Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-07-16
A coNv1crs ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.
ssTons' Ballard, the Co.,,te,1eiter, Tries to
XIII Himself.
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"ToAs" Ballard, the Cou,ate,1eiter, Tries to
XIII Himself.
ALBANY, DULY I'D Special to the New York
Times.
The Albany penitentiary was the scene last
night of the most determined attempt at sui
eide that has been recorded for many day.
':Tom' Ballard, the famous counterfeiter who
was serving term of twenty years imprison-
ment for making counterfeit United
States notes, stabbed himself in the
neck and in the left arm with rude
knife made by himself out of a steel rib of a
shoe. Finding that death did not seem likely
to ensue from these wounds. Ballard, with the
same weapon, ripped his abdomen open from
the naval upward, SO that his entrails Tapped
out upon the floor. With all those Wounds
which he claims to have given himself between
and 2o'cock on Thursday morning, Ballard
lay conscious and without aid on his cot until Z
| o'clock this morning, when his groans attracted
keeper, who informed Deputy Superintendent
| Woodruff that he thought Ballard i'll.
| When Woodruff entered Billiards. cell he
found the convict in his cot under cover, and
so self possessed that no thought of the terrible
| injuries he had inflicted upon himself was sug-
gested by his appearance. Ballard simply be-
gan begging that he should not be punished,
and pulling down the bed-clothes and showing
the wound in the abdomen, said APP
! pealingly: s1t's no to pun
| ish me; l have taken my own life" The
deputy Immediately sent for the prison
physician, who did all that he could, but there
seems to be no possibility of recovery, the
intestines are themselves gashed in places. 1t
| was disclosed upon further inquiry of the
prisoner that he had meditated suicide for sew
eral weeks; twenty-seven years of his sentence
remaining still to be served, and the prospect
of so long time in prison was especially
gloomy to active and intelligent man as
Ballard has been. But he was never able to
screw his courage to the commits
sion of the act until last night
when he heard two fellow prisoners in an ad,
joining cell say that they s'had put up a job tc
| get him the iveliest switching he ever had. y
Then. he said, he committed the deed on the
impulse of the moment, to avoid the switch
ing. He had had opportunities in plenty to
kill himself all along, as acids had been founC
in his cell, and he had used in the shop where
he worked, keen-edged knife, but he had
nevertheless, committed the deed with blunt
instrument, as described above. There was NJ
reason why he should fear punishment, being
well behaved convict, and never having beer
either punished or reported. Ballard has
wife and daughter living on Forty fifth street
New York, who have been sent for. The Off
Gals of the penitentiary, in Capt. Pillsbury
absence, at first refused to give out any partic
ulars whatever about the matter, and even pro
fessed ignorance Of any unusual occurrence il
the prison. Ballard will be especially remem
bered for alleged proposal made by him t.
the government to give the authorities recip
for the prevention of all counterfeiting in re
turn for a pardon, and for his general reputa
ton as the most successful eounterfeiter in tn
! 0ptr