A MANIAC'S STRENGTH.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9714, 26 March 1910, Page 6

A MANIAC'S STRENGTH.

EXTRAORDINARY FEATS IN A PRISON. In Trenton gaol, New Jersey, Giovanni Mayoni, a condemned murderer, gave a wonderful demonstration of a maniac's strength. Aa a preliminary, be smashed everything in hie cell, including the iron bedstead, and then, warming to his work, he tore the bars of the door apart. The latter feat ia deemed extraordinary, because the bars were very thick and very strong. He wrenched a piece of lead piping, one inch in diameter, from the wall, broke it, and in a few seconds made a formidable club. Mayonl ia a big man, and daring his frenzied outburst he shouted as if possessed by a demon. The warders seemed hypnotised, and kept at a respectful distance, consulting aa to what measures should be taken. The prison priest heard the row while ministering to another condemned murderer, and, proceeding to Mayoai, tried to calm him. “Get away,’ 1 thundered Mayoni, “or you’ll go to hell before your tliii®.” The priest fled panicstricken, that Mayoni would follow him, cried for help as ha ran. The maniac now squeezed himself through the prison bars, and was advancing with the object: apparently of freeing every prisoner occupying “Murderers’ Row,” eight of the most desperate scoundrels in the State. By ’bis time, however, the astonished warders had recovered their senses. They organised “a simultaneous attack from Jfront and rear, fifteen cf them on both sides advancing with a rash, and, at a given signal, when a bucket of ioeoold water bad been hurled at the miscreant’s head by a warder posted in the gallery above the corridor, where the operations were taking place, they literally fell upon Mayoni, grasping his legs, arms, head, and body, and binding him Mayoni saw the keepers coming, and blasphened mightily, but like a rat besieged on all aides by terriers, he did not know where to strike first, and the ice-oold shower from above baffled him. The prison officials say they believe that Mayoni is feigning insanity for the purpose of escaping the death penalty, but, on the other hand, it is pointed out that the strength exhibited by Jthe man was that of a maniac. The bending of the bars of his cell door was a feat thought to be impossible, but be accomplished it with seeming ease, The bars usually bent by “strong men” on the stage are just about naif as thick, and not nearly so strong.