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July 3, 1909 AGED "CABBY" A SUICIDE.
Dan Marvin Kills Himself to Join Wife Who Divorced Him.
Love for his wife from whom he had been divorced for four years, and who died a week ago, caused Dan Marvin, 68 years of age, to commit suicide at his home, 405 1/2 East Fifteenth street, early this morning. Marvin used a revolver and shot himself through the heart, death resulting instantly For the past week Marvin has been disconsolate and bemoaned the death of his wife to many of his friends.
"She was the best pal I ever had," he was wont to say, "and I am ashamed of the way she has been treated. She is dead now, dead."
Dating form the death of his wife, who had remarried and was deserted by her second husband, Marvin had not been in a cheery frame of mind. He made continual threats to join her and to repair the wrong which he had done her.
After his body had been removed to an undertaker's the following note was found:
"Friend Will: Please pay Egan $50 to put me away decent and oblige, D. A. Marvin."
The Will referred to is Will Mayberry, at whose liver stable Marvin stabled his horses. Marvin has been a cab driver for many years and for the past eight years he has stood out in front of McClintock's restaurant, on Walnut street.Labels: Divorce, Fifteenth street, guns, restaurants, Suicide, Walnut Street June 28, 1909 GRIEF DRIVES AGED WOMAN TO SUICIDE.
HUSBAND OF HALF A CENTURY PROCURED DIVORCE.
Heartbroken Over This Treatment, Mrs. Mary Robinson, 70 Years Old, a Paralytic, Swallows Carbolic Acid.
Heart-broken over alleged treatment by her husband to whom she had been married forty-six years, and to whom she had borne 8 children, Mrs. Mary M. Robinson, 70 years old, swallowed carbolic acid yesterday morning at 9:30 o'clock and, successfully struggling against the efforts of a physician to administer an antidote, died an hour and a half later
She lived with her son, Ernest E. Robinson, 37 years old, and father of four children, at 312 South Topping avenue.
For about three years O. G. Robinson, three years his wife's junior, worked in Tennessee. He made frequent trips to Kansas City, however.
Four weeks ago Ernest Robinson says he received a letter from his father, declaring that "he guessed he was of age," and could act as he saw fit. The letter said he had procured a divorce in the South and had married a woman from Mississippi, 32 years old, who is now with him in Kansas City.
AGED WOMAN PARALYTIC.
Already a hopeless paralytic, having used crutches for several years, the aged wife could not bear the added burden. She knew of a bottle of carbolic acid which her daughter-in-law used for household purposes, and secured it.
Although for years she could hardly raise her hand to her head, in her despair she managed to reach the bottle that lay on a shelf higher than the top of the kitchen door.
Ernest Robinson, the son, had been summoned to a neighbor's by a telephone call. Hardly had he taken down the receiver, when his little daughter who had run after him, cried out:
"Papa, grandma wants you to come quick as you can."
"ALL OVER," SHE TOLD SON.
When he reached his mother's side, she told him there was no use in sending for a doctor, "for it was all over with her." By 11 o'clock she was dead.
Her former husband was notified and went with his son to make arrangements with the undertaker.
Another son, Arthur B. Robinson, 40 years old, lives next door to his brother at 310 Topping avenue. He has three children. These two sons are the only ones of the eight children surviving.
Mrs. Robinson was born, reared and married at Jay, Mo., but for twenty-three years had lived in Missouri.Labels: Divorce, Seniors, Suicide, Topping avenue, women June 26, 1909 WOULD KILL SELF AT DEPOT.
After Quarreling With Husband, Woman Tries to Swallow Acid.
Despondent and angry because of domestic troubles, and after several hand-to-hand encounters with her husband in the presence of hundreds of persons, a woman attempted to swallow the contents of a bottle of carbolic acid at the Union depot last night, and only the timely interference of Patrolman John Coughlin prevented her from accomplishing her act.
Attracted by the crowd that had gathered about the couple early in the evening, Coughlin forced his way up to them and ordered the disturbance to cease. For a time they were quiet, but several times again broke out in heated and spirited argument, each time drawing a crowd of curious onlookers.
Finally the woman drew the vial of acid from her handbag, opened it and was about to place it to her lips when the patrolman intercepted it. both the man and woman were taken to No. 2 police station. Neither would give their names, and Captain Ennis, after hearing both sides of the story, on the woman's promise of good behavior, allowed them to leave without being booked.Labels: domestic violence, poison, police, Suicide, Union depot June 17, 1909
FARE LIFE OF CAR ENDED BY SUICIDE.
RUNS AWAY AND DASHES IT- SELF AGAINST POLE.
Deliberately Leaves Barn and Makes Wild Run Down Ninth Street Until It Jumps Track at Wyandotte Street.
Roanoke car No. 604 committed suicide last night at 7:30 o'clock by running down Ninth from Washington street and dashing itself against the trolley pole at the southeast corner of Ninth and Wyandotte streets. So carefully was the act committed that no one was hurt and the tracks were left clear, but the car was smashed to kindling.
No. 604 returned from a hard day's work and was put into the car barn at Ninth and Wyandotte streets by Motorman Floyd Dyer, 809 West Twenty-first street. It was raining and there was a despondency in the air, but the car manifested no signs of the deep design it was nursing within its breast.
INTENT ON SUICIDE Fifteen minutes later, when none of the street car men was looking, it poked its nose out of the barn and started, gathering speed as it progressed. A girl clerking at a laundry agency across the street from the barn saw it start.
"There was no one on or near the car," she said. "It came out deliberately like a living thing, and ran away before anyone had time to stop it." Two street car men saw the runaway after it had gone half a block and ran after it. Fortunately there were no cars on the track in front and the rain had driven pedestrians from the streets. Detective Andy O'Hare, who was waiting for a car at Ninth and Wyandotte streets, saw the car bearing down upon him. The trolley was threshing wildly although it had been on the wire when 604 left the barn. DASHES ITSELF TO PIECES. Grinding the speed limit beneath its wheels, the suicide leaped the track at Wyandotte steret, instead of making the turn, and precipitated itself sideways against the granitoid walk at the west side of the Boston Drug Company, on the southeast corner. It was brought to a stop by an iron trolley pole, and the bed of the car left the trucks and fell sideways on the walk, completely blocking passage. Only two windows in the drug store were damaged. Every window in the car ws broken, the front end was ripped open and a few solid planks were left. The wreck was entirely clear of the tracks and traffic was not delayed. Dyer, the motorman, is positive that he set the brake before leaving the car. "Clear case of suicide, probably due to despondency brought on by the whether," was the verdict of the wreckers who cleared the debris away. Labels: accident, Ninth street, streetcar, Suicide, Twenty-first street, Washington street, Wyandotte street June 4, 1909 JOHN W. SPEAS, LONG ILL, KILLS HIMSELF.
With Pistol and Poison Makes Sure of Death After Writing a Farewell Note. 
JOHN W. SPEAS.
After writing a brief farewell note to his family, John W. Speas committed suicide yesterday morning at 6:30 o'clock in a bedroom at his home, 1028 Summit street, by drinking carbolic acid and shooting himself.
Mrs. Speas, who was in the dining room downstairs, hurried to the bedroom when she heard the report of the revolver, and found Mr. Speas prostrate upon the floor. She summoned the family physican, Dr. R. T. Sloan, who said death had been instantaneous. Before firing the fatal shot, it is believed that Mr. Speas swallowed the carbolic acid. According to the deputy coroner either method would have resulted in death.
Mr. Speas has been an active member of the Commercial Club for a longer period probably than any other man in it, and once refused the presidency. He was active in the building of the first Convention hall, and also was conspicuous in the work of reconstructing it after the fire. As a member of the Commercial Club he was looked upon as the most popular active worker. He was president several years of the Priests of Pallas, and a member of the board of directors.
Mr. Speas was a native of Missouri. He came to Kansas City at the age of 10 years, and for several years sold papers, and later carried a paper route. He studied bookkeeping at Spalding's Business college, and then allied himself with the Kansas City Distilling Company. Much of his business career was interwoven with that of E. L. Martin, president of the distilling company. Later Mr. Speas became interested in the Monarch Vinegar company, and eventually became the sole owner.
An enthusiastic baseball fan, he identified himself with National League in the '90s, and for three or four years owned or controlled the franchise in Kansas City. He was a member of the Masons, Elks and Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Speas was born on a farm near Kansas city, October 18, 1862. In 1884 he married Miss Evelyn Southworth. Besides his widow he leaves one son, Victor Speas. Continued ill health of three years' duration is believed to explain his suicide.
The pallbearers for the Speas funeral, which will be held Saturday morning, are F. A. Faxon, L. W. Shouse, E. M. Clendening, William Barton, J. C. Schmelzer, D. P. Thompson, F. S. Doggett and W. H. Holmes.Labels: Commercial Club, Convention Hall, doctors, Edwin Clendening, Frank Faxon, Funeral, guns, Spaldings college, sports, Suicide, Summit street June 2, 1909 ENDED HER LIFE IN A WELL.
Despondent Seamstress Commits Sui- cide at 3026 Jackson Avenue.
Despondent and suffering from a protracted illness, Miss Anna Shinogle, a seamstress, ended her life yesterday afternoon by drowning herself in a well at the home of her sister, Mrs. John E. Asher, 3026 Jackson avenue. The suicide occurred about 3:30 o'clock, and the woman gave no intimation that she contemplated taking her own life. Miss Shinogle was 32 years old. Her father resides in California and a brother, Edward Shinogle, lives at 906 Spruce street.Labels: Jackson avenue, Suicide May 20, 1909 KNOCKS ACID FROM HAND.
Girl Thwarts Young Man's Appar- ent Attempt at Self-Destruction.
C. S. Brown raised a bottle of carbolic acid to his lips in the Union depot yesterday afternoon, but before he could swallow any of the drug Miss Hilo Pickerell, of St. Joseph, knocked the bottle from his hand. A depot patrolman took Brown to No. 2 police station, but on the intervention of Thomas McLane, a St. Joseph shoe salesman, and George Pickerell, he was not locked up. Miss Pickerell told the police that twice before she had knocked carbolic acid bottles from Brown's hand. Brown in an engraver and until one month ago lived in St. Joseph. Recently he has been staying at the Monarch hotel, Ninth and Central streets. He had gone to the depot to see the Pickerells on a train for St. Joseph.Labels: Central street, hotels, mental health, Ninth street, No 2 police station, poison, St.Joseph, Suicide, Union depot May 14, 1909 DEATH BY CARBOLIC ACID.
Unidentified Man Commits Suicide Near Centropolis.
The body of an unidentified man was found in a lot between Drury and Hardesty avenues on Fifteenth street yesterday morning by Mrs. Della Morris, who lives in the vicinity. Harry Czarlinsky, deputy coroner, said death was due to carbolic acid poising.
The name Henry Patterson was found on a piece of paper in the man's pocket. The underclothing bore the letters J. E. C. and the initials J. C. were upon a signet ring which he wore. H e was about 50 years old, five feet five inches in height, weighed 140 pounds and wore a dark suit, patent leather shoes and a soft hat. His eyes were gray and his hair brown.
ENDED LIFE WITH SHOTGUN.
Morgan Jones, a farmer who lives near Dallas, Mo., killed himself with a shotgun early yesterday morning. He had been ill for a number of years and it is thought by his friends that it caused despondency. He was 30 years old and unmarried. He had been formerly employed as a bookkeeper in Kansas City.
TRIED TO DIE, BUT FAILED.
In a saloon at 1025 East Nineteenth street F. D. Miskelly of Excelsior Springs attempted to kill himself by drinking chloroform. He was taken to the general hospital. He is in precarious condition.Labels: Centropolis, Dr Czarlinsky, Drury avenue, Excelsior Springs, farmers, Fifteenth street, Hardesty avenue, Nineteenth street, saloon, Suicide May 2, 1909 TRACING MRS. YARBROUGH.
Woman Suicide, Implicated in Mur- der Charge, Stopped Here.
The police are positive that Mrs. Helen Yarbrough, who committed suicide in the Manhattan hotel in Wichita Friday night, was in Kansas City several weeks ago. She was wanted at Claremore, Ok., on a charge of complicity in the murder of John Bullette, and rather than face the officers she took strychnine.
Detectives had been looking for Mrs. Yarbrough in Kansas City for several days. With the aid of a photograph she was traced to an East Side boarding house, where she had stopped during the month of March. She left ostensibly for Topeka April 7, but went to Claremore instead. The murder was one of the most brutal on record in Oklahoma. While in Kansas City Mrs. Yarbrough had no callers and made no friends.Labels: murder, oklahoma, Suicide, visitors April 19, 1909 SUICIDE IN SWOPE PARK.
Virne Willard, Despondent Through Ill Health, Makes Good His Threat to Die.
With a revolver in the right hand and a bullet hole in the head, the badly decomposed body of Eugene Virne Willard, 417 Lawton place, was found yesterday afternoon in a ditch about a mile east of the main entrance to Swope park, by two small boys, who notified park authorities.
Two patrolmen were sent from No 9 district, and Dr. Harry Czarlinsky, deputy coroner, notified. In the man's coat pocket they found a small memorandum book containing a sh ort note, asking anyone who found the body to notify his wife. It was signed, "Eugene Willard, 417 Lawton place."
The park employes did not remember having seen the man, and it could not be determined just when the suicide was committed, but he evidently had been dead several days.
