Massachusetts Department of Correction, Massachusetts
End of Watch: Monday, December 29, 1856
Age: 32
Tour of Duty: 12 years
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Stabbed
Date of Incident: December 29, 1856
Weapon Used: Edged weapon; Knife
Suspect Info: Died in prison
Warden Solon Tenney was stabbed to death by a prisoner at the Charlestown State Prison.
The prisoner, a 20-year-old male, who was serving time in prison for assaulting a jail guard, was unhappy about the amount of meat he had been receiving at meal time. The man had made the knife in the prison shop. As Warden Tenney was making his rounds of the prison at approximately 3:30 pm the prisoenr ran up behind him and stabbed him in the neck. Warden Tenney was able to draw his revolver as he fell to the floor, but fired no shots. The guard on duty in the shop and two other prisoners restrained the inmate and placed him in irons.
Warden Tenney was taken to the prison hospital where he died from his wound.
The inmate later told an investigating coroner that he got the idea to stab Warden Tenney in the neck after another prisoner had stabbed Deputy Warden Galen Walker in the neck two weeks earlier.
The inmate was convicted of Warden Tenney's murder and sentenced to death. While awaiting his execution he died in prison on January 12th, 1858.
Warden Tenney had served in several correctional institutions over a 12-year period. He was survived by his wife of three weeks.