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Corrections Employee

Nellie Wicks

New York State Department of Correctional Services — Albany, NY

Felonious

End of Watch September 27, 1906

Age 21

Tour of Duty 1 yrs

The Vigil Panel 21 ›

Gender Female

Incident Service The Sacrifice Memorials 1 Department 35

Incident

Corrections Employee Nellie Wicks was stabbed to death by an inmate at the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane at 7:45 a.m.

The inmate, a woman, was committed to the hospital in 1893 after she killed her husband and two women. It was September of 1893 when a woman and her grown daughter came to her home in Burllingham to talk to her husband about some property. The community became suspicious when the three could not be found and told the police they were missing. During a search of the property, the women's nude bodies were found in a barn near the home. Both had been struck in the back of the head with an axe and shot in the heart five times. Her husband was found under the house. He had been killed in the same manner.

Corrections Employee Nellie Wicks was a nurse in the prison hospital. The inmate was very fond of her. When she told the inmate she was quitting and going to work for a private hospital, the inmate followed her into the bathroom, locked the door from the inside, and, using scissors, stabbed her to death. The inmate died in the prison hospital on June 28, 1918, from Brights Disease.

Corrections Employee had served at the Matteawan Hospital for one year.

Survivors

She was survived by her parents and siblings.

In Our Keeping

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Added to badge.nw: August 2, 2026
Last updated: August 2, 2026

Honored here by 1 tribute.

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Tributes

You barely got started.
Corrections Employee Wicks gave the New York State Department of Correctional Services 1 year.
Thank you for your service to the Albany community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Corrections Employee Wicks.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department New York State Department of Correctional Services

Type Corrections

Location Albany, Albany County, NY

Platform Identity nysdcscorr.albany.ny.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch September 27, 1906

Tour of Duty 1 yrs

Age 21

Gender Female

Incident Details

Cause Felonious

Cause Detail Stabbed

Weapon Edged weapon

The Sacrifice · Felonious

Nellie is one of 15,743 officers killed feloniously in the United States, 57.1% of the 27,551 remembered there.

33,917 officers are remembered on this memorial. Each number below is one of them.

Compare against

Time

In 1906, 89 officers in the United States were killed feloniously, the 69th heaviest of 213 years on record. The heaviest was 1921, with 248.

Every year on record · United States

Who

Nellie was 21. Of the 14,220 killed feloniously in the United States whose age is recorded, half were between 31 and 47; the middle age was 38. Nellie had served 1 year; the middle length of service was 6 years.

Age at death

Where she stood among them

Age by years of service

III

When

September holds 9.1% of these deaths in the United States; December holds the most, 9.4%. Thursdays: 14%.

By month

By day of the week

How

Felonious deaths account for 57.1% of all 27,551 deaths in the United States, the most common cause. The weapon recorded was edged weapon, in 2.2% of these deaths.

Every cause

Weapons recorded