The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-05-03
Investigating Mysterious Death
Of insane Asylum Patient.
HAPPENED ON WARDS ISLAND.
She Developed Religious Mania, Fell Nearly
Three Feet and Fractured Ribs
and Brsaslh,us.

New York. May 3-coroner scholer is
conducting an investigation into the
death OF Miss Theresa Mcmahon, pa
tient IN the Manhattan State Hospital for
the Insane on Wards Island. Dr. Hunter
A. Bond. physician in charge OF Ward
No. lS. sent with the body TO the morgue
a certificate giving the cause OF death as
acute lobar pneumonia and acute melan-
cholia. DR. Emmett c. Dent, superintend-
ent OF the hospital. when he learned OF
this ordered the certificate revoked and
notified the coroners office 20 hold an au-
topsy which revealed that the woman's
brestbone was broken, three ribs cracked
and her body on the left side covered
with bruises.
Last evening the coroner received from
Dr. Dent report which ascribed the pa
tient's injury Go fall The coroner was
not satisfied. and will have the hospital
physicians and attendants connected with
the case brought before him. when he will
hold a formal inquest Miss Mcmahon
was forty-seven years old, and had been
in the institution for ten months.
FELL NEARLY THREE FEET
Or. Dent reported 10 the coroner that
on April @ Miss Mcmahon eluded her at
tendants observation and climbed TO the
window sill thirty-one inches from the
floor and clung screaming 20 the bars
OF the window. Della McHale. the attend
ant, tried 10 get the woman back into bed
but she resisted and finally plunged 10
the fioor knocking down the attendant
and striking the iron bedstead on her
left side.
A signed statement was inclosed from
DR. Bond. who said that last Sunday on
HIS regular forenoon round In Ward IL,
he examined Miss Mcmahon and discov-
cred a swelling on the left side of her
chest He suspected a fracture OF the
sternum. but the patient resisted exam
ination so violently that the bones be-
meath could not be mapped out lie made
three other attempts at examination and
each time the patient resisted The next
day when Miss Mcmahon died he learn
ed about the fall OF six days previous
The nurse made statement OF the ac-
cident. and Katie Grattan told of being
sent for 10 assist Nurse Mcfiale. whom
she found holding the patients hands.
DEVELOPED RELIGIOUS MANIA.
Miss McMahons body was buried In
Cavalry yesterday, and was accompanied
from the undertaking rooms TO the grave
by Mrs. Finegan. with whom the insane
spinster had lived; Mrs. Catherine Multi
gan, OF $50 West One Hundred and Thir-
fiefh street and Mrs. NJ. l.. Doyle, her
second cousin. Mrs. Doyle, who lives at
u Madison avenue. is the widow OF Mi
chael Doyle, who was In the dry goods
business on Grand street and who died
five years ago, leaving fortune OF w.
O0O.0o0
Mrs. Doyle said Miss Mcmahon had
lived the life OF a recluse for years until
recently. when she took a room with Mrs.
Finegan. She was n persistant reader or
novels and devoted worker i'm the
Church of the Immaculate Conception.
on East Fourteenth street. She developed
religious mania more than a year ago,
and when last June she made "A scene In
church the Rev. Father Breslin had her
committed TO Wards Island. Some OF her
friends visited her there almost every
Sunday. and Miss Mcmahon never made
any complaint as To her treatment