New Britain herald., 1928-02-13
Five Patients at Mass. State Hospital for Insane at Bridge
 water Attack Attendants
FINALLY FRUSTRATED
 AFTER FIERCE FIGHT
Two Other Attendants Injured In Attempted Break Which Occurred Early This Morning-One of As sailants Had Been Inmate at HOs- pital For Score of Years-One Victim Strangled.

Bridgeport. Mass, Feb. 13 R-A night supervisor and . night watch man were cMbbed and stransled to death when lye ff ttar4sm.sss os tiie se4Se H6sbitaf Tor the Ynsane here made break for liberty early today. Two other night watchmen were injured.
 The dead are Wilfred Gerrior. night watchman and George E. Am law, night supervisor. Gerrior was 44 years old and resided in Middle boro. He Is survived by a widow and four children. He had been employed at the state farm for eight years. Amlaw. who was 61, resided at the farm where he had been en- ployed for 20 years.
 The injured are John C. Harring- ton and Michael T. Mullen, both night watchmen. who were beaten up and bound with towels by the in- sane men when they encountered them in a corridor. Their injuries are not serious. however.
 No Eye-Witnesses
 Handicapped by the absence of eye- witnesses and by the reluctance or the inability of the inmates con- cerned to give coherent story of what occurred. officials of the hos pital were obliged to resort largely to conjecture in order to piece to- gether the story of what had hap pened.
 1 As far as can be ascertained, the attempted flight was begun between 2 and 2:30 o'clock this morning. Sometime between those hours. ac- cording to Superintendent Henry A. Strann. an inmate. James Melton succeeded in climbing through the transom of his room into a corri- dor. He was armed with club im- provised from the leg of a heavy oak bed. Melton is believed first to have encountered Garrior, to have beaten him on the head with the club and then to have strangled him with piece of cord. Then. 1t is thought he lay in wait for Amlaw. who in the course of his duty would pass through the corridor for a round of the ward. He evidently took Amlaw by surprise and dis posed of him in the same manner. Take Keys
 Melton then seized Amlaw's keys and released four other inmates. 1 They were Peter Snow. Warren Hogan. Charles A. Miles and John Williams, the last named a negro. The five men began making their way through the maze of corridors to the front of the building. It was necessary in the course of the jour- ney to choose the keys to many un- familiar locks. While engaged in finding their way to the front of the building the inmates encountered the watchmen, Harrington and Null len, and bound them hand and foot ! with towels they had taken from g lavatory. They locked the watchmen in the lavatory and threatened to kill them if they made an outcry.
 Finally they reached the door of an office in the front of the build ing which was the only obstacle be- tween them and liberty. As they fumbled with the keys to find one which would fit the lock they were seen by another watchman. Edward Brought.
 Brough made no attempt to inter- cept the men but dashed to the nearest telephone from which he sounded an alarm in the main guard Nroom. calling ten guards to the scene.
 Approach Men in Rear When the inmates heard the ap- proach of the guards through the office. they inserted a key in the lock which prevented the guards from unlocking the door from the tContihued on Page III