From the Richmond Whig, 3/30/1864, p. 1, c. 2
THE CEMETERY THIEF. - Richard
L. Saunders, the man arrested last Sunday morning whilst engaged in stealing the
locks from the vaults and enclosures in Hollywood Cemetery, had an examination
before the Mayor yesterday. It appeared that James Ryan, an employee in one of
the Government shops, being in the Cemetery, saw Saunders breaking off the locks
and putting them in his coat pocket, and went to James O’Keefe, the keeper of
the Cemetery, and informed him of the fact. Mr. O’Keefe immediately arrested
Saunders, and found seven locks and a long screw-driver in his pockets. When
arrested Saunders represented himself as a soldier from Camp Lee, and said he
was taking the locks to sell to get something to eat. In court he protested that
he did not break the locks off, but had bought them and the chisel also from
Ryan. He was sent on to the Hustings Court. Mr. O’Keefe told the Mayor that so
many of the locks from the lots in the Cemetery had been stolen in the past
three months that it was impossible for him to tell from which Saunders had
stolen them on Sunday.
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