A PRISON PUZZLE

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2298, 17 November 1925, Page 10

A PRISON PUZZLE

miLEBP’ *AMATE STRANGLED WHILE SECURED IN STRAITJACKET. The officials of the Terrace Gaul have been presented wuh a ' first-class puzzle: Could a- pn. soner secured fast in a straitjacket, without freeing himself, strangle himself by transferring to his neck a belt fastened round his legs? This is the problem the Coroner will be required to elucidate in ac. counting for the means by which the prisoner met his death. The victim is William Hayden, a man with a long .ist of convictions, who some months ago was committed to the Terrace Gaol on a sentence of tnree years for an indecent act. Hayden had been act.ng peculiarly for some days past ,and was given to brooding over his confinement to prison. At intervals he would break out into violent declarations that someone was going to kill him, and this condition became aggravated on Friday evening to the extent that It was dangerous to enter his cell; when a warder approached him he seized his stool, a strong wall-fixture, tore part of It away from Its concrete foundations, and acted like a madman. Picking up the dishes he had used just previously at tea, he dashed them to the floor and jumped upon ithem, and then endeavoured to break down the door of his cell. He was kept under close observation and guard, and later in the evening medical officers were summoned. Ques, tioned by them, he showed that he was still obsessed with the idea that the authorities were going to take his life. On the advice of the doctors, it was decided to remove him to the Porirua Mental Hospital.

The prisoner again became aggres. sive on Saturday morning, and after a strenuous strugg’Je, during which he fought with all the strength of hla powerful build, he was “straitjacketed.” He then began to kick at the warders, who further secured him with handcuffs and a belt around his legs. He was then forced on to his back upon a mattress on the floor of his cell. Preparations were made for transferring him to Porirua, and at about 1 o’clock the warder on duty outside the cell was called away for about half an hour. When he returned, Hayden was found lying on the floor, off the mattress, and three or four feet away from the place in which he had been lying before. While he was still firmly secured in the straitJackct, his feet were free, and the 'belt was drawn tight around his neck. Dr. P. E. M’Evedy was called, and pronounced the man as dead from suffocation. The possibility of interference by a' second party to the tragedy is dis. counted by the fact lhat the cell in which the man was confined was locked, the key, it is said, being itself under lock and key in the prison armoury. The prison authorities are con. vinced by test of the impossibility of gaining freedom from the straitjacket in the circumstances in which Haydon was trussed up. One of the prison officials was fastened up in thQ same way as the prisoner, and he was quite unable to free himself, or to remove a single strap. z

A post-mortem examination will be held, and the inquest will take place this afternoon at 3 o'clock, at the Terrace Gaol, says the "Post.* ’