Witnesses: Defendant killed, wrapped victim in bar beating

Two bartenders who worked at McWhitey's tavern in Port Richmond testified yesterday that John McLaughlin struck Seamus O'Neill several times with a baseball bat in January, then tried to get them to lie and say the victim had a gun.

Raymond Mooney, 62, told a Municipal Court judge that after McLaughlin hit O'Neill on the first floor of the bar, McLaughlin went upstairs, where Mooney was, had a few drinks and said: "I think I killed a man."

Mooney said that he and McLaughlin, 36, then just "sat there and drank." Mooney admitted that he had gotten drunk. Some time later, Mooney said that he went down to the first floor to get a few cans of beer and saw O'Neill, 60, lying on the floor, but didn't check on him or call for help. Mooney said that he returned upstairs and told McLaughlin that O'Neill "might still be alive."

Then McLaughlin "went [back] down and whacked him," Mooney testified to the horror of O'Neill's family members, several of whom threw their hands in the air, gasped and cried in the courtroom.

McLaughlin, charged with murdering O'Neill, and co-defendant Samuel E. Toy, 45, charged with helping McLaughlin wrap O'Neill's body in a plastic tarp and duct tape and hide it in the basement, were both held for trial yesterday by Judge Teresa Carr Deni after a preliminary hearing.

McLaughlin ran McWhitey's bar on Venango Street near Mercer. His sister owned the bar.

Toy, who gave police the alias John Ciglar, is charged with tampering with evidence and related offenses. He is not charged with murder and wasn't in the bar when O'Neill was beaten. Toy is out on bail.

Authorities do not know why McLaughlin allegedly killed O'Neill, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, who came to this country about 30 years ago.

"We don't know what went on between McLaughlin and Seamus O'Neill that caused McLaughlin to beat him to death with a baseball bat," Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson said after the hearing.

A witness told police that the argument between the two men may have been about Ireland, Gilson said. "That's as best as we know."

O'Neill, of Port Richmond, tended bar at My Blue Heaven, a few blocks from McWhitey's.

Mooney and another McWhitey's bartender, Robert Evans, testified yesterday that they were downstairs at McWhitey's when O'Neill came in about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 3. O'Neill had a couple of drinks at the bar, then went to talk with McLaughlin, who was sitting at the other side of the bar, they said.

O'Neill and McLaughlin talked for an hour or so, and at times their conversation got loud. Both witnesses testified that they had not heard what the two were saying.

Then, all of a sudden, McLaughlin went behind the bar, grabbed a bat and swung it on O'Neill several times, they said. Evans said that the bat appeared to be aluminum.

McLaughlin ordered Mooney and Evans to go upstairs. McLaughlin later joined them and said he thought he may have killed O'Neill, according to Mooney.

Mooney said that when he went downstairs a second time for beer, he saw Toy and McLaughlin "wrapping [O'Neill] up in blue plastic." At some point, he said, he also saw Toy mop blood off the floor.

Evans, 49, did not see anyone wrap O'Neill's body, but testified that when he was upstairs, he heard "some type of tape, ripping-tape" sound downstairs.

The next day, Jan. 4, Evans said that McLaughlin called him and wanted him to tell McLaughlin's defense attorney, Peter Bowers, "that Seamus had a gun." He said he did so because he was scared.

Similarly, Mooney testified that after the killing, McLaughlin called him and told him to lie about O'Neill having a gun. Both witnesses testified that they did not see O'Neill with a gun.

After the hearing, O'Neill's common-law wife, Bonnie Stratton, said that she was "very happy" that both men were held for trial.

"Seamus never owned a gun," she said. Stratton said that she and O'Neill's brother Billy discovered O'Neill's body in the basement of McWhitey's Jan. 4.

O'Neill's three sisters, Mary Jeffery, Roseanne Sheppard and Kay Mulgrave, said that the family was grateful that Mooney and Evans had the courage to testify. *