A TRAGEDY IN GAOL.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1066, 30 July 1883, Page 2

A TRAGEDY IN GAOL.

MURDER AND SUICIDE, [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.jNELSON, July 28. / Between six and half-past six this morning a most dreadful tragedy was enacted at the Nelson Gaol. At present it is impossible to gather all the particulars, but; it appears that only the warder, John Adams, was in and he must have allowed John Davidson, a prisoner serving a life sentence for the manslaughter of Dennis 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 though special precautions were taken with him after he was sentenced, he seems to have been so docile as to have averted any apprehensions of bis becoming violent. Adams, after liberating the prisoner, went into the yard, and then came the dreadful deed.. The . prisoner, who was left without control, and probably seized with a desire to escape, seems to have taken a tomahawk and smashed in the guard-room door. That done, he appears to have {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 have been the course pursued. The noise of the revolver awakened Mr Shallcross, the gaoler, and Mrs Shallcross ; and both, having an indistinct idea that there was something |wrong, hastened into the.gaol. In the corridor they wore 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 where Adams was,and to this the prisoner said “Oh, yes ; he’s in the yard all right.” Mrs Shallcross then entreated him to lay aside the weapons, but he parleyed for some time, and ap peared to be somewhat pacified. He then demanded of Mr Shallcross that he should let him pass and allow him to escape from gaol, but 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. While Mr and Mrs Shallcross were doing all they could to pacify him, the man put one of the levolvers in his mouth, and in an instant fired and was dead. The unfortunate man Adams came here from Wellington recently, and had a wife and r four children, the youngest two months old. Later. 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 Ihe 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. THE INQUEST. An inquest was hold on Saturday, and the jury returned a verdict regarding Adams of wilful murder by Davidson, and on the body of the latter a verdict of felo cle se. They then adjourned till Monday to consider their rider. Opinions were expressed that the firearms should not have been kept where' accessible to prisoners, and the jury also commented on a life prisoner- of such a character being employed as cook.