2 June 1896
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

NEWS FROM THE SUBURBS.
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The Police Looking for an Italian Rag Picker's Ghost
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THAT APPEARS IN BROWNSVILLE

It Frightens Returning  Picnickers and Has Caused Sleeplessness and Excitement in That Neighborhood-

Sergeant QUIGLEY, After a Night's Fruitless Vigil, Offers the Spirit a Piece of Advice-

	
	The residents near Atlantic park and especially those of the vicinity of the Italian settlement 
on Douglas street, near Howard avenue, are getting very little sleep just now and many of the number 
are out nights hunting for a ghost that was first seen and reported by a Brownsville woman on 
Wednesday night last.

	That a figure clad in white is parading the streets in the early hours of the morning no one 
can doubt for a moment, after a visit to the homes in the vicinity of the above named streets.  
After the specter's third visit Saturday night, just at a time when many young people were returning 
from a picnic at an Atlantic park, the police were appealed to for the aid in running down and 
capturing the unwelcome visitor, but up to the present they have been unsucessful.

	On May 18, Catalino CURILLO, a rag picker, was killed in front of his home on Douglas street, 
by a trolley car.  It is at this particular place that the ghost held forth on his three visits.  The 
Italian residents say that the visitor of the night is CURILLO'S spirit, and that he appears with 
the bag and hook he had when killed.  One man claims that he has seen the accident in visionary form.  
However this may be, the Italians are much exercised and they are not alone in their fears, for the 
better class of residents are not resting as quietly as they did two weeks ago.

	The women were frightened and will not venture out from their homes alone after dark.  The men, 
too, are taking quite an interest in the affair and many of them are out every night waiting for 
the appearance of the specter.  A man said yesterday, that fifty men were out Friday night, any one 
of whom believe in ghosts, but merely went out for fun.

	John DOPPEL, a conductor on the Ralph avenue trolley line, lives at the corner of Howard avenue 
and Douglas street, and it is in front of his house the ghost is said to walk.  When an Eagle reporter 
called there this morning he was confronted by four barking dogs chained to as many trees.  At each 
of the three entrances to the house was a newly painted sigh with this warning: "Beware of the dogs."  
Mr. DOPPLE was not at home but his wife was.  She said she had heard considerable about the ghost, 
but had not seen it.
	"My husband and I heard screams one night last week," she said, "and the next day we heard the 
ghost story. Yes, we both got up out of bed that night, but then I do not believe in ghosts at all.  
They say, the white figure, whatever it was, started from in front of our gate and walked, or rather, 
floated through the air up Howard avenue, and, entering Mrs. MULLINS' yard, above here, disappeared 
in the grape arbor.  
	A woman in Brownsville was the first to see the ghost and she fainted at the sight.  The next 
day she complained to the police and then came here and pointed out the spot where she saw it.  Then 
an officer came here and made inquiries about the matter at all the houses.  He spent a night in our 
garden, first telling my husband not to use his gun during the night.  Oh, no; of course I do not 
believe in ghosts, but then I would so like to know what all the fuss is about!"

	Charles ERENHOLD, a blacksmith, whose home and shop is near the scene of the reported nightly 
visitations, said he had been out with some of his neighbors two nights to see if there was anything 
in the reports.  He knew well enough the stories were unfounded, but then the others wanted him to go 
out, and he did.  If there was any ghost it was a human one.

	Last night Sergeant QUIGLEY and Detective STACK of the seventeenth sub-precinct station were out 
on a quiet hunt for the ghost, but the spook failed to walk.  The sergeant spent the night behind a 
clump of bushes in the garden of John DOPPLE., while Dectective STACK secreted himself behind a fence 
on the opposite side of the street.  Both officers are men of experiance and of excellant judgement.  
This morning the sergeant talked freely about the ghost and his experiance of the night.
	"Of course, the gentleman in white, did not appear," said the sergeant, "and it is well for him 
that he did not, for he would have received a warm reception.  STACK and I were acting as a reception 
committee, and we had many assistants on all sides... I would give his ghostship a bit of advice and 
tell him he is assuming big risks for his life as the people in the vicinity of Douglass street and 
Howard avenue are pretty well worked up and some of them will not hesitate to shoot at the first sight 
of anything ghostlike."


 
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