Mrs. Susie Willard, wife of the suicide, when seen in their apartments at 417 Lawton place, last night, said that her husband had been afflicted for some time with tuberculosis and heart disease, and that he complained of his head.
"My husband was about 33 years old. We had been married five years," she said. "He was very nervous, and the fact that of late he was unable to attend to his duties at the stock yards about made him insane.
"Three weeks ago Virne came home and told us all he would kill himself. Later he told my mother, Mrs. Sarah Powell, that he went one time to the Kaw river to jump in, but that he found the water too shallow and too muddy for the plunge and changed his mind. By a statagem we succeeded in getting a hold of his revolver and hiding it under some papers on the cupboard. Last Wednesday we found the weapon missing.
"Thursday morning I asked Virne to go to the store and purchase some ribbon from a sample I gave him. By night he had not returned, so I notified the police. Since then my brother has tramped the outskirts of the city trying to find the body, confident that my husband had killed himself.
When ill health drove the husband to despondency, Mrs. Willard penned the note and placed it in his pocket, giving her address and asking that in case of accident she be notified.Labels: Dr Czarlinsky, health, Kaw river, Lawton place, mental health, No 9 police station, stock yards, Suicide, Swope park April 15, 1909 MURDER AND SUICIDE END SIEGE OF MONTHS.
ENRAGED ROSEDALE HUSBAND KILLS WIFE AND HIMSELF.
Breaking Into Home in the Early Morning, Frank Williams Slays Sleeping Wife -- Shoots Him- self Under Fire.
Although the members of the family of Frank Williams, a laborer, have been living at 65 Clinton street, Rosedale, Kas., in a state of siege of nearly three months, and have never during that time retired for the night without placing loaded revolvers beneath their pillows, Williams smashed in the door of his home at 4:40 o'clock yesterday morning, killed his wife, Addie Williams, as she lay sleeping, and committed suicide by sending a bullet into his own brains, after being fired upon by his stepson.
Because of brutal treatment of his stepchildren and his wife, Williams had often been arrested, and upon the last occasion his stepson, James Goodell, refused to allow him to return home. Mrs. Williams on February 11 brought suit for divorce, and from that time began to hear of threats by Williams to exterminate his family and commit suicide. He lived in a tent only a few rods from his home, and was often seen skulking around the house.
WIFE KILLED WHILE ASLEEP.
Mrs. Williams lived in a cottage of four rooms with her son, James Goodell, her daughter, Mrs. Emma Clute, her son-in-law, Oscar Clute, and a grandson, Johnnie Aldine, who is four years old. The pistols were kept under the pillows of three of the members of the household for use should the husband and stepfather attempt to carry out his threats.
Shortly before 5 o'clock yesterday morning James Goodell was awakened by the crash as Williams broke down the kitchen door with a battering ram. Realizing that it was his stepfather, bent upon a murderous mission, Goodell seized his revolver and rushed into his mother's room, which adjoined the kitchen. Before he was able to reach the room, Williams had fired twice, both bullets striking his wife in the forehead. Williams then ran into the kitchen and Goodell fired three shots at him, none taking effect.
The murderer then placed the pistol to his forehead and fired, the bullet splitting and making it appear as though he had been struck by two bullets. Clute and his wife, who occupied the front room, did not reach Mrs. Williams's side until after Williams had committed suicide. Mrs. Williams was killed instantly and probably was asleep when she was shot. The suicide lived for an hour after he shot himself but was unconscious until the end. The grandson was sleeping with hie grandmother and saw Williams fire the shots.
GRANDSON WITNESSED MURDER.
According to Goodell, not a word was spoken by any of the parties during the shooting. Afterwards the little grandson said he saw his grandfather shoot his grandmother. Last night Goodell said he had expected a killing for two months, but believed that it would be his stepfather who would be killed.
Mrs. Williams was 40 years old and her husband 51. They had been married nineteen years.
Coroner J. A.Davis of Kansas City, Kas., was notified soon after the shooting, and took charge of the bodies. He ordered them removed to the Gates undertaking establishment, where he will hold an autopsy this morning. In the afternoon an in quest will be held for the purpose of ascertaining all of the facts leading up to the tragedy.
"The fact that Williams's stepson, James Goodell, fired three s hots at him while he was retreating from the house," said Coroner Davis, "leaves some little doubt as to whether Williams fired the shot that ended his life or was killed by one of the three shots fired at him by Goodell. This will be easily determined at the post mortem examination, as one of the revolvers was of 38 and the other of 32-caliber."
After the bodies were removed from the Williams home, Dr. Davis locked the doors and took possession of the keys. It is probable the coroner's jury will visit the premises today. The surviving members of the Williams family spent the night at the home of neighbors. They were indignant over the coroner's action in locking up the house. Dr. Davis stated last night that he took possession of the premises because both heads of the household were dead, and he did not want any trouble to arise over the disposition of whatever property was there.Labels: domestic violence, guns, Kansas City Kas, laborers, murder, Rosedale, Suicide April 7, 1909 COME HOME, WROTE PARENTS.
Pathetic Letters Establish Identity of Girl Suicide.
There is no longer any doubt as to the identity of Miss Effie Sloan, the young woman who committed suicide by jumping from a third-story window of the general hospital April 3. Miss Sloan was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. N. M. Sloan of Jasper, Ark., according to several letters found yesterday in her trunk.
It is apparent from the letters that the parents live on a farm a few miles from town and that the girl had been away from home a year or more.
"Do come home, dear; we are so anxious to see you once more," is a phrase which occurs many times in brief notes from father and mother. "We thought a long time that you had been killed in a railroad accident and we have worried our hearts sore," says one of the letters, signed by the father.
The fact that several women who knew Misss Sloan here professed to believe that she was using an assumed name led to the investigation of her effects by the administrator and the coroner at the Wagner undertaking rooms yesterday.Labels: general hospital, Suicide, undertakers April 5, 1909 HOSPITAL PATIENT'S SUICIDE.
Woman Tricks Nurse and Hurls Herself From Third Story Window to Death.
Nurses and patients at the general hospital were startled and shocked last night when Effie Sloan, a patient, committed suicide by leaping from a window on the third floor to the ground below. She was dead when assistance reached her side a few seconds after she jumped.
Miss Sloan entered the hospital on March 31. She was assigned to the ward on the third floor in which were other women patients. The woman was very restless on Saturday afternoon and night, but yesterday the physicians noticed that she was very quiet. About 7:00 last night as one of the nurses passed her cot she asked for a glass of milk. the nurse started after the milk, and Miss Sloan arose from her bed.
After getting up the patient walked the length of the ward to a window. She raised it and began climbing up on the sill. Two patients, Misses Cora Smith and Lulu Williams, took in the situation and ran towards her in an effort to prevent her from jumping. As Miss Smith reached the window Miss Sloan threw herself from off the window ledge.
Succeeding in catching only a slight hold of the gown worn by the woman, Miss Smith was not able to hold her long enough to give Miss Williams time to help. Miss Sloan weighed about 160 pounds, and the woman who attempted to hold her against the window sill by her gown weighs 120 pounds.
When Miss Sloan broke from the grasp of Miss Smith, her body shot downward to the turf beneath the window, and the two patients screamed and fainted. The nurse on duty in the ward immediately notified the internes who ran to the woman's aid. It was found that her skull had been fractured and that death was instantaneous.
When Miss Sloan entered the hospital she gave her age as 26 years, and her residence as 1123 Oak street.
The coroner was notified of the suicide by Dr. J. Park Neal and asked to make an investigation.Labels: Dr J Park Neal, general hospital, Oak street, Suicide, women April 4, 1909 LITERARY MAN A SUICIDE.
Body of William Ward Mitchell, Author, Editor and Poet, Taken From the River.
Decomposed almost beyond recognition, the body of William Ward Mitchell, author, poet and editor, was found in the Blue river at Blue Mills yesterday afternoon. Mr. Mitchell had frequently talked suicide to his physician, Dr. Ralph W. Holbrook, 415 Argyle building, under whose care he had been for several weeks during the past year, and it is believed he accomplished his own death.
Seven years ago, or thereabouts, Mr. Mitchell was the editor of the Higginsville, Mo., Jeffersonian. During that time Mr. Mitchell wrote several books which attracted more or less attention. Perhaps the most popular of them all was "Jael," a historical novel of local setting.
Two years later the editor became a nervous wreck from overwork and deep study. Last fall he came to Kansas City and consulted Dr. Holbrook, an old friend. Dr. Holbrook advised him to take treatment and he was sent to a local hospital. Natural pride of family and other peculiarities, caused Mr. Mitchell to use the name of M. W. Ward while in Kansas City last fall.
In November he was discharged from the hospital and went to board with A. J. Leonard, 1006 Forest avenue. From time to time he was heard to talk of self-destruction, particularly to his friend and doctor. His act of suicide, which was committed about three months ago, being the time that all trace of him was lost, seems to be the outcome of brooding over imagined or real ills.
"Mitchell was always a dreamer," said Dr. Holbrook last night, "and his act can readily be accounted for. He considered himself down and out because of his health. Yet in the very midst of it all he would write the prettiest and most optimistic poetry that you ever read. For five years he has not been to his home in Higginsville.
His mother is aged an palsied, and has frequently sent word for him to come home.
"Mitchell has relatives by the name of Ward who live in Kansas City, on the Paseo, I think."
Mitchell's body was taken to Independence, and there a corner of an envelope bearing Dr. Holbrook's address was found in his clothes.
Dr. Holbrook was notified immediately and last night he made the trip to Independence by motor car to identify the body. The identification was complete. The clothes which Mr. Mitchell had worn when he committed suicide were the same which he had when he left Kansas City last December. On that occasion he told his landlady that he was going for his mail and then disappeared.
Mr. Mitchell was 38 years old.Labels: books, doctors, Higginsville, Independence, mental health, newspapers, Paseo, Suicide March 15, 1909 ENDS DEBAUCH BY SUICIDE.
Man Believed to Be A. W. Butter- field Strangled Himself to Death in the Holdover.
While temporarily insane from the excessive use of alcohol, a man, believe to be A. W. Butterfield, committed suicide in the holdover at police headquarters yesterday afternoon by hanging himself with a handkerchief. He was dead when discovered by Philip Welch, the jailor, at 2:30 o'clock, and Dr. W. L. Gist of the emergency hospital said he had been dead about a half hour.
Patrolman L. A. Tillman arrested a man at Third street and Grand avenue at 9 o'clock yesterday morning and at the station had him locked up for safe keeping. The prisoner was drunk and resisted the jailor and Patrolman Bryan Underwood, who searched him at the desk. He was last seen alive by Jailor Welch, who entered the cell at noon to give him his lunch.
The suicide tied a handkerchief around his neck and to the bars of his cell door. With his face turned from the door, Butterfield then allowed the weight of his body to rest upon the handkerchief and slowly strangled to death.
A small gold watch, $1.70 in silver and a pair of gold eye glasses were taken from him. A small button worn by the suicide tended to show that he was a member of the United Brotherhood of Leather Workers of Horse Goods. He was about 40 years old. Coroner B. H. Zwart ordered the body taken to Stewart's undertaking rooms.Labels: alcohol, Coroner Zwart, doctors, Grand avenue, jail, police, police headquarters, Suicide, Third street January 27, 1909 TRIES SLEEP FROM A BOTTLE.
Waitress, After Quarreling With Hus- band Cook, Attempts Suicide.
Because she had quarreled with her husband and feared that he meant to leave her, Dollie Duchaine, 26 years old, 1321 Cherry street, attempted suicide last night by inhaling the fumes from a handkerchief saturated with chloroform. Dr. J. W. Hayward of No. 4 police station attended to the woman.
Duchaine is a cook at Roarke's restaurant. H is wife is a waitress at the same place. James Love, 1000 Independence avenue, who had seen the woman early in the evening, said she told him her husband had become angry over some orders she had given him.
"Words followed," Love said, "and it seems that Duchaine told his wife he was going to leave her. She was down-hearted and depressed when I left her."
A note written by the woman before she took the chloroform was found by Officer Fraser. It was as follows:
"Well, Johnnie if you do what you said you would tomorrow, I don't care what happens to me, so I will take a little sleep from the bottle under my pillow. Your as ever, 'D.' "Labels: Cherry street, doctors, Independence avenue, marriage, No 4 police station, restaurants, Suicide January 8, 1909 DEATH PACT IN DOUBLE KILLING?
BODIES OF MAN AND WOMAN FOUND IN ROOM.
POISON PROBABLY WAS USED.
NO SIGNS OF VIOLENCE, BUT MARKED FACIAL CONTORTION.
Little Light on Mysterious Deaths of J. W. Brault and Mrs. Julia Kenner in Their Troost Avenue Apartment.
With no external evidence as to how or why they came to their end, J. W. Brault and Mrs. Julia Kenner were found dead in a room at 1517 Troost avenue at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Whether it was a suicide pact between the man and Mrs. Kenner, who may be his wife, or a murder and a suicide, the police are unable to say. The woman was a baking powder demonstrator and about 38 years old. The man at one time was an agent for crayon pictures. He looked to be 45 years old. The couple evidently died yesterday morning.
