Richard Archer Prince

Terriss, however, sent small sums of money to Prince, via the Actors' Benevolent Fund, and continued to try to find him acting work.

Prince became increasingly convinced that Terriss was actively preventing him from getting acting work and he developed a bitter attitude towards the more successful actor.

He then concealed himself in a doorway across the street from the Adelphi Theatre's stage door in Maiden Lane and waited for Terriss.

As Terriss was arriving to prepare for the evening's performance Prince rushed across the street and stabbed him in the back, side and chest with a butcher's knife he had recently purchased.

An insanity defence was argued, with doctors and even his mother giving evidence that he was of unsound mind.

The jury pronounced Prince "guilty, but according to the medical evidence, not responsible for his actions", a verdict provided for under the Trial of Lunatics Act 1883 which would lead to indefinite detention.

[12] His relatively mild sentence was met with anger by the theatrical community, and Sir Henry Irving would later be quoted as saying "Terriss was an actor, so his murderer will not be executed.