Grave Opened: Murder Revealed

A grave robber is apprehended by a victim’s family and friends, who noticed evidence of “foul play” on the body at the funeral.

Joseph Donnelly, the proprietor of a boardinghouse at Paulsboro, N. J., and James Drain, one of his boarders, were arrested and locked up in the jail at Woodbury., as the result of revelations following the opening of the grave of Edward Cole, another boarder. Cole was found dead in Donnelley’s house last Wednesday, and the corner reported that he was the victim of paralysis. The undertaker who prepared the body for burial however reported to County Prosecutor Alexander Rogers that Cole’s body showed evidence of foul play. A large sum of money had just been paid to Cole by the authorities of Paulsboro for some land according to Cole’s friends and relatives, but no money was found on the body.

“Grave Opened: Murder Revealed,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed May 17, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1854.