They had been doing light housekeeping and when Mrs. Mary Kimmons, who conducts the apartment house where the two roomed, failed to detect the usual odor of cooking food at noon yesterday she sent W. F. Gray, who, with his wife, lives in the apartment house, to investigate. Gray found the door locked. He climbed up and looked over the transom. He saw the two bodies lying on the bed. That of the man was on its back; that of the woman was lying across him, the hands clasped as if in agony, the face contorted.
MAN DIED FIRST.
The police and coroner were united. Two detectives and Deputy Coroner Harry Czarlinsky broke in the door. From the position of the bodies, the detectives were led to believe that the man died first. There were no marks of violence on either body. Poison probably caused the death of both, but only a postmortem examination, which will be made this morning, will establish the fact.
When Mr. Gray looked over the transom, he said he smelled chloroform, but no trace of the drug was found. There was a small vial of laudanum on the dresser, but Dr. Czarlinsky said that there was no evidence of laudanum poisoning.
Mrs. Gray, wife of the man who made the discovery, said that about 3 o'clock yesterday morning she heard Mrs. Kenner rush across the floor screaming "Help," and "Lord have mercy!" She paid little attention to the cries then, as she and Mr. Gray had often heard the couple quarreling. However, she told Mrs. Kimmons of it just before noon.
The dead man and woman came to the apartment house a week ago and registered as man and wife.
SAID THEY WERE MARRIED.
Many letters addressed to Mrs. Julia Kenner were found, but there was only one that might have belonged to Brault. This one was to the Egg Baking Powder Company of New York and applied for a position as agent. It set forth that Brault had married Mrs. Kenner, alluded to as "one of the company's best demonstrators." It was evidently a copy of a letter Brault had sent to the company.
In the meagerly furnished room was a bed, a center table on which was a pan of biscuits,, a dressing table crowded with bottles of various descriptions, and a trunk, the property of Mrs. Kenner. On top of some articles of woman's wear in the trunk was a telegram addressed to "Mrs. Kenner, 132 West Court street, Cincinnati, O." It read:
"Letter mailed today. Am well. Lots of love. -- Your Harry."
The searchers could find no other indication that a man whose first name was Harry had ever written the woman. Another letter from the Egg Baking Powder Company of New York was addressed to the woman at 1512 Biddle street, St. Louis.
NO LACK OF MONEY.
The theory the police first entertained was that lack of money had brought on despondency which had occasioned the double tragedy. This was given up when a certificate of deposit for $50 on the Exchange Bank of Kansas City was discovered in the trunk.
Dr. Harry Czarlinsky, the assistant coroner, said last night he was entirely at sea as to the method used in bringing death to the couple. He was sure neither gas nor chloroform was used.
"My opinion is that the woman killed the man and the in her desperation put an end to herself," said he. "From the appearance of the room and of the bodies I do not consider it possible that some one could have entered the room and murdered the couple."
That was also the opinion of Lieutenant W. J. Carroll of No. 6 police station, to whom the tragedy was first reported.
The bodies were ordered taken to the Leo J. Stewart undertaking establishment.Labels: death, detectives, Dr Czarlinsky, New York, No 6 police station, St Louis, Suicide, telegram, Troost avenue, undertakers December 31, 1908
BRIDE IS SHOT BY JILTED LOVER.
WHO THEN SENDS BULLET INTO HIS OWN BRAIN.
MRS. EDNA SETZER MAY DIE.
RAY REESE PLANNED THE TRAG- EDY WITH DELIBERATION.
Mrs. Setzer Was Married on Christ- mas Eve -- Was Pledged Pre- viously to Reese -- Her Wound May Be Fatal. 
RAY REESE AND MRS. EDNA SETPZER, THE BRIDE, WHOM HE SHOT.
At the close of a week of festifities and hoy in the life of Mrs. Edna Setzer, 19 years old, a bride since Christmas eve, she was shot in her home, 621 Virginia avenue, Kansas City, Kas., about 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon by Ray Reese, 23 years old, a former suitor. After shooting Mrs. Setzer, Reese, who is a car cleaner for the Union Pacific railway, and lives at 137 South First street, Argentine, sent a bullet into his brain and died instantly. Dr. A. J. Cannon, police surgeon, says Mrs. Setzer cannot live.
About nine months ago when Mrs. Setzer was Miss Edna Mecum, living with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. L. L. Mecum, at 1618 North Fifth street, Kansas City, Kas, she and Ray Reese met at a dance given by the Royal Highlander's lodge. According to report they became engaged and remained so for two or three months, when they quarreled and she broke off the engagement.
Reese seemed to treat the matter lightly, and he and his former fiance danced together several times afterwards when they met at lodge functions, and there was never a thought of danger in the future.
SHE MARRIED ANOTHER.
Chirstmas eve Edna Mecum became the bride of Clyde Setzer, a young man employed at the Kansas City Packing Box Company's plant in Armourdale. They went to live with the bride's sister, Mrs. N. C. Ladd, 621 Virginia avenue, where the tragedy was enacted last evening.
Tuesday evening Mrs. Ladd responded to a knock at her door and was surprised to find Reese standing there. He did not make himself known, but asked, "Is there a family by the name of Jones living in this neighborhood?" Told that there was none, he left, saying no more, and apparently believing himself unrecognized. Mrs. Ladd laughed at the incident and told the happy young couple of what had happened. Still nothing was suspected.
It was about 3:30 yesterday afternoon when Reese met Mrs. Mecum, mother of the bride, almost at the latter's gate.
"Just the person I need," he said, jovially. "Take me in so that I may congratulate the bride."
COMES IN UNANNOUNCED.
Mrs. Mecum and the man with murder in his heart entered the house together. Reese and Mrs. Setzer talked pleasantly for about fifteen minutes. He even then exhibited no signs of resentment or anger. He left with the bride's mother and at the door said to Mrs. Setzer, in tones of gentle concern: "I wish you a long and a very happy life."
It was only a few minutes before 5 o'clock when the door of the house opened and Mrs. Ladd, without looking up, said, "Well, there is that grocery boy at last." But it was Reese. He walked without a word past Mrs. Ladd to the front of the room where the girl whom he once pretended to love sat eating popcorn.
Drawing a photograph from his pocket and handing it to Mrs. Setzer, he said, "Here, I forgot to give you back this picture. I don't want to be carrying a married woman's picture around with me."
"Thank you," smiled the girl, accepting the picture and at the same time starting to rise.
BULLET THROUGH HER BODY.
Stepping back a pace Reese drew a revolver. Mrs. Ladd, who had just entered the room, fled screaming. Reese fired one shot into Mrs. Setzer's right breast, the ball penetrating the lung and going through the body. Taking one look at the prostrate, bleeding form of the girl, Reese walked into an inner room and placed the revolver to his right temple, fired a shot into his brain, which instantly ended his life.
Dr. a. J. Gannon, police surgeon, was immediately summoned and did all he could for Mrs. Setzer. She had been removed to a bed and was unconscious. In the doctor's opinion there is little hope for her. Reese's body was taken in charge by the coroner and sent to a morgue. Reese's purpose was so clear that it is not believed that an inquest will be necessary.
Reese's parents, Mr. and Mrs. William R. Reese, with whom he lived, were greatly shocked over their son's double deed. They said they had no intimation of such a tragedy.Labels: doctors, guns, Kansas City Kas, murder, Suicide, wedding December 29, 1908 'GINGERBREAD MAN' NEARLY DEAD MAN.
PROMPT SURGEON SAVED LIFE OF WARREN BATES, ACTOR.
HAD QUARRELED WITH WIFE.
LOCKED UP UNTIL EFFECTS OF DRUG WORE AWAY.
Wife, Who Is a Graduate of Swarth- more College, Learned Gym- nasatic Stunts in the Co- Ed's Gymnasium.
But for the prompt arrival of Dr. R. A. Shiras from the Walnut street police station yesterday at noon the romance of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Bates, begun two years ago while plying in the musical comedy, "The Gingerbread Man," would have terminated fatally. The husband, dejected because the wife turned him away from her door on account of a domestic difference, had taken half an ounce of aconite in order to kill himself. Dr. Shiras gave him an antidote and the ambulance took the young man to Central police station, where he was locked up until he had fully recovered from the effects of the drug.
Bates, who is only 22 years old, handsome, athletic and well dressed, came from a good family in Philadelphia and graduated from a state normal school. While at college he learned to do tumbling stunts in the gymnasium and also devoted much time to amateur theatricals. When he left school he had an opportunity to join the company playing "The Gingerbread man," and seized upon it. With the same company was a pretty young actress who had also a gymnastic turn. Sometimes they used to work together. She was a graduate of Swarthmore college and had acquired her fondness for athletic stunts, while practicing in the co-ed's gym. Being persons from a similar station in life and both attractive, propinquity soon got in its work. They were married, and last year they started out on a vaudeville circuit in the South, doing a tumbling act. In the summer they returned to Philadelphia, where Bates became an agent for a horse and mule company.
"This year," said the young man, "we decided to give up the stage for good. After all the life of an actor must always be an unsatisfactory one and we thought we would settle down in Kansas City and raise a family."
They came here and Bates got a job with the Jones Dry Goods Company. They lived happily until differences began to arise about a month ago. Sunday night Bates went home and there was a lively quarrel, the husband finally leaving the house in anger. Yesterday morning he went back to see her, but she refused to open the door and would only speak to him through it. She told him to go away, that their paths must be thereafter separate. Bates went away and purchased and purchased some horse medicine from a druggist, including half an ounce of aconite. He then swallowed the drug.
"I am going to try to get my wife to make up with me," he said yesterday, "and then I'm going to take her back to Philadelphia, where our people live. Then I think we can be happy."Labels: Central station, doctors, Jones Dry Goods, marriage, Suicide, theater, Walnut street police station December 25, 1908 BUSINESS WORRIES DROVE HOTEL WOMAN TO SUICIDE.
Mrs. Alvina Morrell, of the Mon- damin, Left a Note Saying,
"I Am So Tired."
Worry because her business was losing money caused Mrs. Alvina Morrell, 38 years old, the owner of the Mondamin hotel at Twelfth and Washington streets, to commit suicide last night by taking bichloride of mercury. Mrs. Morrell came here last August and assumed charge of the hotel, and had been losing money steadily ever since.
A note hastily scribbled on a piece of cardboard, probably after the poison had been swallowed, read as follows:
"Let me sleep. I am so tired. Give all I have to mother. Lillie, by-by, I am sick. ALVINA."
The Lillie referred to is her sister, who lives in St. Louis. A telegram from her was received in the afternoon my Mrs. Morrell, saying that the former could not come to this city for Christmas, but would be here the next day. Mrs. Morrell's mother also lives in St. Louis and is very ill. Mrs. Morrell was a widow.
Deputy Coroner Harry Czarlinsky was summoned and made an examination. The body was removed to O'Donnell's undertaking rooms.Labels: Dr Czarlinsky, hotels, poison, Suicide, telegram, Twelfth street, undertakers, Washington street December 13, 1908 SAID WIFE HAD DISGRACED HIM.
PIGG SHOT HER AND TURNED WEAPON ON HIMSELF.
SHE WILL DIE, HE WILL LIVE.
TRAGEDY OCCURS IN HOUSE AT 1108 EUCLID AVENUE.
Woman Was Shot in the Top of Head. Pigg Tried to Fire Another Bullet Into Body When Police Arrived.
James Monroe Pigg, a liveryman of Deepwater, Mo., shot and fatally wounded his wife, Mrs. Allie Pigg, in the latters room on the second floor of 1108 Euclid avenue at 7 o'clock last night. The ball entered the top of her head, and lodged in the right temple. She will die. Pigg then shot himself in the left breast, but the ball struck a rib, passed around the body and lodged near the spine. Both were taken to the general hospital, where Drs. W. T. Thornton and J. Park Neal operated upon them. Piggs wound is only superficial, and the ball was removed. He is now being guarded at the hospital.
"BETRAYED ME," SAYS PIGG.
J. D. Gregg, who occupies the flat below Mrs. Pigg, heard five shots, and finding the door to the room licked, notified the police. John R. McCall and Benjamin Goode, plain clothes men, were sent to the house. When they entered the room where the shooting occurred Mrs. Pigg was lying on the floor, bleeding from the wound in her head. Pigg was sitting on the floor beside her, a revolver in his hand. As the officers entered he raised the weapon as if to shoot.
McCall covered the apparantly dazed man with his revolver, not knowing that Pigg was wounded, and said, "Drop that gun." At that Pigg turned the gun to his breast again, and would have fired another shot, but was seized by the officers.
When asked who had done the shooting, Pigg answered promptly:
"I did. She betrayed me. There's no use in holding an inquest." Then he asked that his father, William L. Pigg, of Deepwater, be notified. Still rambling he said his daughter, Mrs. Hortense Burleigh, 808 South Twenty-first street, Omaha, had been here on a visit and that Mrs. Pigg had refused to allow the baby to call her grandma.
"And she wouldn't kiss our daughter, either," he said, "turning only her cheek."
He mentioned a man whom he called "A. P." as being the cause of all his trouble.
HE WROTE TWO LETTERS.
Pigg directed the officers to his coat hanging on the hall tree, saying his "dying words" would be found there. One was addresed on the envelope to "the coroner" and the other "to the people" in a scrawling hand.
