The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1888-05-26 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

THE MURDER OF A WARDER. OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE  TRAGEDY. The publication of the details of the daring and terrible murder of Assistant-warder Robert D. Webb, in the County Gaol, Strangeways, on Tuesday after. noon, by • convict named John Jackson, has excited much interest. The following official account of the facts which came to the knowledge of Major Preston, the governor of the prison, was received on Thursday by Mr F. Price, the County Coroner : "Strangeways Prison, 22nd May, 1888. "Dear sir,—l have the honour to report that this afternoon Assistant-warder Webb was in charge of prisoner John Jackson, in the matron's quarters, effecting some repairs. About • quarter to four p.m., the matron heard some unusual noise in the upper room where the officer and the prisoner were. She vent upstairs to her bedroom door, and finding it locked on the inside she concluded that something was amiu. She called out, ' Open the door.' Someone inside answered All right.' She, feeling sure something was wrong, gave the alarm. Two or three male officers at once attended and burst open the door. On entering Warder Webb was found lying on the floor, bleeding from a wound on the back of his bead and insensible, the floor considerably stained with blood in several places, and the prisemer, John Jackson, had effected his escape from prison through an aperture he had made in the ceiling from the roof of the matron's house. I deeply regret to inform you that Astlistant- warder Webb expired in the prison hospital this evening at about 6-16. Drs Braddou and Paton were in the prison at the time the above discovery was made, and rendered every assistance to the injured warder, Robert D. Webb.—l remain, dear sir, pure faithfully, J. M. PRESTON, Governor." r The room in which the tragedy was committed was the matron's bedroom. For some time an escape of gas had been observed, and it was with a view of remedying this that the prisoner Jackson was engaged in the room. The prisoner had been employed three days on this particular work. At noon on the third day—the day of the murder—the warder went to los dinner, and returned to the gaol atiopt half-past two. The prisoner was then placed under the charge of Webb, and marched to the matron's bedroom, with a view of completing the work on which he had been engaged. Everything subsequent to this is a mere matter of conjecture, and no information which neuld throw additional light upon the details of the murder • ous attack can be obtained from any source. An examination of the room, which is about 10 or 11 feet high from floor 0 ceiling, shows that the murderer climbed to the top of a cupboard by means of a chair, and then, making an aperture in the ceiling, escaped on to the roof, from which he slipped down to a lower roof, and then dropped down into the street. The aperture, from an outside riew, is of very small dimensions, and it seems almost incredible that the man could have forced his way through it. It is even more surprising that the man should attempt to escape in broad daylight from the roof of a house so fully exposed to the view of persons in Southall-street. With regard to Webb, he seeme to have had a considerable amount of sympathy for the prisoner, thinking he was in gaol for his first offence. On the day of the murder, when at his dinner he expressed to his wife sympathy , for Jackson. Webb, who was an army pensioner, had occupied the position of a narder at the gaol for about eleven years, and bore a very high character. He is described as an extremely kind-hearted man, and was greatly respected by his neighbours. He has left one child, aged six mouths. When Webb left home after dinner on Tuesday afternoon, he had in his possession 10s. He made a small purchase on the way to the gaol, and it is estimated that the murderer, after rifling his victim's pockets, carried off with him 94 81, which would go a long way in at once 'providing him with a new nutflt for the road.