TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1007, 28 July 1883, Page 2

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.

Murder and Suicide, [bt telegraph.] Nelson, To-day. Between six and half-past this morning a most dreadful tragedy was at the Nelson gaol. At present it is impossible to gather all the particulars, but it appears that the only warder in charge, Samuel Adams, must have allowed John Davidson, the prisoner serving a life sentence for the manslaughter of Denis Quinlan at Lyell, to leave his cell, probably to enable him to go to work in the kitchen. Davidson appears to have been looked on as a very quiet man, for no special precautions were taken with him. After he was sentenced he seems to have been so docile as to have averted any apprehensions of his becoming violent Adams, after liberating the prisoner, went into the yard, and then came the dreadful deed. The prisoner was left without control, and probably seized with a desire to escape, he seems to have taken a tomahawk and smashed in the guardroom door. That done he seized a couple of loaded revolvers, and with one hastened to the yard where poor Adams was, and to have shot him through the head. Of course the deed was unwitnessed, but from the surrounding circumstances this would appear to be the course he pursued. The noise of the revolver awakened Mr Shallcross, the gaoler, and Mrs Shallcross, aid both having but an indistinct idea that there was something wrong, hastened into the gaol. In the corridor they were met by Davidson with two revolvers, which he was presenting. The gaoler spoke to the man firmly but kindly to induce him to retire. Mrs Shallcross asked him where Adams was. To this prisoner said, “Oh, yes, he’s in the yard all right.” Mrs Shallcross then entreated him to lay aside the weapons, and he parleyed for a considerable time and appeared to be somewhat pacified. He then demanded of Mr Shallcross that he should let him pass and escape from the gaol, and though unarmed the gaoler opposed him. Davidson then spoke of the Lyell murder, making a charge against the woman concerned therein, and asserting his own innocence, and while Mr and Mrs Shallcross were doing all they could to .pacify him, the man put one of the revolvers in his mouth and in an instant fired and was dead. Adams came here from Wellington recently, and had a wife and four children, the youngest being two months old. Later.

Mr Shallcross, the gaoler, was very reticent this morning, but it now appears that the warder, Samuel Adams, was stabbed in the back of his head and also in the abdomen by Davidson, who was employed in the gaol as cook. He used one of the kitchen knives. The event has caused a great sensation here, and the authorities are greatly blamed. An inquest is being held this afternoon.