"With wife betrayed life is not worth living. No inquest is necessary. I committed the deed. Betrayed by A. P. W., me having confidence in him. P. S. -- Wife betrayed me is all and with confidence. Betrayed by a scoundrel, A. P. W. is all. Don't let any man in on your home. He will betray your confidence as this scoundrel betrayed mine. "
A short note to his daughter read: "Dear Hortense. Your mother has betrayed me." Then he speaks of a diamond ring he had bought her for Christmas.
Another note to "Dear papa and mama" reads: "Life is not worth living with my wife. I am in awful disgrace. With love to all, Monroe." On a post-script in the parents' note he scrawled: "Notify father, W. L. Pigg. My name is J. M. Pigg. Betrayed confidence in my wife. Love to Hortense and baby. They care not what I am worth as I have only my wife's love which is not affectionated love. Hortense and baby I am to die."
COUPLE LIVED APART.
Mr. and Mrs. Pigg have lived apart for about fifteen years, but he visited her regularly and there appeared to be no trouble between them. Mrs. Pigg made fancy embroidery for the Emery, Bird, Thayer Dry Goods Company.
J. D. Gregg and wife, who have known Mrs. Pigg for six years, said so far as they knew, Pigg had not the least foundation for his suspicions. Mrs. Pigg is 51 years old and Pigg 53.
Mr. Gregg said that Mr. Pigg most always came up here Thursday or Friday of every other week and remained over Sunday with his wife. They went down town together yesterday afternoon and not the least sign of trouble was to be seen. Pigg, he said, was a man who "talked a great deal and said nothing, always talking in a rambling fashion."
All who know Mrs. Pigg say that she is a woman whose character is above reproach and that Piggs mind must have been affected. At the general hospital it was said that he bore symptoms of having taken some drug, probably a strong narcotic. He said while on the table that he was sorry he had not killed himself as there was little to live for now.
William Young, a brother of Mrs. Pigg, and his mother left their home at Knob-noster, Mo., last night for the city. They are said to be among the wealthiest families in that county.
How Pigg happened to shoot his wife in the top of the head is not known, unless she was lying down at the time or leaning toward him in a chair. Five bullet holes are in the room and the shells were picked up by the officers. Pigg's gun was loaded again when he was found.Labels: domestic violence, Dr J Park Neal, Euclid avenue, general hospital, guns, Omaha, police, Suicide December 6, 1908 WANTED TO DIE AT 19.
Despondency Induced John Bresna- han to Jump Into Kaw River.
In a fit of despondency, thought to have been induced by overindulgence by liquor, John Bresnahan, 19 years old, jumped into the Kaw river near the Nelson Morris packing house, Kansas City, Kas., yesterday afternoon. He was rescued by William Nash, a watchman at the plant.
Young Bresnahan was taken to No. 2 police station in the police ambulance, where he stated that he lived at 1319 Lafayette avenue. He said that he thought he had outlived his usefulness and wanted to die.Labels: Kansas City Kas, Kaw river, No 2 police station, Suicide December 1, 1908
THERE'S A SURGEON AT NO. 4.
And Because of That, W. I. Gessler Is Alive Today.
It was related in The Journal Sunday morning that at the Walnut street police station the ambulance had been without a surgeon for a week. It was pointed out that if a call were turned into the station attend to a would-be suicide who had taken poison, the police could do nothing but take the man to the general hospital and he would probably die on the way, whereas if a doctor accompanied the police, emergency treatment might save the man's life.
Dr. W. S. Wheeler, city physician, yesterday stationed Dr. R. A. Shiras, his assistant, at the Walnut street station. This is the first time in the past two years that a doctor who received any pay for his work has been stationed at the post.
This act came just in time to save the life of W. I. Gessler, a young man of 21, who tried to commit suicide by taking four ounces of chloroform in the rear of a dyer's shop at 3226 East Twelfth street. Gessler was out of work and entered the store about 11 o'clock yesterday morning, picked up the bottle from a shelf and drank the fluid. The ambulance surgeon arrived in time to administer emergency treatment, which saved the life of the young man. It is said that had treatment been delayed until the patient arrived at the general hospital he would have died. Gessler lives with his parents at Englewood on the Independence car line. Loss of work is supposed to have been the cause of the attempt.Labels: doctors, Englewood, general hospital, Suicide, Twelfth street, Walnut street police station November 29, 1908 NO POLICE DOCTOR AT WALNUT STATION NO. 4.
AMBULANCE RESPONDS TO CALLS WITHOUT SURGEON.
Room and Meals Constitute Salary Attached, and the Job Has Been Shunned for a Week.
For the past week there has been no doctor at the Walnut street police station. The ambulance from this station, which is supposed to take care of every case of injury where the services of the police department are needed in the district south of Eleventh street, has been forced to respond to calls without any doctor in charge. Whether the call comes from Fifteenth street and the Blue or from Southwest boulevard and state line, all that the officers in charge of the ambulance can do is to make a run as fast as they can to the general hospital.
The cases on which the services of the police ambulance are called for are too frequently those in which a delay may mean the loss of human life. A man or a woman may take carbolic acid several miles from the general hospital. If medical treatment can be administered in fifteen minutes the person might, under ordinary conditions, recover. If, however, the treatment is delayed a few minutes, death is sure to result.
At any moment in the day or night such a case may be telephoned into the Walnut street station, which does almost as much ambulance work as the central police station.
Two years ago the appointment of ambulance and emergency surgeons was taken out of the hands of the police department and placed under the control of the health and hospital board. Under the new charter the same arrangement obtains. The reason given at the time of making the change was that the power of appointment was being used for political purposes.
However, under the old arrangement the police surgeons were paid a so-called salary of $30 a month. When the health and hospital board took charge it fixed a salary for the three doctors at the central police station, but appointed a man to work without pay at the Walnut street station. Internes at the city hospital did the work,, receiving therefor the same salary that they got for their work at the hospital, namely, their room and meals. Strange to say, several young doctors were glad to avail themselves of the opportunity to get a more complete knowledge of their profession by sewing up wounds and coaxing would-be suicides to live. Until last week the station has never been without a surgeon, and they have given excellent services, on the whole. Now no one can be persuaded to take the job.
"Only a few dollars paid to these young doctors every month would settle the whole question," said Captain Thomas P. Flahive last night. "To prevent the loss of human life something must be done at once."Labels: Captain Flahive, doctors, Eleventh street, general hospital, police, Suicide, Walnut Street, Walnut street police station November 19, 1908
HANGS HIMSELF BY HAIR RIBBON
GORDON KYLE MEETS DEATH IN FANTASTIC GARB.
DRESSED IN WIFE'S CLOTHES.
HIS GIBBET THE FOOT OF AN IRON BED.
Young Man Had Brooded Over His Inability to Buy Diamonds for His Wife -- She Finds Him Dead. 
GORDON KYLE.
Dressed completely in his young wife's party clothes, Gordon Kyle, 24 years of age, hanged himself in his home, at 1706 Belleview avenue, yesterday afternoon. The noose was made from two of his wife's hair ribbons and a strap from her suit case. This he tied to the foot of an iron bed and deliberately sat until he was strangled. About two hours later he was found dead by his wife, Maude Cox Kyle.
The only reason given for the act was that he loved his wife so dearly that he could not endure the thought of her being forced to live in comparative poverty. They had been married but two months, during which time the young husband lamented the fact that his wife could not have diamonds and jewels and clothes and such as some women wear. He frequently spoke of it to his wife and condemned himself bitterly.
The suicide had ransacked his wife's trunk in search of her garments. That part of her wardrobe which he did not use was strewn about the floor carelessly. His own clothes were placed by the side of the bed. Kyle had chosen a flimsy black gown in which to die, and underneath it he wore his wife's skirts, hosiery and underwear. The only part of feminine attire which he did not use were the hat and shoes.
SHE BEHELD HIM, DEAD.
The scene which met the young wife's eyes when she opened the door of the room was gruesome. First of all she saw her husband of two months lying by the foot of the bed, his body fearfully contorted, clad in feminine apparel. About him lay clothes of every description and on the pillow of the bed rested a loaded revolver.
"Gordon, Gordon," screamed the frantic wife so terrifically that those on the street heard her and ran to see what might be the matter. "Gordon, speak to me, speak to me."
When aid arrived the horrified woman was pinching her dead husband, unwilling to believe him dead. She pinched his legs, his hands, his face, but the flesh was cold and his face was fast coloring darkly. Realizing at last the awful tragedy, she moaned again and again:
"Oh, Gordon, why did you do it; why did you do it? Oh those clothes, those clothes!"
In trying to account for her husband's peculiar suicide, Mrs. Kyle said that very often he had seemed disconsolate and sad; that he had been brooding over their financial condition and his inability to give her the best and much of everything she wanted. Once he had spoken of suicide, saying that he should not stand in her way and hold her down to such poverty.
OFFERED TO GO TO WORK.
"In order to show him that I loved him and wanted to sh are his lot with him, I offered to go to work to help defray the household expenses. I would have done anything for him, but he did not want me to work. He wanted me to live like a rich lady. Anyhow I got a position at Morton's two weeks ago and then I thought as soon as we had laid by some money he would be his old cheery self again. He went without his meals during the day that he might save money for me, and he grew ill. Try as I might, I could not get him to eat regularly. How he hated to think of me working and I did not know it until today. He must have thought that I was sorry I married him. But he was wrong, wrong, wrong."
Then the little widow could speak no more. She bowed her head and her whole frame shook from sobbing. The fact that her husband had worn her clothes to face death affected her strangely. Sometimes she looked upon it as a token of his great love for her, and at other times she believed it to be a rebuke.
WAS INJURED RECENTLY.
"Maude and Gordon were so happy together," said Joe Cox, her father. "There was never a cross word, and he seemed to want to grant her every wish. About a month ago he was hurt in an accident at the stock yards, where he had been employed. Because of his injuries he was unable to attend to work and he feared for his wife's existence. The injuries were about his legs and head, and I think that he was not quite right mentally today."
His wife told of his peculiar actions yesterday morning when he told her goodbye. She said that he was unusually affectionate, going out after having kissed her goodby and later returning to caress her again.
The body was taken to Freeman & Marshall's undertaking rooms after the suicide had been reported to the police and coroner. Kyle had recently taken out a life insurance policy for $1,500.Labels: Belleview avenue, clothing, marriage, Suicide, undertakers November 1, 1908 DEAD IN A PULLMAN CAR.
Cloroform Saturated Handkerchief on Face of Naval Seaman.
Bayard Thompson, 26 years old, a seaman, who recently received an honorable discharge from the United States cruiser Louisiana, was found dead in a Pullman car on a Santa Fe passenger train yesterday morning in the Union depot. A bottle of chloroform clasped in his hands and a saturated handkerchief across his face indicated suicide. Seventy-five dollars in money was found in his effects. He was on his way from San Francisco, Cal., to Greensboro, N. C., his old home.
Coroner George B. Thompson viewed the body yesterday afternoon. It lies at Carroll-Davidson's undertaking rooms awaiting word from Thompson's relatives.Labels: Coroner Thompson, military, railroad, Suicide, undertakers October 13, 1908 FEIGNED SHE WAS DYING TO MAKE HUSBAND LOVE HER.
Mrs. Irene Harris Said It Was a Joke, but Emergency Hospital Doc- tor Couldn't See It.
"Hello, emergency hospital?" was the question asked at 8 o'clock last night of Edward Hicks, clerk at the emergency. "Yes," he answered, "what do you want?"
"A doctor and ambulance," was the reply. The man added that Mrs. Irene Harris, 517 East Fifteenth street, had taken poison.
The ambulance was called and Dr. George Piplin went with it. As he went through the office of the hospital he grabbed a stomach pump and his satchel, containing antidotes for every known poison.
The driver of the ambulance urged his team to their utmost, and pulled up in front of the address given with the steam rising from his horses. Dr. Pipkin hurried inside of the house where he found rs. Harris on the sofa feigning sickness. He applied his remedies and then discovered that it was a practical joke on the part of the woman. At first she claimed to have taken carbolic acid, then another poison, and finally admitted that it was all a hoax. She said she did not think her husband loved her enough and only tried to compel him to.
Dr. Pipkin failed to see the joke and took her back to the hospital with him, where she was kept all night. "After this," Dr. Pipkin said, ""I will make it a rule to send all suicide jokers to the holdover and let them explain the conundrum to Judge Kyle the next day."Labels: doctors, emergency hospital, Fifteenth street, marriage, poison, Suicide September 27, 1908 MARY HULSE STILL ALIVE.
Recovers From Shock of Bullet, but Blood Poisoning Is Feared.
Late last night Mrs. Mary Hulse, who shot herself twice in the left lung at her home, 3829 Dickson street, Friday afternoon, was still living, although the chance for her recovery was small. The doctors say that the shock of the wounds has been overcome, but that the main danger to be overcome is blood poisoning. For a time they considered stimulating the wounded woman's system by means of a transfusion of a saline solution into her circulation, but the operation was abandoned as unnecessary. Both bullets have been taken from the wounds.Labels: Dickson street, doctors, Suicide, women September 26, 1908 WROTE LOVING LINES THEN SHOT HERSELF.
MRS. MARY HULSE SEEKS DEATH AS RELEASE FROM ILLNESS.
Powder From First Bullet Sets Fire to Her Clothes and After Extin- guishing Blaze Shoots a Second Time.
