to go on his parole, and finally proceeded to the farm-house of his father-in-law, at Smithtown, near Suffolk, L. I. On the 6th instant, Richard S. Williams, Esq., President of the Market Bank, appeared before Judge Connolly, at the Halls of Justice, in Centre-street, and made a long affidavit, wherein he accuses Sackett of purloining $25,000, during his two years connexion with the Institution in the capacity of Teller, for receiving all funds from depositors and others, doing business with the concern. Upon these representations of Senator Williams the magistrate issued his warrant of arrest for the defaulter.
     When the officers arrived at their destination, they had to proceed some four miles to the wherabouts of Mr. Sackett. The accused was brought to the City by the Western train from Greenport, and the sitting magistrate being absent, he was placed in custody of officers Webb and Patterson by Justice Welsh. Henry L. Clinton, Esq. is engaged for the defence, and a further hearing in the matter will take place some day this week. The prisoner states that during his employment in the above Bank he speculated rather heavy in Railroad Stocks and Bonds, and was, at one period, worth over $20,000 clear of the world, but in consequence of the hard times, he met with extensive losses and was unable to make good his account in the Bank. He also asserts that he returned all his assets, bonds and notes, amounting to some $17,000, to the Bank, and could not pay up the balance.

—The New York Times, 13 Feb 1855

Embezzlement of the Funds of the Market Bank.
Arrest and Examination of the Receiving Teller.
Bail Fixed at $10,000.
     It will be recollected that in the early part of last December it was stated that William Post Sackett, the receiving teller of the Market Bank, in this city, had absconded, after a defalcation discovered in his accounts to the amount of $25,000. The accompanying affidavit furnishes the history of the transaction, and as a result, a warrant was entrusted to Sergeant Mansfield and office Patterson for the apprehension of the defaulter. It was only yesterday they received information that Sackett was living on Long Island.
They set out by the railroad for the place at which they hoped to find him. On arriving at the depot they observed a person among the passengers waiting to come to New York by the 1 o'clock train, who answered to their description of Sackett, and without further ado they took him into custody and brought him to the city.
     The affidavit of "Richard S. Williams" upon which the warrant was issued, recites that he resides at "No. 16 Jefferson street, in the city of New York." He "says that he is the President of the Market Bank, that William Post Sackett was receiving teller of said bank, and was engaged at a yearly salary; that he was in the said situation from November 1, 1852, to December 2, 1854, and that during that period he has embezzled the funds of the said bank to the amount of $25,000.
     Deponent further says that on the 2d of December last, it was discovered that the footing up of his accounts was wrong on his books, by making false entries of figures, thereby intending to mislead and deceive the officers of the said bank.
Deponent also says that he was informed by a clerk of the bank, namely Walter Hendrick, that he examined the accounts of Sackett on Saturday afternoon, the 2d December, after bank hours, and that Hendrick informed deponent that he told Sackett in the bank that the footings of his accounts were wrong, and that Sackett said that he would come down on Monday morning and make it right.
     Deponent says that Sackett did not come to the bank on Monday, but on Monday evening Sackett called on deponent at his residence, and acknowledged to deponent that his accounts were wrong, and that he had abstracted at various times from the bank, and in all the sum of $25,000.
     Deponent further says that he charged the said Wm. Post Sackett, while he was in employ of said bank, as receiving teller, with having feloniously embezzled and converted to his own use the sum of $25,000, thereby cheating and defrauding the officers and stockholders of the said Market Bank out of the said amount.
Richard S. Williams
Sworn before me, February 5, 1855,
Michael Conolly, Police Justice.
     At 11 o'clock this morning, the accused, accompanied by his professional adviser, Mr. Clinton, appeared before Police Justice Conolly. Mr. Williams, President of the bank, and Mr. Garnett, one of the bail for Sackett, being present, the object being to determine and state the amount of bail to be taken for his appearance. The Judge fixed the amount at $10,000. Mr. Garnett offered to become bound for one half that sum. The case was adjourned until half past 4 this day, when it was expected Sackett's mother would take the other half.

—Evening Post, New York, NY, 13 Feb 1855, p 3

William Post Sackett, late receiving teller of the Market Bank, of this city, was arrested yesterday, on Long Island, and brought to this city, to answer the charge preferred against him of embezzling twenty-five thousand dollars of the funds of the bank.

—The New York Herald, 13 Feb 1855

On February 24 and 28, 1855 the case was argued before Justice Connolly. Mr. Clinton, counsel for Sackett, presented a three and a half hour closing argument. He contended that the Bank had treated the matter as a loan account, rather than embezzlement, by accepting payment from Sackett and several others to reduce the amount of the indebtedness. One payment he cited:
"Received, Dec. 4, 1854, of Mrs. Jerusha Sackett, a certificate of deposit for four thousand one hundred and forty-three 40/100 dollars, on account of money due the Market Bank [signed] by Richard S. Williams, President"
At the close of the day, the case was handed to the court.

The Market Bank Embezzlement.
The examination which recently took place before Justice Connolly, in regard to the charge against Sackett, for embezzling the funds of the Market Bank, was closed several weeks ago, but as yet no decision has been rendered by the Magistrate. It will probably be given to the public in the early part of the coming week.

—New York Daily Times, 24 Mar 1855.

2348. James Horton Sackett, 1837–1907, of New York City, and Brooklyn, N. Y., son of (922) James H. and Jerusha Post Sackett, was married to Emma Edwards, daughter of ___ Edwards and his wife Mary Thompson.