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Corrections Employee Bernard Fancher | Michigan Department of Corrections, Michigan
Michigan Department of Corrections, Michigan

Corrections Employee

Bernard Fancher

Michigan Department of Corrections, Michigan

End of Watch: Thursday, April 28, 1960

Biographical Info

Age: 40
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available

Incident Details

Cause of Death: Stabbed
Date of Incident: April 28, 1960
Weapon Used: Edged weapon
Suspect Info: Committed

Corrections Employee Fancher, an assistant athletic director at the State Prison of Southern Michigan, was stabbed to death by a prisoner described as having a long grudge against him.

According to witnesses, Fancher was sitting at his desk when a prisoner approached him swinging a baseball bat. Fancher and another employee ran from the office, but Fancher fell over a wheelbarrow. The prisoner immediately fell upon Fancher and stabbed him 13 times.

The prisoner, 25, who was serving a life sentence for a 1953 murder in Detroit, was declared insane and sent to the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

Earlier in the year, Fancher fired the prisoner from his cleanup job at the gymnasium for being loud and abusive.