Correctional Officer Hervey Burnham

Hervey Burnham

Correctional Officer Hervey Burnham was stabbed to death by an inmate in an unprovoked attack at the Vermont State Prison in Windsor.

The inmate was walking in the main corridor of the prison when he suddenly attacked Officer Burnham without warning and stabbed him with a potato knife. Other guards were able to subdue the inmate and place him in solitary confinement.

The 17-year-old inmate was found to be insane and committed to the Vermont State Hospital. He was removed to a nearby nursing home in the 1980s where he died on September 27, 1989, from COPD.

Officer Burnham had served at the Vermont State Prison for two years. He had previously served as the Doorkeeper at the Vermont Capitol for four years, as overseer of the poor and as a deputy sheriff in Chittenden County, and as a state traffic officer for five additional years. He was survived by his wife, daughter, and mother.