THE ASYLUM TRAGEDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1066, 5 October 1883, Page 2

THE ASYLUM TRAGEDY.

A telegram from Auckland last night says :—The inquest on the body of J. J. Mills, a patient in the Lunatic Asylum, killed by G. Schnell, another patient, takes place to-morrow. The staff of the Asylum are reticent as to the circumstances surrounding the tragic occurrence, but so far as the facts have been suffered to transpire, it appears that G. Sohnell, who is suffering from homicidal mania, was left without surveillance while the warder got his breakfast. It was thought that he was in the yard jwith the other patients, but he seems to have got into a room in the main building with Mills, and suddenly pounced upon the latter, smashing in the back of his skull with a box broom or “ deck scrubber," as it is called. He then went out and informed the warder he had killed a fellow. Steps were at once taken to secure him, and ho was placed in a coll. On being asked why he had killed a man, he said he was obliged to do so, as he had been directed to do it. Some time ago it will be remembered that Schnell, actuated by a frenzy, killed his fellow laborer on the road side in a rural district in Taranaki, and had been sent up to the Auckland Asylum. It does not appear he was of a quarrelsome disposition with other patients, or that he had any quarrel with Mills. Mills was an old Auckland resident, and had been here many years, and was formerly a furniture dealer in Victoria street. He came out from Home with several thousand pounds, but through losses in business lost nearly all his moans. This preyed so much on his mind that his reason became dethroned, and his friends were obliged to place him in the Asylum. He leaves a wife and nine of a family.

[by xblboraph. Auckland, To-day.

The following particulars

regarding

the Lunatic Asylum tragedy have transpired :—The occurrence happened not in the cell, but in the day room in the east end of the building, which, although it contained beds, is used as a breakfast and dining-room for the dangerous patients. Forty-two men usually dine in this room who cannot be trusted with a knife or

fork or spoon. They are supplied with what is called a spoon, that is to say their potatoes are mashed and their meat chopped up. Owing to special instructions regarding Sohnell, he was the last admitted into the -breakfast room when all the others were seated. There were four attendants present at breakfast, and Hardy, the head' warder, made a personal inspection at eight o’clock, and found all right. Schnell was. not even sitting at the same table as Mills. Thera was a table between them, and so far as could bo gathered no communication passed between them, and they sat on the extreme corners. The duty of the attendant, Moßeady, who had charge of the ward, was to see the ward cleared out and

patients sent into the airing court, and 1 the place looked up before -he *w«nt to I breakfast. He says he cleared Mills and I Schnell out with the other patiente and l locked the place, but the difficulty is to 1 reconcile this with the facts which oc- I currod, andMcßeady has been suspended I pending the result of the inquest. The I tragedy occurred in the day-room, which I was supposed to be locked, and yet Mills and the Austrian must have been there. The assault was committed at the extreme end of the ward in a passage six feet wide, on one side of which were the attendants’ rooms, the outlet being to the airing court. Schnell apparently picked up a heavy deck sorubbeifbroom, used for scrubbing the oil-cloth in the passages, and following up his victim, struck him violently on the back of his head, fracturing his skull and smashing the broom off at the handle. He then proceeded to belabor his victim-with the handle. A patient named Edward Jolly avers that he saw the assault. Ho states distinctly that he saw Schnell break the scrubber over Mills’ head‘and then beat him with the handle. Schnell when asked why he attacked Mills, says it was to prevent swearing. He is quite coherent except when conversation turns on his homicidal tendencies.

An inquest on the victim of the lunatic asylum tragedy is progressing.