Joseph H. Tinney served in the U.S. Army.
Deputy Keeper Joseph Tinney was shot and killed as two inmates attempted to escape from the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.
Handguns had been smuggled into the prison by two inmates who were allowed to go outside of the prison to work. When Keeper Tinney arrived to take the inmates to the dining hall, he was shot and killed. After killing Keeper Tinney, the inmates attempted to scale the wall. The officers in the tower opened fire on the inmates, who fired back. Both inmates were shot and wounded by the tower officers and apprehended when they fell to the ground. One was left paralyzed from the waist down.
The two inmates were convicted of Keeper Tinney's murder and sentenced to life in prison. The one who was paralyzed was paroled in 1957, and the other died in prison the same year. The two men who supplied the guns would have gotten out in less than a year. Instead, they received another three years for complicity in murder.
Keeper Tinney was a WWI Army veteran and had served with the New Jersey Department of Corrections for three years.
Branch
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In tribute
I served 1985 to 1993. You served too, before the badge - different uniform, same idea. You go where you are sent and you do not get to pick the call.
Deputy Keeper Tinney gave the New Jersey Department of Corrections 3 years.
Thank you for your service to the people of New Jersey. Thank you for your service before it. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, brother.
— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993
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