"I wanted to kiss you all at the table good-by, and I knew I couldn't, for you would mistrust something," wrote Mrs. Mary Hulse of 3839 Dickson street to her husband and children yesterday afternoon just before she shot herself twice in the left breast with a revolver, barely two hours after dinner time, when all the members of the family ate what was probably their last meal together. Despondency over continued ill health led to the act, and the doctors hold out no hope for her recovery. Both bullets penetrated the left lung.
Edna, the 15-year-old daughter of the woman, was in the back yard when she heard the first shot fired. She thought it was a door slamming in one of the upstairs bedrooms, but when she went in to ascertain she heard her mother groaning in her room, and as she ran up the stairway the woman cried out: "I am dying; send to the store for Annie!"
SHOT HERSELF SECOND TIME.
As she spoke she lay on the bed with the revolver beside her, trying to put out the fire which the front part of her dress had caught from the flashing powder. The terror-stricken girl did not think to snatch the smoking revolver from the bed, but ran to the store of I. E. Early, a block or so away on East Fifteenth street, where her eldest sister, who is 17 years of age, is employed. Before the two girls got back neighbors heard a second shot, and when the daughters reached their mother's room she lay bleeding and in a dying condition on the bed. The husband, who works in a brickyard at Askew and Seventeenth streets, and Drs. A. R. Greelee and W. L. Campbell were summoned and everything possible was done, but there is little doubt but that the wounds will prove fatal.
LETTERS OF FAREWELL.
In an envelope sealed and addressed to her husband she wrote her farewell to him and her children. Even after she had sealed it she wrote expressions of affectionate leave taking. On the outside she wrote:
"My Dear Jim and My Dear Children: -- I have to leave you. I can not stand my suffering any longer. Hope you can keep the children together. I know you will if it is so you can, and I do hope you can get steady work for our dear children's sake. My sickness is too much; I can't stand it any longer. See about the insurance.
"Jim, my darling, you have done all that any one could do for me, and I thank Dr. Lowery and Dr. Doyle for their kindness. I wanted to kiss you all at the table good-by, but I knew you would mistrust something. I want you all to forgive me. Annie and Edna, be good girls and be good to little Ruth and Albert. Mind your father. Good-by to all.
"YOUR LOVING WIFE AND MOTHER."
Mrs. Hulse is 32 years old, and her husband said yesterday that she had been in ill health for ten years. There are two other smaller children, Albert and Ruth, aged 12 and 9. The family moved to Kansas City from Ottawa, Kas., three years ago.Labels: Askew avenue, children, Dickson street, doctors, Fifteenth street, retailers, Seventeenth street, Suicide September 24, 1908 M'DONALD LAID TO REST.
Appropriate Respect Paid to Memory of Dead Marshal.
The funeral of Martin McDonald, marshal of the North division of the city court, Kansas City, Kas., who was shot to death by Ernest Lee, whom he was trying to arrest at the latter's home Monday, was yesterday afternoon from the McDonald home, 425 Haskell avenue. The services were conducted by the G. A. R. and the A. O. U. W., and were largely attended by friends and city and county officials. Interment was in Mount Hope cemetery.
The body of Lee, who killed himself after murdering Marshal McDonald, will be sent to Ames, Ok., where the dead man's mother, Mrs. Ella Rader, lives.Labels: cemetery, Funeral, Kansas City Kas, murder, oklahoma, Suicide September 22, 1908 MURDERED WHILE SERVING WARRANT.
KANSAS CITY, KAS., MARSHAL WAS SHOT THROUGH HEART.
Slayer Commits Suicide -- Ernest Lee Was Living With His 15-Year-Old Sister-in-Law, With Whom He Had Fled From Oklahoma.
Martin McDonald, marshal of the North division of the city court, Kansas City, Kas., was shot to death yesterday, sortly after 12 o'clock, by Ernest Lee, wanted at Tulsa, Ok., for eloping with his 15-year-old sister-in-law, Goldie Johnson. The killing took place in a boarding house, Third street and Shawnee avenue, while the officer of the court was reading a state warrant commanding his arrest. The murder was witnessed by Humane Officer Festus Foster, who had accompanied Marshal McDonald, and Miss Johnson, the young girl with whom Lee had eloped. After a desperate struggle with Officer Foster, Lee succeeded in freeing himself, and, placing the muzzle of the same revolver against his forehead, pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through his own brain. He was removed to Bethany hospital, where he died a few minutes after 2 o'clock.
FELL AT FIRST SHOT.
Marshal McDonald fell dead at the first shot, the bullet passing through his heart. He fell with his own revolver in his hand, having drawn it at the time that Lee reached for his weapon, which was in a bureau drawer. McDonald apparently realized Lee's intentions and commanded him not toput his hands on the revolver. Even after he had the weapon in his hands McDonald refused to shoot, but again commanded him to drop the gun. Instead he whirled around to face the officer, pulling the trigger of his revolver at the same time. McDonald fell instantly. Humane Officer Foster rushed upon Lee and a hand to hand struggle ensued. Lee's revolver, which was a 38-caliber automatic, was taken from him by Foster, but he succeeded in getting hold of the dead officer's revolver. Foster attempted to use the automatic gun, but being unaccustomed to the new firearm, was unable to discharge it. Lee, taking advantage of the situation, clinched with Foster and beat him over the head with McDonald's gun. He finally recovered possession of his own weapon and while Foster was lying bleeding on the floor placed the gun to his head and fired.
GIRL'S MOTHER GOT WARRANT.
From the evidence obtained by Coronor J. A. Davis at the autopsy held over the two bodies in the afternoon, it seems that Lee had been living at the Shawnee avenue address for the past five weeks, or from the time that he and his girl sister-in-law came here from Oklahoma. From the time he landed here he went under the name of C. E. Lewis. His first imployment was at the Schwarzschild & Sulzberger packing house. For the past week or two he had been engaged in cleaning cellars in the flood district. Sunday night Mrs. Jennie Johnson of Kingfisher, Ok., mother of the girl, came to the city and stopped overnight at the home of her nephew, a Mr. Cathcart, who lives in Argentine, and who had previously located the runaway couple. Yesterday morning Mrs. Johnson went before County Attorney Joseph Taggart and caused a state warrant to be issued for the arrest of her son-in-law, who deserted one of her daughters to run off with another, the latter being a mere child.
After the double killing Miss Johnson was taken into custody by Humane Officer Foster and taken before Judge Van B. Prather of the juvenile court. She will be held as a ward of the court until after the inquest, which probably will be held today, after which she will be turned over to her mother and taken back to the family home at Kingfisher. While in the juvenile court room Miss Johnson made the following statement.
SHE DIDN'T LOVE HIM.
"My sister, Grace, and Lee were married about four years ago, one child being born to them. They lived on a ranch near Kingfisher. They had frequent quarrels, but not serious. About six weeks ago I accompanied my father, Lacy Johnson, from Kingfisher to Tulsa, where we visited Miss Carrie Berry, sister of Mr. Lee. He was there at the time. One night Lee and my father went up town, leaving me with Lee's sister. She went to call on a neighbor, leaving me alone in the house. Lee returned to the house and, finding me alone, threatened to kill me and all of the family if I refused to run away with him. We left that night and caught a train for Kansas City. We have since been living as man and wife here. He has treated me kindly, but I want to go back home to my parents."
When asked when Lee first commenced to make love to her, Miss Johnson said that he never exactly made love to her, but said that he liked her better than her sister, to whom he was married. She said that she never loved him, but was afraid of him. Lacy Johnson, the girl's father, is sick at his home in Kingfisher, and is not expected to live.Labels: guns, Humane Society, murder, police, Suicide September 14, 1908 "I'LL KILL MYSELF," SAID HE.
But James N. Allen's Fellow Work- men Laughed -- He Is Found Dead.
For three years James N. Allen had worked as a dishwasher at the Manhattan restaurant. Saturday night he packed up all of his clothes at the restaurant and bid his fellow workers goodby. He informed them that he would commit suicide that night. Believing that Allen was joking, the men suggested various methods of suicide and jested with him until he left the place.
Going to the Henry house, on Walnut street near Fifth, where he roomed, Allen passed through the office, went to his room and locked the door. Then he sat down and wrote a note to his only friend, Sam Grassberger, a cook at the Manhattan restaurant, 420 West Ninth street. The note said: "I am going to end it all by killing myself. God bless you."
Before going to his room, he had purchased a bottle of morphine and the supposition is that he took the contents before going to bed. A maid found his door locked at 10 o'clock yesterday morning and the manager broke it down and found Allen dead.Labels: Fifth street, narcotics, Ninth street, restaurants, rooming house, Suicide, Walnut Street September 13, 1908 TOOK POTASH AND A CIGARETTE.
But Neither Harmed Harry Jacobs, Cook, With a Poison Record.
An ambulance call was received at the Walnut street police station last night about 10:30, on a report that a man had tried to commit suicide by poisoning himself. When the ambulance arrived the patient, Harry Jacobs, a cook, living at 1508 Olive street, was found on the front porch smoking a cigarette. He did not deny that he had taken potash, but seemed to have completely recovered.
"You ought to remember me," he said to the surgeon, Dr. Warren T.Thornton, "you pumped a dose of carbolic acid out of me a month ago."
He did not give any reason for the attempt.Labels: doctors, Olive street, poison, Suicide, tobacco, Walnut street police station September 12, 1908 HANGED HERSELF, BUT LIVES.
Mrs. Harry Woodruff Made a Rope of Police Station Bedding.
Frustrated in her attempt to throw herself into the Missouri river early Friday morning, Mrs. Harry Woodruff, Fourth street and Broadway, hanged herself in the cell in the matron's room at police headquarters four hours later. Mike Mullane, a patrolman, saw the woman running toward the river in an excited manner. He gave chase and caught her. While taking her to Second and Main streets the woman broke from him and tried to throw herself in front of a passing freight train. Again the patrolman rescued her and called the patrol wagon from police headquarters. It took four officers to put the maniacal woman in the wagon.
All the way to the station the woman said that she would not live for twelve hours and she defied the officers to save her life. After she had been locked in the matron's office it was thought she was quieted. At 7 o'clock yesterday morning a passing officer heard strange sounds coming from the cell in the matron's room. Entering the room he saw the woman hanging by a cloth rope from the bars. She was taken down almost unconscious and later sent to the Door of Hope.Labels: Broadway, Fourth street, Main street, mental health, police, police matron, Second street, Suicide September 9, 1908 IMAGINARY TROUBLE MADE TWO GIRLS TRY SUICIDE.
One Was Out of Work, the Other Feared She'd Be Docked for Being Late.
Valna Walker, 17 years old, and Sylvia Miles, 18 years old, inhaled chloroform at the home of the latter, 1507 Washington street, yesterday morning. Miss Walter lives at 10 Rosedale avenue, Rosedale, Kas., but had remained all night with Miss Miles. They were found about 10 o'clock yesterday morning by inmates of the house. Dr. W. L. Gist was called with an ambulance from the emergency hospital and revived them. They were left at 1507 Washington street.
As a reason for the attempt on her life, Valna Waller said that she had recently lost her job at the Metropolitan Cleaners and Dyers, 4637 Troost avenue. Both the girls were out late Monday night at a party and, as a consequence, slept late yesterday morning. Sylvia Miles, who works for the Jones Dry Goods Company, said she feared to be docked for being late, or that she might lose her job altogether, therefore, death was considered the only way to settle her "troubles" for all time to come. Dr. Gist gave the girls a good lecture and showed them how foolish their attempt had been.
"As we didn't succeed," one of them told the doctor, "we have concluded to have nothing published about it."
"Your cases will be placed on record with others," was all the consolation they got.Labels: doctors, Jones Dry Goods, Rosedale, Suicide, Troost avenue, Washington avenue, women September 7, 1908 ILL AND DESPONDENT, SHE TRIED SUICIDE.
EDITH HARDING, 17 YEARS OLD, SWALLOWS CARBOLIC ACID.
Did Not Take Enough to Cause Death -- She Then Started for the River, but Was Overtaken.
Edith Harding, the 17-year-old daughter of Daniel Harding, of 908 South Eighteenth street, Kansas City, Kas., made two unsuccessful attempts at suicide yesterday. A few minutes after 11 o'clock in the forenoon Miss Harding entered her room, closing the door behind her. Her actions during the forenoon were not unusual, and no member of the family suspected that the girl was despondent. Before going to her room she had secured a quantity of carbolic acid, kept in the house for disinfecting purposes. She did not succeed in swallowing much of the poison, most of it being spilled. Her lips and chin were badly burned. When discovered by her mother the girl was lying on a bed suffering agony. Dr., E. D. Williams was summoned and after an examination announced that the girl had not swallowed enough of the acid to cause death. He dressed her injuries and left her in the care of the family.
After Dr. Williams had pronounced her out of danger, Miss Harding seemed greatly disappointed, declaring that she wanted to die. Later in the day she managed to escape from her room and was discovered running toward the Kaw river. Members of the family and several neighbors gave chase and capturing the girl by physical force returned her to her home. She insisted on being allowed to kill herself.
The reason for the young woman wanting to take her life is said to be due to poor health and an abandoned hope of getting well. She said this was the reason she wanted to die as she would rather be dead than suffer like she has done for the past several months. Daniel Harding, the father, is a laborer. A guard will be kept over her for the next few days and in the meantime arrangements will be made to have her taken to a hospital and treated.Labels: doctors, Kansas City Kas, Kaw river, Suicide August 31, 1908 IS IT A DRUGGISTS' SCHEME?
