Evening star., 1938-02-04

! DS tIe hSSOCldteQ fIeSS.
TEWKSBURY, Mass, Feb. "A
79-year-old muscular giant ran amuck
with blazing pistol early today, po-
lice charged. and slew three fellow
inmates in State infirmary because
they called him bad names"
Two other inmates lay in a critical
condition with bullet wounds in the
chest and abdomen, victims of a sud.
den attack in darkened ward where
30 elderly men cringed in terror.
John Mack, bald-headed and 6 feet
inches tall, was arrested in Lowell,
three miles from the institution, and
charged with murder. He admitted,
Police Capt. James ]. Kennedy said,
he shot the men as they slept.
The weapon, Kennedy quoted Mack
as saying. had been purchased two
years ago from mail order house
and kept buried in tin can on the
spacious infirmary grounds.
Capt. John F. Stokes. chief of
Massachusetts, State detectives. dis
| closed Mack had related he took the
pistol from its hiding place last night
after the victims had been calling him
bad names.
Mack discarded the weapon, off,
clals asserted, while walking toward
Lowell because "it was too heavy"
Asked where he was going, Mack as
sertedly replied Ito Alaska"
The dead inmates were Michael
Okeefe, 70; Edward Mercier. 70, and
James Magee, 78. The wounded were
Joseph O'Donnell, IS, and John
Lewis, rs.
Mack was admitted to the institu-
ton in October, 1897, but officials said
he had been "in and out" of the in
firmary several times before that.
Leo OConnor, an attendant at the
institution, which is primarily for
needy persons who depend on the
state Tor care, said the shooting was
discovered after he found the door in
the ward open shortly after 4 am.
The ward, he said, accommodated
approximately 80 men ranging in age
from SIS to 80 years of age. The in
stitution houses 5000 inmates.
Three Hide Under Beds.
With Michael McInerney another
attendant, O'Connor declared he en-
tered the ward and found three men
lying on the floor apparently dead.
Two others had been shot and three
eloeriy, terror-stricken men were hid
ing under beds. Mack, an inmate in
the ward, was missing, OConnor as
serted.
O'Keefe was dead when first ex-
amined and Mercier and Magee died
shortly afterward.
The State inflrmary has about SO
buildings in all and approximately
1000 employees. It is under the juris-
diction of the State Welfare Depart
ment, although one building houses
mental cases.
The shooting capped a dramatic
climax to investigation of a mounting
total of violent deaths in the States
mental hospitals.
11S Sudden" Deaths In 1887.
State police detectives, ordered to
investigate all hospitals by Gov.
Charles F. Hurley. found 424 pa
tlents died from other than natural
causes between 1925 and 1896, and
reported l1s additional sudden
deaths" during 1887.
A legislative commission BEGAN In
vestigation Of the entire problem Of
hospital control. and Chairman Pat.
rick ]. Moynihan Of the State COM
mission on Administration and r.
nance, began an inquiry into business
administration Of the institutions,
Five OF the slayinss occurred at
Medf1eld State Hospital and the other
three at Danvers Hospital. Omcials
Of the Mental Diseases Department,
which supervises the institution.
pointed out they were overcrowded IL
per cent beyond capacity,