Walter Rose
Walter Rose, a 17-year-old Black man from Easton, Va., was stabbed in the abdomen on Thursday afternoon, February 22, 1900, inside the New Castle jail in Delaware, where he had been sheltering from a storm. The Middletown Transcript reports that another man held there, John Jones, acknowledged stabbing him and said he acted in self-defense. The Delaware Gazette says the fight began over a dice game or a book, and that Rose was taken to the New Castle County Hospital at Farnhurst, where surgeons operated but peritonitis set in. He died the next day, Friday, February 23.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody. John Jones, another man held in the New Castle jail, stabbed Walter Rose in the abdomen during a fight, and Jones said he acted in self-defence.
Reported by: New Castle jail (the agency that held him); Delaware Gazette (reporters).