Alderman Gilman Believes Carbolic Acid Ordinance Is a Bid for Profit.
The lower house last night referred to the sanitary and hospital committee the upper house ordinance making a physician's prescription necessary in buying carbolic acid at drug stores.
"It seems to me that ordinance originated in some druggist's profit factory," said Alderman C. J. Gilman, who is a practicing physician, "and I can't see how by compelling people to pay a druggist 600 or 700 per cent profit in the sale of carbolic acid we are going to restrain people from taking the poison for suicidal purposes. We all know carbolic acid is a common commodity found in every house for sanitary purposes. Druggists now sell an ounce of it for 5 cents if the customer has a bottle, but if the druggist furnishes the bottle the cost is 10 cents for the ounce. Make a prescription necessary and a druggist will charge 25 cents an ounce for the commodity, which is essential in every household for sanitary and antiseptic purposes. Physicians do not prescribe carbolic acid in the practice of medicine, and they don't want to be bothered writing a prescription every time one of their patients wants 5 cents worth of carbolic acid."
Alderman Joseph C. Wirthman, a druggist, introduced the ordinance in the upper house two weeks ago.Labels: druggists, Kansas City council, poison, Suicide August 26, 1908 ASKED BUTCHER TO KILL HIM.
Charles Timberlake Failed to Take His Own Life With Three Shots.
Accompanied by his 11-year-old brother-in-law, Max Harrington, Charles Timberlake, a traveling salesman out of employment, left the home of his wife at 3501 East Thirty-first street, about six o'clock last evening. They walked to the corner of Thirty-first and Indiana, one block from home. Mr. Timberlake took a few steps around the corner, drew a revolver and fired three shots at himself. Two of the shots took effect and he dropped to the pavement. The boy ran home and told what had happened.
Henry Trott, a butcher at 3329 East Thirty-first street, was a witness to the attempt at self-destruction. He, with the aid of others, took Mr. Timberlake back to his home and the ambulance from the Walnut street station was called. One bullet pierced the left chest just above the heart, the other passed through the right shoulder.
Patrolman Isaac Hull investigated the case. It was found that Timberlake had only arrived here Friday from California. He had been stopping at the home of his mother-in-law, 3501 East Thirty-first street, where his wife had been for the last eight months. Little information could be gained at the house, but it was intimated that Mr. Timberlake and his wife had been separated and that he had come on here to effect a reconciliation. Mrs. Harrington said she believed all had been arranged yesterday. No one would ascribe a cause for the attempted suicide, and though Mr. Timberlake was conscious when removed to the general hospital, he would tell nothing of the affair to Dr. Thornton or to the attendants at the hospital.
More information was gained from the butcher, Trott, than anyone else. He said he was attracted by the sound of the shooting and ran to Mr. Timberlake as soon as he fell to the ground. "When I arrived at his side and asked him what he had done," Trott told the police, "he begged me to take his gun and finish the job, saying he wanted very much to die and had made a botch job of it."Labels: butchers, California, children, doctors, general hospital, guns, Indiana avenue, marriage, salesmen, Suicide, Thirty-first street, Walnut street police station August 17, 1908 ONE STREET'S SUICIDE MANIA.
Three Women Living on Campbell Street Take Poison.
Carbolic acid and laudanum were the poisons taken as a means of committing suicide by three women living on Campbell street yesterday afternoon and last night. The first case to call out the ambulance and physician was that of Maggie Adams, a negress, 537 Campbell street, who had taken part of 10 cents' worth of carbolic acid. She had been drinking liquor all afternoon and was not in a dangerous condition when Dr. George E. Pipkin arrived. She was not taken to the hospital. Dr. Pipkin said he found but one reason for the woman taking the acid, which was that she had become tired of walking up the long flight of stairs leading from the street to her home.
Call No. 2 occurred about 7 o'clock and proved to be Mrs. Lena Wheeler of 928 Campbell street, who had taken laudanum. She was also treated by Dr. Pipkin and allowed to remain at her home.
At 8 o'clock the hospital received another poisoning case message and Dr. Julius Frischer responded. It was also on Campbell street at No. 532 and proved to be a negress named Pearl Redding. She was extremely nervous while drinking the acid and her face was seared with it. She was taken to the hospital and treated. During the rest of the night the doctors were prepared to handle any other cases of poisoning that might come in.Labels: Campbell street, doctors, poison, Suicide, women August 15, 1908
TWO MORE WOMEN IN SUICIDE LIST.
MORE CASES OF SELF-DESTRUCTION
MOLLIE LAWSON TAKES ACID.
ALICE BUERSKENS FIRES BUL- LET INTO HER BRAIN.
Mrs. Lawson Was Angered Because Husband Stayed Out All Night. Mrs. Buerskens Did Not Want to Be a Burden to Hers.
"To a person suffering from melancholia or to one who is extremely jealous, the reading of so many suicides, especially by the same method, acts as a suggestion and they act --"
Dr. J. Park Neal of the emergency hospital had just given expression to the foregoing opinion last evening when the telephone rang. "Another carbolic acid case," he cried, as he leaped for his satchel. "A woman at 526 Independence avenue."
When the ambulance reached the home of John Davis, 526 Independence avenue, Dr. Neal found Mrs. Mollie Lawson, 27 years old, lying unconscious on a bed. She had drunk probably an ounce and a half of carbolic acid from a bottle only a few minutes before and was in a dying condition. After administering strong antidote at the house the woman was taken to the emergency hospital, where she died at 11 o'clock.
SHE BOUGHT THE ACID.
Mrs. Lawson and her husband, Jake Lawson, a bartender, lived at the home of Mrs. Oscar Downing, 601 Independence avenue. When Mrs. Lawson left her rooms about 6:30 o'clock she seemed cheerful. She went straight to the drug store of Morgan and Burton, northwest corner of Independence and Cherry, where she asked C. B. Burton for some carbolic acid, saying she wanted it for a bedbug mixture.
"When she told me that she was going to mix it with a pint of gasoline," said Mr. Burton, "I gave her three ounces, for which she paid 25 cents. I have seen the woman often, knew she was a neighbor, and, from her pleasant demeanor, thought nothing wrong. There have been so many suicides lately that had she been gloomy or appeared nervous, I would have been on my guard. She laughed as we talked, however."
When she left the drug store Mrs. Lawson saw Mrs. Davis in an upper window over the store. Waving her hand to her, Mrs. Lawson said, "I'm coming up, Minnie." When she entered the room Mrs. Davis was lying on a pallet by the bed. Seating herself, she said, "Go out and get me some chile, will you, John?"
DRANK UNTIL SHE CHOKED.
As Davis left the room Mrs. Lawson arose and walked to the center of the room. Turning up the three ounce bottle, she drank until she choked. Just at that juncture Mrs. Davis entered the room.
"When I asked her what she was doing," said Mrs. Davis, "she made no reply. then I saw the acid on her lips and smelled it. I grabbed for the bottle and she cast it from her and fell back on the bed.
Lawson, who was at the saloon of Joseph Woods, 700 Independence avenue, was quickly summoned. First they tried to get a doctor in the neighborhood, but one could not be found and the ambulance was summoned. They tried to administer whisky to her, but having no stomach tube failed to get it beyond her mouth.
When asked for a reason for his wife's act, Lawson said: "Well, I guess sit was because I stayed away from home all night last night. I was with some friends, and told her so this morning. She upbraided me for it this morning, but by evening I thought she was all right.
Lawson said that his wife was of a jealous disposition, and on Wednesday a week ago after a little quarrel, bought an ounce of carbolic acid. She returned to the house and attempted to drink it in his presence, but the bottle was knocked from her hands. Both of them were burned on the hands and arms at that time. He said his wife read of all the recent suicides and discussed them, especially the death of Anna May Williams on Tuesday.
Late last night oxygen was still being administered to Mrs. Lawson and artificial respiration used to keep her alive. There seems little hope of her pulling through.Labels: Dr J Park Neal, druggists, Independence avenue, Suicide, telephone August 15, 1908 SHOT HERSELF IN THE HEAD.
Mrs. Alice Buerskens Felt She Was a Burden to Her Husband.
With a small bunch of flowers in her left hand and a large revolver in the right, Mrs. Alice Buerskens shot herself in the right temple at 10 o'clock in her home, 1700 East Twenty-eighth street, yesterday morning after sh e had written a note to her husband, Henry Buerskens, a bartender, telling him she loved him too much to be a burden to him any longer. Alice Holmberg, 7 years old, who lives at 2705 Vine street, every day paid a visit to Mrs. Buerskens and when she called at the home yesterday Mrs. Buerskens sent her to the store to purchase stamps. While the child was away from the house Mrs. Buerskens shot herself.
She died instantly and was found lying on the bed by the Holmberg girl when she returned to the house from the store. Alice Holmberg immediately ran to her home, where she notified her mother, who in turn apprised No. 6 police station.
Carpenters employed on a new building across the street from the Buerskens home heard of the pistol shot, but paid no attention to it. The dead woman and her husband had recently moved to the Twenty-eighth street house, and the neighbors did not know their name.
The police found difficulty in securing the woman's name and it was several hours before the husband was notified of the suicide. The husband could not give any reason for the deed, and the note she left to explain her act was not clear. He said that his wife appeared to be in a happy mood when he left her in the morning to go to work. Before her marriage to Henry Buerskens she was Alice Beech and formerly a nurse in the city hospital and in the state hospital at Topeka, Kas. The coroner was notified and he had the body removed to Freeman & Marshall's undertaking rooms.
Mrs. Buerskens left the following note addressed to her husband:
"Dear Henry: You are not to blame for this -- I love you too much to burden you longer. Pray God to forgive me -- love to my own dear mother, father, brother and all my people -- sweetheart, don't you feel bad -- I am sorry I could not help you more -- love and kisses, Alice"
When seen last night, Mr. Buerskens said his wife had been ill for several years and of late had been worse than usual. They had no children and she was alone in the house the greater part of the time, and probably brooded over her illness. He said his wife had never complained of being tired of life and he had no idea she would kill herself.
Neighbors and friends who have known the woman for several years said she had been in the habit of taking opiates to relieve the pain she continually suffered. Mrs. Buerskens's parents reside in Topeka, Kas.Labels: children, illness, No 6 police station, nurses, Suicide, Twenty-eighth street, undertakers, Vine street, women August 14, 1908 ANNA MAY WILLIAMS AT REST.
"Suicide the Result of a Disordered Brain," Says Rev. Moore.
Standing above the body of pretty Anna May Williams, the Rev. Charles W. Moore, pastor of the Institutional church, yesterday said:
"No one is perfect, and all of us have sinned. Then let us not be judges, upon the sins of others. It is well that this sweet little should passes before God for final judgment. God does not hate the sinner, but loathes the sin. It is only those who have sinned that need the Savior and this little soul soul was one of that class. Who can say that his feet have not occasionally strayed from the narrow path? If there be any, let him judge, but beware of the Pharisee.
"I do not hesitate to say that suicides are the result of a disordered brain. No person is in his right mind when he deliberately takes his own life, cutting off the beauties of life on this earth and causing great grief to those who are left behind. But knowing that God is just and His forgiveness is great we commit this soul to His keeping."
The chapel at Forster-Smith's undertaking rooms, where the funeral was held, was crowded with friends of the dead girl and with men and women who had hoped to get a glimpse of the body prompted by curiosity.
As the broken hearted mother was led down to the waiting carriage by her husband, her grief became uncontrollable and she sobbed aloud. Persons a block away were attracted by the cries of the mother and a large crowd of excitement seekers gathered in front of the undertaker's establishment.Labels: Funeral, Institutional church, ministers, Suicide, undertakers August 14, 1908
POISON ENDS LIFE OF GIRL OF TWELVE.
FRIEND OF ANNA MAY WIL- LIAMS A SUICIDE.
BROODED OVER CHUM'S END.
"ANNA WAS PERSECUTED," SAID VIVIAN BURDEN.
Then She Went to a Drug Store and Purchased 10 Cents Worth of Carbolic Acid as the Wil- liams Girl Had Done.
Did the fact that Anna May Williams committed suicide prey upon the mind of 12-year-old Vivian Burden until she yesterday took her own young life by the same method -- carbolic acid? No other reason but mental suggestion has been ascribed as a cause for the girl's death by her family and the coroner.
Little Vivian had gone to the Woodland school with Anna May Williams, the 15-year-old girl who killed herself Tuesday afternoon at her home, 816 Euclid avenue. A discussion of the number of suicides, especially with carbolic acid, took place at the breakfast table in the Burden home yesterday. The death of Ana May Williams, Vivian's acquaintance, was, of course, discussed more than the rest.
"The girl was persecuted," she said "That's the way with step-papas, anyhow."
The child seemed much wrought up over the matter, but as she cooled down afterwards, little was tought of it.
NO TROUBLE TO GET ACID.
Yesterday afternoon Vivian left her house at 800 Lydia avenue, and went to the drug store of E. D. Francisco, Eighth street and Tracy avenue.
"I want 10 cents worth of carbolic acid," she said. "My mamma wants it to make roach poison."
