To celebrate the completion of the new building, the warden declared a holiday and issued orders that all the inmates be given the privilege of the yard that day. There was to be wrestling, boxing, foot-racing and other sports.
Asa Shores’ sleeping quarters was a low-ceilinged room on the ground floor in one of the towers of the old cell house. Asa had been warned a number of times that his room was not a safe place to sleep in the day time. Convicts in the yard could enter the room at any time during the day, without being seen by the yard guards or wall guards. Though the one door to the room was thick and heavy, Asa seldom if ever locked it.
Asa had risen in the afternoon, complaining to himself about the noise being made by the convicts in the yard. His peevishness vanished, however, after a cold wash, and he sang as he stood looking out at one of the windows and brushing his hair:
“When I die and am buried deep,
“I’ll return at night to take a peep
“At those who hated me.
“I’ll ha’nt their homes and spoil their sleep,
“Chill their blood, the skin will creep,
“On those who—”
Asa’s song ended there—ended in a horrible gurgle. A “trusty” found him an hour later lying in a pool of blood near the open window.