The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-22
ALLEGED SHAVER OF POLICEMAN KILLS
 HIMSELF IN JAIL
Steel Shank From Shoe Used By Suicide Tn Boston
 Cell.

Boston. July Suicide ended to- day thes adventurous career of Law renee Robinson, who while posing as a gentleman. was alleged to have Committed four murders and an url- sknown number Of jewelry robberiess | The body was found in the cell at the Charles street jail where he had been co1lf1ned since June fs when he shot and killed aPolice Inspector Thomas J Norton El1iIe resisting arrest tot1 a l charge of murder and robberyf pre- ferred by the police of Grand Ra pids. Mich.
 The instrument Of death was a steel shank four Inches long and an inch wide which he had removed from a | shoe and the edge of which had been sharpened on the iron bars Of his cell window. The medical examiner found two wounds, one an inch and a half in length on the left of the neck that Eopened his 5ugllar vein and another | of similar size which had cut an ar- tery on his left wrist. He b1ed to death quickly without having made an outcry. "A guard who visited his cell at 6 o'clock this morning found Robinson apparently in his usual health and saw nothing to arouse sus- picion. On his next round, a half hour later, the same guard found Robin son dead, stretched out on his bed.
 
 ended his trial for the murder Of Nor- ton, which opened Monday was char acteristic Of him as he was known to the local police Since his arrest he had uaadn taaned 2. seeming stoical in difference to the legal proceedings | and at no time sought to justify or explain the acts charged against him. He appeared In court fau1t1essly erooned and seemed to regard the trial as something apart from him saIf.
 The police had looked upon Robin son as one of the most desperate criminals with whom they have had to do in many years Thirty-t years of age, he was man Of un- usual mental attainfne11ts and the po- lice so feared his resources that they had planned to hold him at night in the court building to avoid the daily trips to and from the jail during the | trial.
 Runners were current that confed- crates from the west would attempt his release by force and these rurnors were taken so seriously that the court house was carefully guarded The jury was drawn Monday and yester- day the jurors visited the Boyleston cafe where Morton was killed. Mon day night the prisoner spent in the court house. but che apprehensions of the police being allayed after the first day, he was returned to the cell last night
 When court convened today Medical Examiner McGrath informed Judge Beating that the defendant was dead from self-inf1icted wounds and the 1 jury was immediately discharged.
 Robinson appeared in Boston early | played the role of a wealthy man of leisure with refined tastes. He stop ped at a quiet hotel and soon after his arrival began taking lessons of an instructor in the modern dances | This gave him an acQuaintance in a l popular His only intimate compan- ion, however. was Joseph Buddy. 22 l years oftages who ,NAas with him when the shooting occuFred- Buddy is asserted that his was enlx chance acquaintance with Robinson and that he knew nothing of the crimes charg- ed against the other. Robinson had been in the city sew eral weeks when descFtptfon ofhfrn was furnished by the police of Grand Rapids Mich, who alleged that he had killed three men in a jewelry store in this city which he robbed. The po- lice were soon on the track of tlfeesus- pected man and detectives trailed him to the Boyleston Cafe on June 19.
 He was lunching with Duddy when Morton and two other officers ap- preached and told him that he was
 
 feet and a fight followed during which Norton was shot and killed! Police Inspector Claftfn, who had seized Duddy, then fired upon Robinson, wounding the latter three times as he l fled for the door. ' Robinson got to the street, but ran into a blind alley where he was captured by a mounted policeman.
 The officers who survived the en- counter claim that Robinson had thrown them off their guard by say ing after he had been overpowered that he would go with them without revolver the moment his hands were free.
 Letters found in Robinson's effects and dated July 1s indicate that he contemplated suicide before his trial had begun. In a pathetic and repen- tant note to his mother and wife he said:
 '"To My Dear Mother and to My | Wife Dora: The loving sweetheart of my boyhood days, the only woman have ever loved and who stuck to m ; through all the shame into which I plunged her, bid a last fond good l bye, and if there is a God Almighty and another world pray that I may meet you there. Lawrence
 To Sheriff John Quinn, his keeper and to his counsel, John H. and Hugh c. Blanchard, he wrote: 'sYou're against a hard game when you've got to die to beat It. It seems to be the easiest solution for the whole diff culty. I wouldn't wait to go to the | chair for satisfaction it would give certain people and life or long term In prison fer manslaughter are worse l than death and4I know what I'm talk