BROADMOOR'S DRUMMER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 27 (Supplement)

BROADMOOR'S DRUMMER.

PRISONER FOR 55 YEARS. .

Ono of tho oldest inmates of Broadmoor „v' Criminal Mental Asylum, Peter Murphy, ; - lias died at the age of 90. Ho had been at Broadmoor for 55 years. . _ Murphy was sentenced to bo detained during the Queen's pleasure at the Ola Bailey in 1875 for malicious wounding For 30 years he played tho side-dram m the asylum band, and spent most "of his time in the tailor's shop. He lived in the same block as Ronald True., Murphy was only one of many patients who have lived to a great ago at the asylum. A few weeks prior to his death two very old inmates died on the same day. They were Eleanor Jacobs, who had spent 40 years at Broadmoor, and John Tuck, who was 80 anti had been there 24 years. . / Peter McLean, the man who attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria, at Oxfordj had been in the institution for 39 years when he died in 1921. A man named Wilkinson, sentenced at Exeter for snooting a man, was in the asylum 31 years, ana Arthur Prince, who stabbed William Tornss, the actor, to death outside the Adelphi Theatre, was at Broadmoor for 30 years before he died. Except that tho inmates may not leave it, Broadmoor bears no resemblance to an ordinary prison. Work is not compulsory, and patients can obtain food from outside jg if they wish. There are tennis courts, plaving grounds, and billiard tables. Som^v^,, of the patients have private rooms decor* ; alcd to their own taste. Many have their _ own libraries. ~ v Tho inmates may read and write what thev like, and many novels have .been , published that were written ln r, The editor of the New Oxford Dictionary .-i. found that one of his most valued, contributors was an -inmate, .there we WJ men and 200 women at the institution.