The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-27
Strung Up by Arms for Hours,
He Says.
HE MADE PRISON RECORD
Cold Water for Half
an Hour.
Prisoners Tell of Cruelty of
Dead Man.

Prince, slayer of Deputy Warden E. D.
Davis at the Nebraska penitentiaTy, on
the stand told of events leading to the
tragedy and the actual killing.
''I had come to the conclusion that
I would get one oe these men, either
the warden or the deputy warden -
sand Prince. ct coul1 not get at War
den Delahunty because he was not
near enough, so when Davis came near
me, I struck him with the knife. I
believed one of those men ought to
die for their cruelty to me when I did
not deserve it I may have been
wrong, but from my standpoint, I
| thought I did right"
Prince made a good witness. He
spoke in L low voice but it was full Of
dramatic expression, and he at all
times expressed himself in faultless
language. He told in graphic Ian
guage of the experience he asserted he
had had in the hole where freezing
water from a fire hose was played
upon him for half an hour with such
force, he said, as to have knocked him
down had he not braced himself.
Prince told of the traffic in opium and
morphine in the prison, to the use of
which he had become addicted.
Slayer Tells of Torture.
The most dramatic incident of the
trial came when the negro was asked
to describe the punishment of string
ing up which he said was meted ont
to men who were placed in the solitary
from o'clock in the morning till
noon and from 1 o'clock in the after
noon till night. The mulatto arose.
There are three positions" he said.
I'm the first place, they put your hands
through the bars together like this,
and raise them about this high He
swayed back a little, his hands came
up to a level with the small of his
back.
There there is a higher position
like this" The back bent over fur
ther, the hands swayed upwards to the
level of the armpit.
There is still a third position. like |
this" he said. The back bent itself, |
the arms moved up till they passed |
the top of his head, and in a halfmoon !
position, he stood for a moment.
Prince told Of.men who were strung |
up at the full position. and who came |
from the t'hole' with color gone and |
their bodies showing the great strain |
they had undergone.
Davis Made Conditions Worse.
Deputy Warden Davis made condi- |
tions worse, said Prince, and they grew
worse. The food grew worse the
men s privileges were cut off one by !
one, discipline grew stricter.
That it is difficult for a sick man to
receive proper treatment was another
point testified to by Prince. He told
of convicts with dropsy and cOnsump-
ton who We're kept at their tasks when
they were exhausted by their disease.
Il never heard of anyone sleeping
in the hole " said Prince. "You Just
walk around after they let you down
from the bars, until you get fatigued
and then you lay down. You may
sleep ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, or
an hour till you get cold, then you
walk till you are tired again. In win
stone. You can't do it, that's ALL" he
said.
A vivid description of the punish
me ent of Albert Prince by Deputy War
den Tom Welton and Guard Tom Oak
ley was given by John McAdaw a
negro, and for twenty-nine months a
prison inmate. The story dealt with
the time when Prince received the
water cure" an incident which is
claimed by the defense to have been
one of the most important factors in
breaking down his mentality and rem
dering him paranoiac.
"I and Tom Coakley were cleaning
out the cells narrated McAdaw.
Prince was in the hole and Tom
Coakley told him to come up to the {
bars and put his hands up there. And ]
''Coakley said. You, in there. put ]
your hands up He said I'm sick {
Coakley said all right" and turned {
and went out and got the deputy war
I
him to put his hands up and he told l
he deputy warden again that he was i
sick. They went out again. don't
know where-but they came back and s
old me and another inmate to go and {
get the hose. So we went out and got
he hose and put it on the plug. I
"And they came and asked him to {
put up his hands again and he said ]
ne was sick And then they turned {
he water on him and when the water
vas running-there was a little corner.
lot much of q spot-he tried to get in I
[ out of the way of the water. And +
hen I heard Coakley swearing and I
asking him to stand out where he t
;ould get the full force of the water. {
saw Him After the Cure. !
McAdaw was asked if he had seen /
Prince after the cure had been ad- S
He replied in TIE affirma-
i've and was then asked how the man {
lad looked.
Half drowned was the laconic 9
-eply. I
McAdaw testified that he was pres '
mt for between twenty and twenty '
i've minutes during which Prince re-
,eived the brunt of the water through [
he cell door. Prince is said to have g
,een treated to the cure for over
hirty minutes. a prison record. as the a
orce of the stream from the hose US e
lally forces submission before the per v
on at whom it is directed has felt it's
,runt for over ten minutes. d
On cross examination by Judge
,trode McAdaw declared that he had d
ormed his opinion of the insanity of
Prince from the acts and conversation y
# the man. He said that Coakley
Lsked Prince to put up his hands in
rider that they might string" him l;