Handcuffed Man Commits Suicide

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 650, 30 April 1929, Page 13

Handcuffed Man Commits Suicide

hanged in sick bay TRAGEDY ON TAMAROA Though he was securely handcuffed with the manacles tied by rope to his feet, B. Adler, a passenger on the Tamaroa, succeeded in taking his life about a week after the ship had left Panama. TJTHE story of Adler’s sudden mental derangement and its tragic sequel was told this morning when the Tamaroa, of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, arrived from Southampton with 16 first-class and a full list of second-class passengers. A Pole, aged 25, Adler was travelling to New Zealand with a companion. He is described as having been of a morose nature, his aversion to shipboard companionship being accentuated by the fact that he could not speak English. A few days before April 18, the day of his death, Adler began to suffer from delusions. Borne anxiety was felt, and he was placed in the ship’s hospital under medical observation. Then an attendant found him attempting to hang himself from a beam. He was cut down in time and placed in handcuffs, a further precaution being the tying of his hands to his feet with rope. Notwithstanding .this, Adler managed to free himself when left alone. He untied the rope and hanged himself without removing the handcuffs. When he was found, life was extinct. He was buried at sea the following day. Captain W. H. Hartman, master of the Tamaroa, reading the service.