The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-07-16
TWENTY TWO MEN
AWAIT EXECUTION 10
SING SING PRISON
Capacity of Death House ovortaxed-
Warden Kennedy Has Been Com
PEELED to Construct Two Annexes.

NEW YORK, July 4.-Three murder
crs will be executed in the death house
at Sing Sing on July s. They are
Giuseppe Ciprolli, who was sentenced to
death February 2s, 1911; George Wilt
ans, a negro, who was received Mt Sing
Sing November 81 of last year, and
Hanza Santa, who was sentenced last
December in connection with the muir
der of Mrs. Harry Hall at Croton Lake,
for which murder four others were sen.
fenced at the same time.
There are twenty-five murderers in
the death house in Sing Sing Just now,
the largest number of condemned men
ever kept mt that institution at any
one time. To provide for them Warden
Kennedy has been compelled to con.
struct two anneXes. One is next to tho
death house proper, and here the COM
partments used usually as "coolers'
have been turned into condemned cells.
Three others have been built next door
to the office of Principal Keeper Con-
naughton or the ''P. H." as he is bet
ter known among the convicts. Maui
rice Lnstig, u medical student who was
convicted in this city two years ago
for poisoning his young wife, is the
dean of the death house jewellers. His
case is before the court of appeals,
Whitman Fills Cells.
There are only three homicide eases
awaiting trial in the Tombs Just now.
This is the smallest number of murder
cases ever on hand at this time of the
year. District Attorney Whitman is
highly pleased because of the excellent
record made by his staff in clearing up
the homicide calendars. This accounts,
in part, for the fact that Sing Sing, on
the other hand, is just now housing the
highest number of murderers in its his.
tory and who are awaiting the electric
chair.
The men under sentence of death
have very few visitors. The law pre-
seribes that they can see only their
nearest relatives and their counsel OF
course, the prison chaplains have ac-
cess TO the prisoners at all tines.
When prisoner in the death house
receives caller the blinds are drawn
in front of the cells occupied by the
other condemned men, the caller sits
in front of n steel wire screen
and between him and the cell sits
guard or keeper. In that way it is i'm
possible for callers to pass anything to
IA condemned man.
When Raffaele Cascone was an in
mate of the death house some years
ago it was noticed that every once
in while he would be more or less I'M
der the influence of liquor. just how
this came about is told here for the
first time. One of the keepers report
ed to "P. K.p ConnaughtOn one day
Al.nA IL
lord.'
Impossible" said Connaughton,
"unless one of the keepers passes the
whiskey in to the condemned man. -
Connaughton went to the death
house and had Cascone taken out of his
cell and searched. Then the cell was
searched, but no signs of whiskey or
other intoxicants could be discovered
1t was puzzling. The records showed
Casconc had had no visitor in nearly
week Cascoae declared that lie had
not tasted whiskey since he came to
the prison. He acknowledged, though,
that he would not mind getting good
drink from somewhere.
month passed by and again it was
found that Cascone had as fine jag in
| the death house as was ever accumu-
| lated anywhere. ConnaughtOn was sent
/ for and again prisoner and cell were
searched The same result. The prison
physician was called and he pronounced
/ that Cascone was Enthusiastically surely
Dunk. Not until Cascone accumulated
two more .jags did the secret accident.
I ally leap out.
source of the Supply.
! There is bathroom at one end of the
I death house. Once week each con-
demned man is taken from his cell and
marched to the bathroom, and ffafre The
I takes his bath After that he changes
| his clothes. There is a radiator in this
bathroom.
A relative of Cascone, a woman,
wonld visit him at regular intervals.
While waiting for the screens 60 be
pulled down in front of the celR of
the other men confined in the death
house she would slip into the bath room
and throw n skin filled with whislsey
behind the radiator. Then she would
walk into the cell house and sit next
to the screen and converse with Cas-
cone, telling him in Italian, which the
/ keeper did not understand, that she had
deposited Whiskey behind the radiator
At the end of the week, when Cascone
would take his bath, he would fine the
whiskey there and either drink it right
in the bath or manage TO get 1t to hiD
cell.
The search of the bathroom was not
made until il had been figured out that
Caseone's DRINKS always occurred after
he had taken his bath OF course, the
woman was never permitted after that
TO see her relative. Nobody has had
a "iag" in the death house since
Cascone, freed by the court Of ap.
peals, was soon afterward killed by
relative of his victim.