The Newtown bee., 1879-08-13
An UnmanageabEe Prisoner.

A correspondent of the London Times, writing from Geneva, Switzerland, tells about prisoner in jail at Vaud, who seems to be an unusually hard case" The name of the prisoner is Christian Wyss, and he appears to have been an Though still under forty, he began his career of crime more than twenty years ago, being sentenced in 1858 to term of imprisonment for a robbery committed at Vevy In 1863 he was condemned to eight years solitary confinement for robbery with violence and a murderous attack on the gendarme by whom he was arrested. During this imprison- ment he made a ferocious onslaught on a turnkey with a chisel, of which he had surreptitiously possessed himself, and nearly killed the man. No sooner was Wyss released from prison than he re- sumed his evil courses. Two years thereafter he was brought before a criln- inal court at Payerne on 2 charge of breaking into the house Of the pastor of Ressudens, whom he half strangled and left for dead, and, though he recovered for a time, he did actually die not long afterward of the injuries inflicted on him by his assailant. For this offence Wyss was sentenced in 1873 to thirteen years solitary confinement. Before the year was out he attacked another turnkey, this time with a knife, and though the poor man was hurt to death he survived his wounds few weeks, a circumstance which, indicating as it did a possibility of ultimate recovery, induced the mag
 strate by whom the murderer was tried to take an indulgent view of the case and add only two years to his sentence. After this event, and see ing that Wyss. who is not only crea- ture of ferociouS temper, but of great strength and almost herculean propor- tions. continued to threaten his jailers, and made several attempts to escape, the authorities resolved to provide him with a prison of his own. A separate cell of solid masonry was, therefore, built for him. Light was admitted by single, heavily barred window, and the door was of such strength as seemingly to defy the prisoners utmost efforts to break out. In this door was arranged a small wicket, through which Wyss was fed like wild beast, for no one ever entered his cell where he remained day and night heavily ironed. But one day when a guardian ot the prison was conveying to Wyss his matutinal supply of food he perceived that the door had been tamper- ed with. An alarm was forthwith given. and investigation made. It seemed that the prisoner had managed, nobody could tell how, to break piece of iron from one of the bars of his window. This, by dint of hard work-using the floor ofhis cell as a whetstone-he had i3geniously shaped into sort of chisel, with which he had forced back one of the bolts of his door, and would, doubtless, had he not been found out in time, have forced them all and regained his freedom. It required almost a regiment of gendarmes q h h cell, there to be kept chained to the floor until his own den should be once more ready to receive and, as his custodians hope. to retain him. If, before his time be out, Wyss should commit any more murders, it is very likely, in the present temper of the Vaudois people, that he will be hanged.