The child, for she was nothing more, sallied when she said this, and seemed restless, as children do, to get away. "Before she left, however, she bought an ice cream soda and ate it at the counter. With the deadly poison clenched in her childish hands she went to the Bazaar, a store at the corner of Independence and Tracy avenues. There she took some time in selecting a pretty doll for her 5-year-old sister, Helen.
All of this took up about an hour, so that Vivian arrived back home about 3 p. m. Calling her little sister she gave her the doll, for which she had paid 35 cents and seemed delighted in the little one's pleasure when the doll was placed in her hands and she was told it was all hers.
No one suspected there was anything wrong with Vivian when she went upstairs to her room. Louise, 17, and Myrtle, 19 years old sisters of Vivian, were busy in the kitchen when Vivian ran in and said: "Call a doctor quick; I've taken some of mamma's roach poison." The sisters at first thought she was joking, but when they saw the condition of her lips and smelled the deadly carbolic acid they were thrown into consternation.
DOCTOR'S EFFORTS WERE IN VAIN.
Dr. Oliver F. Faires, who has an office over Francisco's drug store, was then summoned, and though he worked over the child until 5 o'clock, she died, having been long unconscious before the end came. Coroner George B. Thompson was summoned and sent the body to Newcomer's undertaking rooms.
Vivian Burden was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Burden. The father, a butcher, was not at home, being employed in Bartlesville, Ok. He was notified of his child's rash act and left for home last night.
"What cause can you assign for your daughter, Vivian, taking carbolic acid?" was asked of Mrs. Burden last night.
"I cannot believe the girl committed suicide because of any trouble either at home or with her playmates," the mother replied. "She was of a very happy and bright disposition and was never moody." Vivian regularly scanned the newspapers each day and was particularly interested in stories about suicides. The sad girl named Anna May Williams may have inspired her," the mother said, "as she constantly talked about the girl and the poor girl's sad life."Labels: butchers, children, Coroner Thompson, doctors, druggists, Eighth street, Independence avenue, newspapers, retailers, Suicide, Tracy avenue August 12, 1908
HEIRESS ENDS LIFE WITH ACID.
ONCE WON PRIZE AS MOST BEAU- TIFUL GIRL IN MISSOURI.
WEDDING WAS SET FOR TODAY.
DOCTOR PRONOUNCED HER DEAD 3 HOURS BEFORE SHE DIED.
Mother of May Williams Had Her Committed to Reform School. Girl Took Poison Rath- er Than Go.
On the night before her wedding, and on the eve of being sent to the girl's reform school, pretty little May Williams committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid in the presence of her mother and Mrs. W. W. Smith, an officer of the juvenile court. Miss Williams was heiress to $15,000 and her life within the last three months had been a checkered one.
Two months ago, a few weeks after her mother had married Sol Mead, a railway conductor, Miss Williams was sent to the juvenile court, charged with being incorrigible. Mrs. Smith, the probation officer of the Detention home, thought the girl should be in a better place than the home. Consequently, according to Mrs. Alice Page, the matron of the Y. W. C. A. home at Eighth and Harrison streets, arrangements were made whereby the girl was taken to the Y. W. C. A. home. Mrs. Page found the girl to be anything but incorrigible.
A short while ago it became rumored that Miss Williams was to be married today. Shortly after the rumor became public, and the girl admitted that she intended to marry this morning, she was taken from the Y. W. C. A. home and hauled back to the Detention home. At her mother's request the reform school authorities decided to take the girl and to keep her for an indefinite length of time.
SOMEONE WAS NEGLIGENT.
The threat of the reform school had been made to the girl time and again by her mother, Mrs. Mead, and each time Miss Williams had replied that she would die before she went to the institution. Mrs. W. W. Smith accompanied her to her home, 816 Euclid avenue, in order that the girl might pack her trunk. On the way home the girl told Mrs. Smith that she was going to commit suicide. After the two had reached the Mead home, Miss Williams sat in the parlor and talked to her mother of the reformatory. Rising, she said:
"I will die first, and it will be before your eyes."
Whether any attention was paid to the girl's remarks has not been learned. At any rate, she was allowed to leave the presence of the court probationary officer and her mother, with the threat of suicide fresh upon her lips, and over fifteen minutes passed before she was missed. The court officer was present all of that time, and it is said she had heard the threat which the girl made.
In the meantime Miss Williams had gone to the Woodland pharmacy, three blocks away, convinced the druggist that her mother wanted three ounces of carbolic acid, and walked back home again. When she reached her home she walked up the back steps and raised the bottle of carbolic acid to her lips. She had heard footsteps approaching and desired to be successful in her attempt to end her life. At that moment Mrs. Smith caught sight of the girl and called to Mrs. Mead, the mother. With both women looking at her, standing as if rooted to the floor, the girl drank the contents of the bottle and then murmured:"Now, I suppose you are satisfied."
Instantly the probation officer ran to he 'phone and called a doctor and neighbors. Someone called the police ambulance and Dr. J. Park Neal.
DOCTOR THOUGHT HER DEAD.
Dr. A. H. Walls, who lived in the immediate neighborhood, was called. He replied that he could not get to the Mead home for twenty-five minutes. Ten of those twenty-five had elapsed when someone called the police ambulance. The ambulance made a rapid run and arrived at the home of the Williams girl shortly after Dr. Walls had arrived. As Dr. J. Park Neal, probably the most successful combater of carbolic acid suicides in Kansas City, jumped from his ambulance he was met by Mrs. Smith and Dr. Walls. They told him that the girl was dead an d that nothing could be done for her. Taking Dr. Walls's word for it, and knowing Mrs. Smith as a court officer, he did not attend the girl, but went back to the emergency hospital.
As the ambulance turned the corner of Eighth street an undertaker's wagon appeared around the corner of Ninth street. No one knows who called it. By that time Dr. E. R. Curry arrived and pronounced the girl alive. She had been alive all of the time and lived for three hours after she had taken the poison.
"Could she have been saved had you attended her when you were at the house?" was asked Dr. Neal.
"I believe she could," he said. "In fact, I know she could have been saved. But I took Mrs. Smith's and Dr. Wall's word for final. I had no reason to believe the girl was still alive."
Dr. Neal could not understand why he was turned away while there was hope that the girl might not be dead.
Long before the girl was really dead, another undertaker's ambulance had driven up to the front door, and the neighbors looked on and wondered. No one could be found who would admit calling the second undertaker's ambulance.
Mrs. Mead, the girl's mother, says she is heart broken and will see no one. A doctor was called to see her.
May Williams was a beautiful young girl of uncertain age. Her mother swore in court that May was but 15 years old, while May swore that she was 17. Had the girl been 15 years old three years would have expired before she attained her majority; 17 years of age meant only one year until she came into the $15,000 which her father had left her.
WON A BEAUTY PRIZE.
Last spring May Williams won the prize in St. Louis as being the most beautiful unmarried woman in Missouri. The prize was given by a local newspaper. Everywhere she went her beauty was remarked upon. In St. Louis, say those who knew her there, she was not considered incorrigible, nor even wayward.
Mrs. Mead was divorced from her first husband and May lived with him until his death. In his will he left May $15,000, and, it is said, cut off his divorced wife without one cent. At the time of the Williams divorce, which occurred in St. Louis, the whole family history was aired.
Mr. Mead, who is a conductor on the Chicago & Alton railroad, has not been notified of his step-daughter's death. He is expected in from his run this morning at 10 o'clock.Labels: detention home, Dr J Park Neal, druggists, Eighth street, Euclid avenue, juvenile court, Ninth street, probate, St Louis, Suicide, undertakers, women, YWCA August 6, 1908 TOOK POISON WHILE EATING HIS SUPPER.
Fred Guy Died in Front of "Saffire" Restaurant.
Frequenting regularly the "Saffire" restaurant, 908 Walnut street, where his divorced wife, Frances, was employed as a waitress, Fred Guy, 31 years old, about 9 o'clock last night ended his troubles by drinking nearly two ounces of carbolic acid and dying a few moments later on the sidewalk just outside of the restaurant door, where he had been removed by the proprietor, J. W. McCracken.
Guy entered the restaurant about 8 o'clock last night and was given a seat near the center of the room. He ordered a light meal from Mrs. Belle Smith, a waitress, and then motioned to his wife to come to his table.
When she reached his side she smelled the carbolic acid, which he had evidently drunk before entering the restaurant. She asked him what he had done and he replied by shaking his head, but did not speak. She ran to the front of the restaurant and informed Mr. McCracken that the man had taken poison. The manager said he believed the man was drunk and led him out of the restaurant. On reaching the street Guy dropped a bottle which had contained the acid, and then McCracken summoned the ambulance.
Dr. George H. Pipken of the emergency hospital gave emergency treatment to Guy on the street where he had fallen, but he was beyond relief when the doctor arrived. Mrs. Guy said last night that she had married Fred Guy in Leavenworth, Kas., nearly three years ago, but had obtained a divorce from him about four months ago.
She said that he daily importuned her to return, but that she had refused to listen to his peleading.Labels: Divorce, doctors, Leavenworth, poison, restaurants, Suicide, Walnut Street July 30, 1908 TO MAKE CARBOLIC ACID HARD TO BUY.
DRUGGISTS WANT A LAW REGU- LATING SALE OF POISON.
Would Sell a Diluted, Harmless Form to the General Trade, and the Strong Drug on Pre- scriptions Only.
It is going to be harder to commit suicide with carbolic acid in Kansas City in a little while.
The dictum has gone forth from the Kansas City Retail Druggists' Association. Alarmed by the number of deaths from this drug, the association, at a meeting last week, appointed a legislative committee to draft an ordinance for presentation to the council. This measure, which is to be patterned closely after the law in force in Chicago, will to a great extent do away with the drug as a means of self-destruction.
At the present time any child may buy the acid, which really is no acid at all, but a form of alcohol called phenol. Druggists say they dare not refuse to sell the drug for fear of losing much of their trade, as carbolic acid is extensively employed in cleansing. Much as they hate to serve this trade, they find they must do it in order to hold their customers for other lines in the drug trade.
The new ordinance, which is to be presented for introduction in the council as soon as it has been approved by the legislative committee and presented to the Jackson County Medical Association for its indorsement, hedges the sale of the drug about with rigid restrictions. By its terms, the ordinary carbolic acid to be sold over the counters will retain all its qualities as an antiseptic and for cleansing. It will be robbed, however, of its power to destroy human life, and in a very simple way.
DILUTE THE DRUG.
While carbolic acid is a form of alcohol, the best antidote for the poison, curiously enough, is alcohol. So the druggists propose to sell, or rather to compel themselves to sell, a mixture of 1-3 carbolic acid, 1-3 alcohol and 1-3 glycerin. If anybody tries to commit suicide with this mixture, he will have nothing but a bad taste in the mouth and perhaps a little nausea.
The real carbolic acid, under this ordinance, may be sold only on the prescription of a regularly licensed physician. Exceptions are the sale of more than one gallon to one person or the handling of the product in a commercial way by wholesale houses and the like.
All offenses against the ordinance are made, as in the case of Chicago, misdemeanors, punishable by fines of from $10 to $25 or by imprisonment of from thirty days to six months.
To do away with abuses of the prescription, the ordinance makes it unlawful to forge prescriptions or to put on them the wrong date or to misrepresent in any way. These offenses are also made misdemeanors and punishable by the same fine.
THAT'S NOT COMFORTABLE.
"Druggists have decided that they must have some protection in this matter," said D. V. Whitney, president of the druggists' association, who conducts a store at 3722 East Twelfth street. "It is no comfortable feeling to know, if you are a druggist, that you have sold carbolic acid which has resulted in a person's death. But druggists have no way to get out of such sales except by passing a law compelling themselves to do what they already want to.
"Accidents happen easily. For instance, a child may be sent to a store to buy carbolic acid. On the way home it may drop the bottle, and in picking up the fragments sustain severe burns. The modified drug will not burn. It is a case in which the druggists are trying to secure legislation to protect the general public. The stores themselves will make no more profit for the diluted carbolic acid costs for the druggists as much as the strong drug.
"Our ordinance provides that prescriptions must give the name and address of both patient and doctor. These prescriptions must be open at all times to the inspection of the coroner, the police and the city and county authorities."Labels: Chicago, druggists, organizations, poison, Suicide, Twelfth street July 24, 1908
MELANCHOLY MULE COMMITS SUICIDE.
OLD JIM HAD GRIEVED OVER LOSS OF HIS MATE.
Walked to Edge of Steep Embank- ment Yesterday in Kansas City, Kas., and Deliberately Plunged to Death.
"Old Jim," the ancient mule which has graced the George R. Brindle grading camp in Kansas City, Kas., for many a year, will no longer be ween there. Weighed down with sorrow from the loss of his mate, Baldy, sold one year ago, and perhaps still smarting from a sever beating administered to him Monday, he threw himself over a sixteen-foot embankment at Baltimore street and Pacific avenue at 5:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. When members of the gang cutting through a street there reached "Old Jim" he was dead.
The case of the mule may be the first on record where good authorities agree that the intent of the deed was suicide. John Hartman, member of the city street department, George R. Brindle, owner of the animal, and, lastly, Dr. W. J. Guilfoil, 835 State avenue, a well known veterinarian, declare Jim knew what he was doing and that he cut the thread of his own life deliberately.
Jim was purchased by the Brindle street grading concern ten years ago, when he was a colt, 2 years old. He was found gentle and tractable, Brindle said last night. When he was large enough to take a place among the other beasts of burden in the camp he was so employed in company with Baldy, already proficient and learned to an enviable degree.
