Frank Heidlenberger
Frank Heidelberger was shot and killed by a prison guard in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 19, 1871, before he had entered the state prison, according to a dispatch published in the New Orleans Republican. The dispatch said the shooting followed an altercation between him and the warden. A petition for his pardon, signed by the judge and jury who had convicted him and by the man he stabbed, had reached state officials before his death, and the Daily Kennebec Journal reported that he would probably have been pardoned because he had been wrongly convicted. The guard's account of the shooting is not given in these reports.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff. A Nashville dispatch reports that a prison guard shot and killed him after an altercation with the warden.
Reported by: Nashville dispatch reprinted in the Worcester Daily Spy (reporters).