The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-12 00:00:00

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THE MURDER IN THEI4LLBANK
PRISON. "/..4--
It will be remembered that on WecTrilss4,3l last a\-1
most desperate and murderous attack was made, abirt4l,—,,
four o'clock in the afternoon, upon Thomas Hall, one
of the warders in the Penitentiary at Milbank, by
John Francis, one of the convict prisoners, inmate
of that prison, from the effects of which the injured
man died on Thursday last. An inquest was held on
the body on Saturday, by Mr. Bedford, the coroner
for Westminster, and from the evidence it appeared
that, at the hour above stated, Francis requested the
warder Hall to let him out of his cell for a necessary
purpose, with which request Hall immediately
complied, and waited for him to return in order to
lock him up again. As Francis was returning to his
cell, with his cell utensil in his hand, which he had
been to empty, he struck Hall with it and felled him
to the ground, and followed up his attack with a
succession of desperate blows upon his head with
the same utensil. The attack was witnessed by
some of the other prisoners from the gratings of
their cells, but as they were all locked up except
Francis, they were unable to assist the unfortunate
warder. Their cries from the windows, however,
eventually attracted the attention of some of the
officers, and brought other warders to Hall's assistance,
by whom the prisoner Francis was secured and
placed in the refractory cell for security. Hall was then
found lying on the floor in his own room in a state of
insensibility ; both eyes were completely blackened,
and the skull was smashed in, and the brains protrud-
ing. He died the following night about twelve.
When the prisoner was taken into custody a pair of
scissors were found upon him, from which the screw
had been taken away, and the points had been
sharpened. William Crawley, a convict confined in
an adjoining cell to the prisoner, gave evidence at the
inquest, and stated that he had heard the prisoner
call for the deceased, who, upon corning to his cell,
told him he ought not to have called, as this was
contrary to the rules of the prison, but he should
have exhibited his signal. He did not say this in an
angry tone. After this Francis was let out from his
cell by the deceased for the purpose of emptying his
cell utensil in the opposite closet. He returned in
about a minute and a half with the lid of the
utensil in his right hand, and the other part in his
left. He then went up to the deceased and imme-
diately struck him on the head with the cover of the
utensil. The deceased screamed out, and endeavoured
to crawl to his own room. Witness cried repeatedly
to the prisoner to desist from his murderous attack ;
but, instead of listening to him, he followed the de-
ceased and struck him again several violent blows.
Witness had not heard the prisoner express any ill
feeling previously towards the deceased. Mr. Itendle,
the surgeon, who was called in to attend the de-
ceased, deposed to the extensive nature of the wounds
on the head, which be said were quite sufficient to
produce death. At the conclusion of the evidence the
jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against John
Francis.