The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1908-06-29
Hospital Matron Battles for Life
in Clutch of Frenzied Fe- !.
male Prisoner
Nurse Struggles With Mad Pa
tient Quarter Hour and Help
Comes in Nick Of Time
Men ReScuerS Are Tossed About
Cell by Crazed Inmate
Like Tenpins
Victim of Terrible Experience
Bruised and Torn and Clothes
1 Stripped From Her

Locked in a cell with an insane
woman bent on murder. Matron Ellen
SWEET of the detention ward at the
emergency hospital yesterday morning
engaged in terrific battle for her life,
in which the maniac choked her un-
conscious and nearly killed her.
For quarter of an hour the little
nurse repelled the rushes and attacks
of Maud Torchio, becoming gradually
weaker and weaker until she sue
cumbed just as help arrived Hearing
the sounds of the unequal struggle,
DIR. Reuben c. Hill and Stewards Emer-
son and Thomas broke into the CELL
but 1t took their combined strength
to release the hands of the mad
woman from the matron's throat. Be
fore she could be subdued and placed
about the cell as though they were
children and scratched Hills face with
her finger nails until the blood ran.
In the course of the struggle the
woman tore the matron's clothing into
shreds and with an unnatural strength
pulled her garments from her body by
sheer force and stamped them on the
floor. Once getting her hands about
the matron's throat. she exerted her
strength in choking her
For nearly an hour after she was
carried out of the cell the plucky nurse
hung between life and death. but she
was finally brought back to conscious
ness Her throat was marked by big
welts where the maniac'S fingers had
clasped her and her body was bleeding
from scores Of scratches and abrasionS
inflicted when she had been thrown
and beaten against the wall After re-
gaining consciousness she was taken in
an ambulance to her home at 4SS Wal
Ter street. Though her injuries are
serious. she will recover.
The insane woman. Maud Torchio,
was brought to the hospital last Thurs
day from her home at % Himmelman
place, in the Latin quarter Pending an
examinatio as TO her sanity she was
placed in one of the cells for demented
patients. She seemed unusually sub
missive and unhappy at the charge
against her. however. and 1t was not
even suspected that her ailment would
take on violent turn. For that rea-
son the nurses did not exercise the pre-
cautions for their own safety they
would otherwise have taken
At $50 o'clock yesterday morning.
Wneu Ine dlleuudnlS were cdlcnlnk a
few minutes of sleep. Matron SWEET
suddenly heard a noise in the cell in
which the woman was confined. With
no thought of danger. and with the
intention of soothing her. she unlocked
the door and stepped inside. latching 1t
again behind her AS she turned the
patient sprang at her from the bed. on
which she was standing
The nurse was borne roughly to the
floor, and then followed a struggle that
was terrible in it's intensity. The
matron was fighting for her life.
Locked In the grasp of the madwoman.
she was rolled over and over on the
floor, at times picked up and thrown
against the wall. again tossed on the
bed. All the time the maniac was try
ing to choke her. and the nurse cen
tered her declining strength in the ef-
fort to restrain the woman. But she
was no match for the other, and just as
DIR. Hill and the stewards broke in to
her rescue she lost consciousness
After being placed in a straitjacket
the woman became a raving maniac,
and 1T is thought that she may die.