GAOL DEATHS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 212, 8 September 1938, Page 14

GAOL DEATHS.

WOMAN STRANGLED.

REMARKABLE ACCIDENT.

POISON IN MAN'S COAT

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 2.

An extraordinary accident led to the death in a Manly police cell of Mrs. Elsie Wall, 52, who had been arrested on the relatively trivial charge of drunkenness. Although the medical evidence showed that she had been strangled, there were no marks on her throat.

Following the usual routine, she was put in a cell, after lier arrest, until her iiusbaud was told of it and arrived to bail her out. When he walked down the passage of the gaol he was shocked to see his wife's head protruding in a strange way from the opening in tile cell door. Standing on the cell board, she had apparently put her head through the aperture in the door of her cell to look out. Ihe board had slipped from under her feet, and her head had become caught and twisted, so that she could neither move nor cry out. Remarking that it was a most extraordinary accident, the coroner returned a finding of accidental death. °

Death also took another prisoner, but in this caee it wa- ,Belf-s:itight. Desmond Kay Doyle, 24. of unknown address, had been arrested and locked up at CampMe on a charge of housebreaking. While he was being questioned in the cell, he suddenly said to the detective: Look, I think this is the easiest way out," and put poison in his mouth. He was rushed to hospital, but died 15 minutes after he had taken the poison. His last words while being taken to the hospital were: "Hazel, I, love you." From other words which they could only partly hear, the police believed that he had been jilted, but at the inquest a girl witness said there had been nothing between her and Doyle. He was a private inquiry agent, ehe said, and was frequently away in the country. When he came back to town; he used to take her to the pictures. That was all.

Following the usual routine, the police had taken everything away from Doyle when they locked him up, and nt first they were mystified as to how he had secreted the poison. On examining his clothing, however, they found a small tear in the lining of his pocket. They concluded that he had had the poison sewn into his coat.