Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1883-02-27
THE SHOCKING OCCURRENCE AT TEE WEST
ERN LuNATIC ASYLUM
From the Stanton vindic..,or extra

ana tllfce more were i'll from the same cause,
ihc1acts. as iaras we have been able olcarn.
anu us furnished by the officers of the insti
tuition. are rs follows:
I'm Friday evening ubou. Is O'Clock DR..
Butler. who prepares the medicine. put out
the walters with the cups containing it. as
usual. III The safe in the hall into which the
l'ispensary room opens. The walters were
taken after awhile to their rooms on The
different floors by the attendants. 80 as TO
max" them ready next morning 10 usl-
! minister TO those patients who take mcdi-
cine before breakfast. The three walters
which afterwards proved TO contain poison
Ell medicine had Oh them the following
medicine with the name OF the patient who
was TO take II written on u ta"un the handle
! of the mug:
rlrst waiter lor the centre and win. male
nuilt'il@s lour mugs-onc Of whisky for
| Waiter; one OF oxide of iron for Ktrshner :;
| one III >amc Tor wilkins. and one Of phos-
! ptalc al IRON. uuinia and strichnia for
Adams. This waiter killed wilkins and
| Adams
Second waiter for the second and third
male wards had five uugs-one forEaucbau
with fluid extract Of hyosyamus and two
with oxide Of IRON THIS waiter poisoned
! Vaughan.
! The third and most fatal waiter was for
the fourth male ward aud carried six mugs.
Two had oxide OF iron and bromide potas-
SUM for Hines and Myers: two Others had
oxide OF iron for Sperry and Holloman: one
had whisky for Looncy. of Botetourt. and
two had medicine for Myers and Thomas.
Ihls waiter killed Sperry, Holloman and
Hines
The terrible work CT these poisoned cups
was begun and completed within an hour
on saturday morning between and I
o'clock. DIR. Hamilton, the superintendent,
was at his residence in the city when mes.
senger ran to his house to tell him that
Leonard L. Wilkins, Il patient aged twenty
years, from Northampton county, had lust
fallen dead. Before Dr. H. could get out of
his house, another messenger came TO
tell him another patient had dropped
dead. he hurried over TO the ASYLUM and
by 4 little after : o'clocl, five deaths in all
had occurred.
leonard /. Wilkins. aged twenty, was in
a cheerful humor when he got up and went
INTO I llle nall, WhstllnS, to get his medicine.
Inc attendant. Mr.. Nelson Andrews, heard
INN when he walked back into his room and
sat his mug down on the window-sill. In
eight minutes Mr. Andrews went into
the room and found young Wilkins dead
having thrown himself against the bed in
an attitude of prayer Hiscollar and crayat.
winch death had prevented his putting on,
had dropped from his hands to the floor.
Just around the passagei in the wing build
ing, Thomas w. Adams, of Loudoun county.
Va, an epilcptic. aged IS, took his mug of
medicine, at the same time exclaimed that
1t had burned his throat and in a few mo-
ments was dead.
Across the yard in the 18th ward, or what
has been called the big building, Joseph r.
Holloman OF Spotsylvania, aged 10, one of
the youngest men in the Asylum, IL sufferer
from acute mania, took his medicine and in
4 few minutes was Il corpse
Isaac Sperry, aged to, of Frederick county.
look his medicine and went TO the breakfast
table but got up suddenly and ran out He
died within an hour
John ". Hines, Of Bath Co., Va, aged Is,
i'll the same ward an epicptic. took his
medicine and died in an hour.
In the same ward Joe Thomas, ofRockinp
ham, and Ed. Myers of Craigsvile, took
their medicine and were poisoned, but have
recovered.
In the sd ward, or what is known as the
Ward Building for the most violent pa
tlents, Mathew Vaughan OF Prince Edward
county, Va, took his medicine and immedi-
ately fell senseless in Il corner. He is liv-
ing but still unconscious.
Immediately after the poisoning Dr. But
Ter went to his prussic Acid bottle in the
Dispensary TO see if any was missing. He
found the same amount there that there was
two weeks ago.
1t is n coincidence with this mysterious
and deadly occurrence that on Friday last.
Mrs Sarah {. McAleNander, of Botetourt. u
patient fell senseless from the dinner table
the day before the poisoning, with similar
symptoms and was unconscious until ycster-
day morning.
Several of the patients who took the med.
lclne from their mugs on the deadly walters
were not poisoned at all, showing that in
many Of the mugs no poison was put.
The whole dreadful affair is as great a
mystery to the officers Of the Asylum as to
the outside public, and the evidence before
the inquest is awaited with deep interest.
! There seems to be little doubt that Prussic
Acid was the poison used
The theory Of the crime advanced by DR..
Robert ;. Hamilton, the superintendent, is
that while the medicine was sitting in the
| case in the hall some one of the insane in
mates got to it and sprinklcd the posion
over eight Of the glasses.
DIR. Mallett has returned to the UNIVERSE
ty with the three stomachs and their con-
tents where he will analyze them, and the
result will not probably be known for two
weeks
The case Of young Leonard Wilkins is
peculiarly distressing. He was from East
vile, Northampton county: had been at
the asylum only three months with melan
cholia. and had recovered and was about to
return home. He was just twenty-one OH
the 22d of February, and was a bright, pleas
ant fellow: Il pet at the establishment and n
great favorite at home, where he was the
youngest in the family. His doting mother
had written several times, begging the Su-
perintendent to send him home to her. and
as he expressed it, she was almost beside
herself to see her baby boy one more cloth
ed and in his right mind
The indications as well us the SYMPTOMS
which preceded death point to poisoning bv
prussic acid or aconite. Great excitement
still prevails over the occurrence.