TORTURING A PRISONER TO DEATH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3070, 29 April 1881, Page 4

TORTURING A PRISONER TO DEATH.

Prison discipline in the State prison at Jefferson city, in the United States, received a rude shock the other day owing to the obstinacy of an ill-conditioned convict, Charles Staunton, who, being suspected of an intention to escape, was placed in solitary confinement. The prison authorities having reason to believe that Staunton had a knife in his possession, demanded the weapon, but he declined to give it up, and it was therefore decided to "poke him out." The operation was effected by means of iron rods with hooked ends, which were introduced into the cell, the hooks being heated by fire, so that the prisoner to be hooked out could not take hold of them with his hands. Before commencing the process a final demand was made upon Staunton for the surrender of the knife, but he merely replied " that he woiild die first." And he carried his threat into execution, for at the first attempt to drag him out of the cell by the hot hooks he gave a horrible howl and drew the knife with vigor across his throat. Death was almost instantaneous, and as other prisoners have been " poked out" in this fashion without thinking it necessary to put an end to their existence, Staunton's rash act is attributed, not to the hot hooks, but to his own ungovernable temper.