The Blandford and Wimbourne Telegram. — 1881-04-29 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

AMERICAN PRISON TRAGEDY.  The New York Herald gives particulars of a tragedy enacted within the gloomy precints of the Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia, an estalslishnaent commemorated by Dickens in his "American Notes:: ,Jrohn. M'Bride, a man of 49 years, under two years imprisonment for aggravated assault, and John Pfeiffer, aged 23, an habitual thief, serving a period of three years and six months for burglary, had occupied the same cell for about a month. The overseer, upon making his rounds at seven am,, found both men dead. The body of M'Bride was lying stretched .on the floor, with arms extended, and his protruding tongue and contorted features gave indication that .he had met a violent death. Around his neck was tied a piece of the bed sheet and half a yard of thin Myna° which had sunk deep into the flesh. His body was covered by bruises, evidently inflicted with the heel of a boot. Pfeiffer hung limp, in a semi-kneeling posture, from the gas bracket. A noose had been made by tightly twisting the selvage of the sheet. Pfeiffer body also bore many marks of rough treatment and there was a deep gash on his right writ. At first the Warden of the prison and the officers declared they could form no theory to account for the occurrence, whether it was a double suicide, or, if one man was murdered, who was the murderer ; but the po?tmortem examination showed convincingly that M'Bride was the murdered man. The coroner's jury found as their verdict that M'Bride died by suffocation at the hands of Pfeiffer, and the latter died by his own hand. No motive can be assigned for the occurrence, for the two men seemed always to be on good terms. The strangest circumstance is that such deeds could be perpetrated without the cognizance of the overseers, two of whom. patrolled the corridor in which the cell was situated during the night; and yet it was evident that a terrible struggle must have taken plack before M'Bride was mastered by his murderer. On a slate in the cell there was found scrawled in almost illegible, characters, "This is the third man I have killed. But there was no evidence as to whose was the hand. writing, although alternative conjecture was scarcely possible.  begini;idebet emaa in& at lei wind bees =genial pertieulsr I decidedly Tort. TI been ge ista and deeper. II MARK fair, wtth market. for moat / I Foreign s refuse to immediat  cheaper— excellent  rates for 1 price. ea: dearer a& prim of I Improved i SELLINC  nese-din-g Downs, I, Tethers, I Derrixen nstes thai T tut irre Yietorias, Ot. to 80 IL 3i. FORBIG: ILJ ; ;J 2tdqualj  It4ne4e.irr Ei.ut .1.1 17,, 'D. th ‘o4e duty tad be pia key? life, 1 the end of  I encie —1  [r '4 10111—W. • , sd ill 11a,  Hall of Con. ,ite all tee re. be to >jut of  angham deluwe, One of itten to .not on heor j. he next end the known to serve long as Liberty  3 magi. ative to g to the he man the let 's house .'uesday, timed a re. Reed 'e might was no are that be shot in that artridge, e child's Finding er went  nothingltimated  anti the iderstood  the late Laking a Bedford, :.P., Mr. ids of the ,400. In Slechi of £7OO is avouring I public. i's public er and a ty, have lister, to Fund to le Dukes  ster, and i:100 to IA to nt parts 7ofeßeion. was con. idency of Llity and nnself so :twat the of £6OO Before however, bank of  ,and to luntaily to resign layeralty his life, a carried yal Agri: of the re United brought r operate I required 3specially destitute chi's long concern. und, and e glad to reseed to on, S.W.  gh, god w ed T,