1. "Today in Fall River, 1899- Oh, My!"
Posted by augusta on Dec-26th-03 at 6:34 PM

December 26, 1899

"A LADY GODIVA":  "SHE DISCARDS HER APPAREL BUT FAILS TO SERVE NOTICE ON THE TOWN"

"Christmas shoppers who were hurrying to and fro on Main Street at almost 7:30 o'clock on Tuesday evening were treated to an exhibition which none of the store windows provided and which deprived them of breath for several minutes.  It was nothing less startling than a naked woman.  She strolled out of a doorway of the National House of Richardson House annex.

"Shortly after the big electric light on the corner of Main and Central Streets had begun to blaze, she passed Bennett's drug store, crossed the temporary bridge which spans the sewer and vanished in the first hallway of Granite Block.  She was about 22 years of age, prepossessing in appearance and pretty full of strong drink.

"She didn't hurry and appeared to be unaffected by the sensation she was creating.

"The men in the trench knocked off work and gazed with their eyes sticking out of their heads.  A mob of some 50 or 60 men and boys crowded about Granite Block, and waited for her to emerge again, and the news that a most unusual spectacle had been witnessed spread rapidly.

"It was first supposed that the female in question was some social outcast, who, under the influence of liquour had stalked forth in a nude state on a wager.  The affair was reported to OFFICER MICHAEL MULLALEY and he investigated.  In the Granite Block, he learned that the naked woman had been occupying a room in the Richardson House with a companion.  It is supposed that she had taken offence to something which occurred and had left without going through with the formality of dressing.  She was in bed when the officer called ... Her companion took her rainment over to her later and she was not molested."

(From "Victorian Vistas:  Fall River, 1886-1900", edited by Philip T. Silvia, Jr., Fall River, R.E.Smith Printing Co., 1988, pages 201 & 203.)

Ah!  Quoting from your Christmas gift!
That's grand that no one got hurt or arrested (or caught a cold!)

I laughed when I read that article Augusta.  Thank goodness Emma wasn't there! 

Must have made Mullaly completely forget about the missing hatchet handle.

  Truth is stranger than fiction.  It doesn't say whether there was snow on the ground or not, but, I betcha' it was cold out!  Strong drink or not.    Thanks, Augusta. 

Whoo-hoo!

Fall River doesn't strike me as being your typical quiet Victorian town. Daylight robberies, double homicides, and now we learn about its resident exhibitionist! 

It's interesting that Mullaly was still on the force in 1899.  His testimony at the trial contradicted Assistant Marshal Fleet's in regard to the missing handle.  Publicly embarassing your superior does not normally do your career much good.

Fleet was still Assistant Marshal in 1899 and did not replace Hilliard until 1909. Mullaly died the previous year, 1908, at the age of 60. He, like Fleet, was a 15 year veteran of the police force in 1892.

In 1899 Mullaly would have had 22 years experience and that he is still described as an "Officer" and not with a higher title may tell us something. There is a brief bio on him in Knowlton, page 455, but that does not indicate that he rose in rank.

Can those with Hoffman's book check on this for me?

AR Brown explains how this worked then, or now. Mullaly musthave had a powerful patron. Sidelining somebody is also punishment. If that's what it was, and not just rising to your level.

Harry, Hoffman indicates that Mullaly was hired in 1877 and put on night patrol.  Because of his previous position as a longshoreman his ususal duty assignment was the waterfront. He was eventually put on day patrol and over the years was active in the Police Beneficial Association in Fall River.  No mention of promotions.  Either he didn't merit one, or didn't know the right people (or both).

Thanks Bill, we can always count on you.  That's pretty much, almost word for word, what is in Knowlton.

I remember reading that he had contradicted his superiors on other occasions.  Not conducive to promotions for sure.

Good posts.  Thanks, Bill.  So Mullaley was the longshoreman.  I remember reading that.  I guess back then that qualified him to work the waterfront. 

I think Hoffman got a lot of his stuff word for word from The Knowlton Papers.

Hoffman's book is good for having an instant source on basically who was who.  But it isn't stellar for it's biographical material.

Obviously he knew his beat and the people there from real life.