Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1890-02-22 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

DESPERATE PRISONER.  The man Whittam, who fired a revolver twice at the two policemen who arrested him on suspicion of being a burglar early on the morning cf January 28th, and who since his arrest has made daring attempts to escape from the prison van and from Holloway Prison, still continues to cause a good deal of anxiety to the authorities. After his committal for trial and removal from Southwark Police-court the other day, he behaved very quietly on the way hack to Holloway, but when once inside the prison, finding no attempt had been made to effect his rescue. he became very violent, and next morning it was found necessary to place him in irons. It appears that he tried tostrangle himself, but was prevented, and next endeavoured to open one of the principal arteries on one of his hancls by tearing it with his finger nails. In consequence of these attempts he has been placed under special and constant supervision ever since, two warders being told off for the purpose. The prisoner has written several extraordinary letters, addressed to his wife, in the hope of getting them passed out of the prison to her, but in each case they have been discovered and stopped by the governor. It will be remembered that at the final hearing Mr. Sims, who appeared to prosecute on behalf of the Treasury, referred to two of these letters and called a warder named Duxon to prove the handwriting. It then came out from the prisoner's cross-examination that one of these was discovered concealed in his clothing, and a later one was found among his bedclothes during his temporary absence from his cell. The first-named letter gives a full account of the contents of the letter already published, and of the discovery of the plot it contained for murdering the officer in charge of the prison van, through the letter being opened by the prison authorities instead of being forwarded to his solicitor, to whom a letter, with this letter to his wife enclosed in it, had been addressed. In the second letter, which , is very long, he again impresses upon his wife the necessity of getting somebody to help him to escape. The police have expressed astonishment that Whittam, whom they now conclude to have been an expert burglar, has never before, so far as can at present be ascertained, been convicted of any offence. Inquiries as to his past life have been set on foot, and it has been ascertained that he is the son of a well-to-do country farmer. At 19 years of he age entered the 3rd Hussars, in which he served three years, most of the time doing duty in Ireland. He has since kept a beershop near Camberwell-green, but that venture was not altogether successful. Subsequently he joined a pantomime company, and started in business as a coffee-house keeper in York-street, Lambeth, where upon his arrest a number of burglars' accessories were discovered, and a large number of pawntickets, some of which have been found to relate to property obtained by burglaries in South London.  For some weeks past the doctors of St. Petersburg have noted a rather serious spread of recurrent fever, following close upon the influenza epidemic, and now several cases of cholera have appeared. It is not stated that any of them have been fatal, so that if it really be cholera it must be in a very mild form.  A terrible accident, similar to that which occurred at Blancheface, has happened at Rennemoulin. near Noisy-le-Roi. While a work-man named Vidal was occupied at a depth of 15 mares in repairing a well, the masonry above him fell in, literally entombing the man. The work of rescuing him was difficult and long, lasting over 24 hours. He was, :lowever, brought to the surface, very seriously injured by the fall of stones, but still alive. .rroln some cases now neing tried in the Rangoon Police-court, a regular slave trade with the Maclias coast appears to have existed. Girls were brought to Rangoon on the promise of employment, but on arrival were closely confined and subsequently sold to men at prices varying from 70 to 90 rupees. An extensive ianasiip nas occurred at Dixon's Bar, California, falling across the course of Trinity River. The detached rocks have dammed up the water, which is rapidly rising. Several houses were detroyel, and the loss of life is believed to be great. The work for tne New Wimbledon, upon which the 4 idershot troops have ceased operations, has been taken up by 350 men from Portsmouth brought up specially for the duty. The troops were drawn from the Ist Battalion of the Yorkshire Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Oxfordshire Light Infantry. and King's Own 'Yorkshire Light Infantry.