Madness Monday – Escaped lunatic
In the Saturday August 3, 1872 edition of the Daily Constitution from Middletown Connecticut an article was written about Patrick Fryher, a black sheep ancestor of mine. Here is a transcription of that article.
“Tuesday the police of New Britain were informed of an escaped lunatic from this city, on Lawlor street. They found him to be Patrick Fryher, whose dangerous insanity has made considerable trouble here. They captured him, but he was so crazy that it was necessary to bind him hand and foot. In this condition he made some trouble kicking the policemen, the conductor of the train, and the hack driver in this city, the latter pretty severely. He was at length delivered at the hospital, and measures taken to make him docile.”
Some later newspaper accounts question Patrick’s insanity saying that it only appears when he is drunk.
