The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-09-15

MURDER AT THE CENTRAL LUHATIc AsY.
LUM--ONE PATIENT INSTANTLY KILLED By An
orHER.--About aquarter to 2 O'Clock yester-
dayimOrning, Samuel Smith, patient at the
Central {colored) Lunatic asylum, was in.
stantly killed by fellow-patient named
John Williams. Both men were usually
quiet and Well-behayed, and, with some
eight or ten others considered entirely harm
less, were allowed the freedom of the yard
in the daytime, anaEat night were confined
in one of the large rooms in the second story
of the old ward. An attendant slept in the
room with them, and was charged to pre-
serve order and see that the regulations of
the institution were obeyed. Yesterday
morning Smith, who was sleeping on the OPP
posite side of the room from Williams, COM
planned that some one was talking loud and
breaking bis (Smith's) rest. The offender
was probably an old man in distant
part of the room, who was talking in bis
sleep; but somehow Williams considered
himself accused, and got up, took heavy
sat from bis bed, and went to Smiths bed
and struck him heavy blow. The slat fell
oblquely across Smiths face from the chin
to the right eye, and fractured the skull,
causing death almost instantly. Williams
put the slat back in its place, and retired SO
quietly as not to awaken the attendant. A
lunatic in an adjoining room had, however,
heard the mumblings of Williams and the
blow. and he gave the alarm. DR.. Cabel
reached Smith In a few minutes after he had
been struck, but life was then extinct. Will
liams was locked up In cell, aud in response
to interrogatorieS stated "he bad orders to
kill" Smith, but would not say from whom
the orders were obtained, his Imagination
failing him at that point. He said, also, that
he had orders to kill DR.. Cabell. He was
much alarmed when he was locked up, and
evidently expected to be punished, though
it was clear he did not altogether understand
the situation.
Smith was sixty.six years old, and came
to the asylum from Manchester, though he
was Richmond man. He had been at the
asylum about six months last October, when
be was discharged; but he had nowhere to
60 and no relatives or friends willing to take
and care for him, and so the officers were
compelled to keep him about the place and
give him food and shelter. He was always
inoffenSive, and if ever insane at all was only
slightly so.
John Williams is fifty.6ye years of age,
and came from Winchester, and has been at
the asylum about eighteen months. Free
dom is thought to have upset his mind, and
the prevailing hallucination with bim is that
he is very wealthy; but is unjustly kept out
of his fortune. He has the character of
being obstinate and pompous, but was never
known to be disorderly or deemed in any
way dangerous. He is permanently insane,
but was looked upon as so harmless that he
was sent home last year, aud remained there
about three months, when his wife got tired
of him, and he was brought back.
An inquest upon the body Of the deceased
was held yesterday evening by Justice P. G..
Larus, acting coroner Of Henrico county.
After the examination Of several witnesses
the jury rendered verdict that he :. came
to bis death by blow or blows struck with
bed-slat, supposed to have been done by
John Williams, one Of the luuatics in the
same ward, at about the hour of O'Clock
A. NJ; and we further do say that no ne
glect or blame can be attached to the officers
in charge of said asylum"