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April 28, 1960: On this date, Bernard Fancher, an assistant athletic director at the State Prison of Southern Michigan, was stabbed to death by a prisoner who was 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.
Fancher was pronounced dead at the scene. Earlier in the year Fancher fired the prisoner from his cleanup job at the gymnasium for being loud and abusive.
