Murder
On 16 December 1897, as he was entering the Adelphi Theatre to prepare for the evening's performance of Secret Service, Terriss was stabbed to death by a deranged and disgruntled actor, Richard Archer Prince. He had helped the struggling younger actor to find work in various productions that he had a hand in. However, Prince had, over the years, increasingly abused alcohol and become mentally unstable. During the run of The Harbour Lights, in which Prince had a minor role, Terriss took offence to something that Prince had said about him and had Prince dismissed. Terriss, however, sent small sums of money to Prince, via the Actors' Benevolent Fund, and continued to try to find him acting work. By the end of 1897, Prince was destitute and desperate for work, but he had become unemployable. On 13 December, Prince was forcibly ejected from the foyer of the Vaudeville Theatre, and he and Terriss were seen to argue the next night in Terriss's dressing room in the Adelphi Theatre. On the day of the murder, Prince asked for money at the Fund's office but was told that his request could not be considered that day. Apparently, he crossed the street and waited for Terriss at Terriss's entrance to the Adelphi.
The murder became a sensation in the London press. The trial was not satisfactory, as Prince made the most of his new notoriety. Prince was found guilty but insane and sent to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, where he died in 1936. His relatively mild sentence was met with anger by the theatrical community, and Sir Henry Irving was later quoted as saying that "Terriss was an actor, so his murderer will not be executed."
The murder is dramatised in the Sherlock Holmes BBC Radio 4 play The Star of the Adelphi broadcast in 2002.
Read more about this topic: William Terriss
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