Daniel McMullen

Daniel McMullen, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, died on December 18, 1869, never having recovered from injuries suffered on July 27, 1867, more than two years earlier.

The coroner ruled that the cause of death was the injuries sustained when McMullen was severely beaten by Teddy McCarthy after intervening in a bar fight on Penn Avenue.

McCarthy was convicted of assault and battery on October 31, 1868, and sentenced to seven years in prison. Officer McMullen was able to testify against McCarthy. McCarthy was pardoned in 1870 after thousands of citizens, including a number of very prominent Pittsburghers, interceded on his behalf, citing the circumstantial evidence on which he was convicted and “very serious doubts concerning his guilt.”

Author: Bill Lofquist

I am a sociologist and death penalty scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo. I am also a Pittsburgh native. My present research focuses on the history of the death penalty in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pa. This website is dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and sharing information about all Allegheny County cases in which a death sentence was imposed. Please share any questions or comments, errors or omissions, or other matters of interest related to these cases or to the broader history of the death penalty in Allegheny County. View all posts by Bill Lofquist