Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2024 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Chicago Chronicle Saturday, 10 August 1895 [front page] KILLED AT DUNNING GEORGE PUCIK Dies From the Effect of Ill Treatment Asylum Attendants Confess That They Used Violence Body is Found to Be Terribly Mutilated and Crushed. Sixteen Ribs Are Broken and Other Bones Are Fractured. Patient Was Physically Sound When Admitted to the Place. County Officials to Investigate and Punish the Crime. With his body racked and torn, his breast bone broken in two places, eight ribs fractured, three of them in two places, his skin black and blue, a gash on his fore- head and the cavities of his chest and abdomen filled with blood from internal hemorrhages, GEORGE PUCIK, or BUDIZICK as he was entered on the books, died at the Dunning insane asylum yesterday. Before reaching there he had been a patient in the Alexian Brothers' hospital, was sent by the physicians there to the detention hospital for the insane, where he was taken into court and committed to Dunning. All this time, covering a period of four days, not a single physician at any of the institutions discovered his condition. When he was dead an examination of his body was made, and then the fearful bruises and broken bones were seen. Last night attendants GEORGE GOFF and ANDERSON of the Dunning asylum, after repeated denials, admitted to Super- intendent MORGAN that they had beaten PUCIK in order to control him. They are alleged to have said that they did it to save their own lives, the patient first attacking them. President HEALY of the county board will call the attentionof the grand jury to the charge. The report of the confession reached President HEALY in the shape of a telephone message to his residence. He was in communication with the asylum at frequent inter- vals during the evening, and knew that they attendants had disclaimed all knowledge of PUCIK'S terrible condition in their testimony befor the coroner's jury. He insisted, however, that the superintendent should press the men for a more accurate story when evidence was presented to him that the blows must have been struck at Dunning. Another telephonic conversation with the asylum enabled Mr. HEALY to announce that the attendants had admitted that they had chastised the patient in self-defense. He further reported that the superintendent had been authorized to detain the attendants until an investigation could be made. PUCIK was received at the Alexian Brothers' hospital last Tuesday, being brought there by friends from 41 String street, where he lived, and was placed under the care of Dr. C. M. SWALE. At that time he was complaining, but his friends thought it was merely an attach of catarrh of the stomach, from which he had been suffering. While at the hospital he became violent and it was decided to send him to the detention hospital. Dr. SWALE is positive that at this time he had no physical disability. Wednesday he was received at the detention hospital, given a bath, when nothing wrong was observed by the attendants, according to their story, and on Thursday he was examined in court and sent to Dunning. A strait-jacket had to be used at the detention hospital, and it is alleged that he was very violent. At Dunning, where he was taken with several other patients, he was simply booked without examination, and the next morning he died. This is in brief the story of the last few days of GEORGE PUCIK'S life. Someone is responsible for the terrible injuries he received and the members of the county board are resolved that the guilty persons be found and punished. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Chicago Chronicle Tuesday, 3 December 1895 (Anderson turns state's evidence) TELLS HOW PUCIK WAS KILLED ANDERSON'S narrative regarding the killing of PUCIK was substantially as follows: "On the night of Aug. 8 PUCIK was in bed when I went off duty, about 8 o'clock. The next morning, shortly before 6 o'clock, GOUGH rapped at my door, and said, 'Come here, John; I want you to help me do a fellow.' I went into PUCIK'S dormitory and saw him lying underneath the bed next to the west wall. He was lying on his right side with his feet toward the foot of the bed. When I saw him I went to the foot of the bed and he rolled over on his left side. GOUGH then gave him a kick in the chest and PUCIK groaned and fell back as if unconscious. When he fell back GOUGH kicked him again in the chest. Then he kicked PUCIK several times in the ribs. I told GOUGH he would kill PUCIK and he told me to 'go hang myself.' I then lifted PUCIK up and led him to the washstand, where I washed his face and neck. While doing so, he made a pass at me, but I dodged and struck or slapped him under the jaw. While I was washing him GOUGH left the room. There was blood on the back of PUCIK'S neck and GOUGH had a mark over his eye and a couple of scratches on the side of his face. Then I led PUCIK to a bench and went to breakfast. When I returned he had fallen between the bench and the wall. "I said the man looked as if he were dead, but GOUGH thought not. Then we agreed to put him on a bed, and GOUGH told CONNELLY about it. GOUGH told me we should have to hide the matter somehow. The time that elapsed between the kicking and PUCIK'S death was about an hour and a half." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moline Daily Dispatch Friday, 6 December 1895 Chicago, Dec. 5. - The jury which tried GEORGE GOUGH for the murder of GEORGE PUCIK found GOUGH guilty of manslaughter and fixed his punishment at eight years in the penitentiary. GOUGH was an attendant at Dunning insane asylum and kicked a patient named GEORGE PUCIK to death. ===========================================================================