The two worked steadily together, Brindle says, until a year ago. Then the grief at separation made a different mule out of Jim and he lost all interest in work. Coupled with a lean and aged horse of plebeian parentage, judging from his mangy coat, he dragged the heavy wheel scraper about, his head bent low, his ears wagging discontentedly.
Last Saturday night Jim's driver approached Brindle and complained of the conduct of the mule.
"He isn't the mule he used to be," said he, contemplating the ragged animal munching hay from one of the racks.
"No, he isn't," Brindle says he told the driver. Then he assured him that "Old Jim" would soon be retired on full rations, dismissing the matter from his mind.
Yesterday afternoon the mule was laid off, and was noticed several times standing near the sixteen-foot embankment on Pacific avenue left by the cutting through of the street. At 5:30 o'clock he walked to the brink of the bank and carefully slid his front feet over.
Most of the laborers, tired from the day's work, were sitting around the wagons. They saw the act and realizing Jim's danger, shouted "Whoah!" in a chorus. It was too late. Before anyone could run to his rescue he had disappeared over the edge with a farewell wave of his bushy tail.
Dr. Guilfoil, who does the regular work for the camp's animals, was called by Brindle over the telephone. In regard to the case he said last night he had no doubt that it was a pure and simple case of suicide, such as occur among human beings. He stated that all the evidence heard by him seems to indicate this. He saw no plausible reason why it should not be true.
Labels: animals, doctors, Kansas City Kas, State avenue, Suicide July 6, 1908 MENTAL TORTURE DROVE TO DEATH.
BRIDEGROOM THOMASON MAY HAVE BEEN A BIGAMIST.
FICTITIOUS MURDER TALES.
TOLD TO HIS WIFE, BUT THEY ARE DISCREDITED.
Young Man Thought He Was Di- vorced When He Married Miss O'Shea -- Thomaon Known as Joseph Pain.
Did Joseph Thomason, husband of two days, kill himself because his conscience reminded him of boyish indiscretions, or did he take his life for some other reason?
That is the problem confronting friends and acquaintances of the young man since he turned a pistol on himself because he thought himself unworthy to be the life companion of the young woman he had married. On the afternoon before the tragedy the young man told his wife that eight years before, when he was only 14 years old, he had slain another. One of these killings, he said, was justified by the unwritten law. He did not tell the cause for the other.
"I am not worthy of you," he told her.
His words troubled the bride but she did not think he meant them seriously. Only a few minutes later, when she entered the room they occupied, he shot himself. A note, on which only the word "mother" could be distinguished, was left on a table beside the bed on which he died.
A more probably reason for the suicide is advanced by the foreman at the American Sash and Door Company, under whom Thomason worked for the last year. "Thomason told me," said the foreman yesterday, "that he had been married before, when he lived down in Louisiana. He and his wife separated and he thought that she had gotten a divorce. Recently he discovered that no divorce had been granted, and that he was still a married man.But he was already pledged to Miss Pearl Alma O'Shea, now his widow, and he had not the heart to tell her. They went to Leavenworth and were married. The next day Thomason worked, but on the Fourth he had plenty of time to think it over.
"I think it was then that what he had done horrified him. He realized that he was a bigamist and, if discovered, it would be better for him and for his wife that he had never been born. He bought the pistol, told his bride a fictitious story about crimes committed many years ago, and blew out his brains."
At the sash and door factory Thomason went by the name of Joseph Pain. He was a member of the Stair Builders and Cabinet Makers' Union No. 1635, but his widow will receive no benefit because the insurance policy was allowed to lapse. Had he made a payment Friday night she would have received $200. He used the name of Pain on his union card. He made no secret about having two names, saying that Pain was his middle name.
Thomason earned $18 a week. He was in good health and so far as known had no bad habits. His wife was young and pretty. Everything seemed to point to a happy married life for the young couple.
To make the theory that Thomason committed suicide from remorse on account of alleged murders of his boyhood more improbably, his associates say he was not given to brooding. He was cheerful and liked to have a good time in an innocent way. On the night on which he killed himself a crowd had been invited for a merrymaking at the house at 3102 East Twentieth street.
Thomason's parents were notified by telegraph of their son's death. A reply was received yesterday afternoon saying that they would be unable to come to attend the funeral. They live in Hot Springs, Ark. The funeral arrangements have not been made. The body is still at home.Labels: bigamy, Leavenworth, Suicide, Twentieth street July 5, 1908
WEDDED 2 DAYS; KILLS HIMSELF
FIRES BULLET INTO BRAIN IN PRESENCE OF WIFE.
AFTER BIDDING HER GOODBYE.
NO REASON FOR JOS. P. THOMP- SON'S ACT IS KNOWN.
Married Pearl A. O'Shea on July 2. It Was a Mild Elopement, and Her Parents Didn't Ap- prove of Wedding.
One July 2 Joseph P. Thompson and Miss Pearl A. O'Shea took a trip to Leavenworth and were married by a justice of the peace.
Last night at 7 o'clock when the young wife entered her husband's room at 3102 East Twentieth street he said goodby to her and, pointing a pistol at his right temple, shot himself in the brain.
Thompson was a woodturner and worked for the American Sash and Door Company. He was 26 years old and had been in the city three years. A quiet young man, he never spoke much about himself to anyone, but there were rumors that he had once been married before.
For the last year, Thompson had boarded at the house of Mrs. Alma D'Avis, 3102 East Twentieth street, and it was there that he met the girl that afterward became his wife. Mrs. D'Avis has weak eyes, and requires the attention of a nurse. Her niece, Pearl O'Shea, was a nurse, so Mrs. D'Avis had her come and stay with her. That was two months ago. An attachment sprang up between the young people living in the same house, and the runaway marriage was the result.
After the marriage they told the girl's mother and he stepfather, John Reed, who lives at Twentieth an Harrison streets. The latter did not approve of the union at all. the girl was their only support, they said, and they had lost much of their property in the recent flood.
This is the only reason that the young man's friends can give for the suicide. Yesterday afternoon he came home, apparently in a normal frame of mind. He was not known as a drinking man, and was said to have no bad habits. He did not even own a revolver, so that he must have especially purchased the one he used.
Last night the young wife was hysterical with grief and had to have the care of physicians. The tragic ending of the short romance of her life affected her so seriously that the doctors fear for her mind.
Thompson came to this city three years ago from Hot Springs, Ark. He was a member of the lodge 73 of the West Side branch, W. O. W., and was well liked by all his associates. At no time did his actions give any trace of insanity.Labels: boarding house, flood, Harrison street, Leavenworth, lodges, marriage, mental health, nurses, Suicide, Twentieth street June 30, 1908 TWO MEN TAKE CARBOLIC ACID.
One Because He's Asked to Pay a Debt; Other's Reason Unknown.
Roy Kirk, 31 years old, a contracting plasterer, who gave his residence as 407 West Fourteenth street, was taken to the emergency hospital about 5 o'clock last evening to be treated for carbolic acid poisoning. When Dr. J. P. Neal examined Kirk he found that there was more of the acid on his face than inside the mouth. Joseph Blake and Kirk, who had been friends for a long time, had quarreled because Blake had asked Kirk to pay a debt. They entered a saloon at 903 Wyandotte street and drank together. Then Kirk is said to have left suddenly and returned with an ounce of carbolic acid.
"If you don't forgive me for what I've done I'll call it all off and take this," he said.
Then Kirk attempted to drink the acid. Blake struck the bottle from his hand, spilling the acid over Kirk's face.
About 9 o'clock last night an old man was found breathing heavily in a bunk at the Helping Hand Institute, 406 Main street. Dr. J. P. Neal was called from the emergency hospital across the street. Strong antidotes were at once administered and after an hour's hard work the old man was declared out of danger. By his bunk was found a bottle that had contained carbolic acid. On the books of the institution the old man was registered as Jeff Smith but that is not thought to be correct. The man's throat was so badly corroded that last night he was not able to talk.Labels: doctors, emergency hospital, Fourteenth street, Helping Hand, Main street, poison, saloon, Suicide, Wyandotte street June 22, 1908 FIRED A BULLET INTO HIS BRAIN.
CHARLES H. LITTLE, LIVE STOCK BROKER, HIS OWN SLAYER.
HIS WIFE FINDS HIM DYING.
DEED COMMITTED WHILE STAND- ING BEFORE A MIRROR.
Worry Over Business Affairs Caused by Inactivity of Trade During the High Water Is Given as the Cause.
Awakened by a pistol shot at 6 o'clock yesterday morning, Mrs. Charlotte Little rushed into the adjoining room of her home in Bristol, a suburb of Kansas City, where she found her husband, Charles H. Little, lying on the floor unconscious with a bullet wound in the right temple. Mrs. Little ran next door to the residence of Dr. C. W. Martin who hurried to the ho use. After a hasty examination Dr. Martin summoned Dr. P. M. Agee of Independence, and the two physicians remained with the wounded man until he breathed his last, three hours later. From the position of the body on the floor Mr. Little had evidently stood in front of the bureau mirror and directed the aim of the weapon. A thorough search of the room revealed no note or message that he might have left explaining why he shot himself.
His wife and friends said yesterday that the dead man had never mentioned committing suicide and they could not give any reason for his doing so. Mr. Little's home life was pleasant and there was no family reasons which would cause him to want to take his life.
Mr. Little was 34 years old and was born at Des Moines, Ia., He came to Kansas City, Kas., when a small boy and was reared in that city. For a number of years he held a responsible position in the executive department of the Armour Packing Company at the local plant, resigning his position there to become associated with the E. S. Nixon Live Stock Commission Company at the stock yards. About two months ago he quit the employ of the Nixon company to engage in business for himself as a speculator at the yards. He had been fairly successful as a speculator, but was caught with a good sized bunch of cattle on his hands when the present high water destroyed the market and stopped trading at the yards. He took these cattle to his home near Bristol and placed them in a pasture which he had leased.
He was of a very nervous temperament, and ever since business at the yards was suspended he worried. His friends at the yards state that he was almost a physical wreck when he let the employ of the Nixon firm, and, instead of taking a vacation for the purpose of recuperation, he plunged into hard work again.
Mr. Little was a thirty-second degree Mason and past master of Wyandotte lodge No. 3, A. F. and A. M. He was also a member of the Shrine lodge at Leavenworth, a charter member of Wyandotte lodge No. 440, B. P. O. E., and belonged to Granite camp, Modern Woodmen of America. Besides his wife and child he is survived by his mother, one brother and two sisters. The body will be taken to the home of his sister, Mrs. Walter Ladd, 654 Washington avenue, Kansas City, Kas., today. The funeral will be held from there tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 o'clock.Labels: lodges, stock yards, Suicide June 12, 1908 BECAUSE HE HAD THE BLUES.
W. H. Bradley Drank Cloroform in Penn Valley Park.
Choosing Penn Valley park as a picturesque place in which to die, W. H. Bradley, 35 years old, 2937 Baltimore avenue, attempted suicide there yesterday afternoon by drinking two ounces of chloroform. He was seen lying in the park by a passer-by who called the police.
Bradley was taken hurriedly to the general hospital where he was revived by Dr. R. A. Shiras. Bradley says he wished to end his life because things looked blue.Labels: Penn Valley park, Suicide June11, 1908 LITTLE GIRL IS A SUICIDE.
Daisy Garnier, 14 Years Old, Shoots Herself -- No Cause Known.
Daisy Garnier, aged 14, the adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Garnier, 1213 Minnesota avenue, Kansas City, Kas., shot and instantly killed herself yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock at the home of her adopted parents. The girl in some manner obtained a revolver and, going into the basement of the house, placed the pistol to her head and fired a ball through her brain. No cause for the suicide is known.Labels: children, Kansas City Kas, Minnesota avenue, Suicide June 3, 1908
RIVER GIVES UP MURDER MYSTERY.
JOHN MASON HAD BEEN KILLED BY BLOW ON HEAD.
ROBBED OF JEWELS AND MONEY.
POLICE CLOSE ON THE TRAIL OF HIS MURDERERS.
Ray County Coroner Had Overlooked Important Clues to Dead Man's Identity -- Body to Be Exhumed.
When A. E. Dudley of 1825 Grand avenue, went to Camden, Ray county, Missouri, yesterday to look at three bodies found in the river there Sunday and Monday, he did not find the body of his friend, Fred Noosem, his partner in business, but he brought back the description of a man who disappeared here in January. Detectives Charles Halderman and James Fox say that it is no other than John Mason, known as "Dutch." His description and apparel prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt, and a deep hole in the skull behind the left ear indicates that he had been murdered.
Mason was a horse trader who owned twelve horses, a hack, a brougham and a runabout. He lived with a woman named Maude Wilson at 1403 Main street. On January 26, last, Maud Wilson told the detectives that she and Mason counted his money.
"He had with him just then $585," she said. "He wore a horseshoe pin in which were fifteen diamonds. The pin was locked in a lavender tie with a patent fastener. He also wore a solitaire diamond ring, a gold ring and a fine gold watch and chain. After he left my house that day he was never seen again to my knowledge."
When Dudley discovered that one of the bodies had on clothing bearing Kansas City marks he took a complete description of everything. Here is the description, which tallies exactly with the missing Mason: "He was between 24 and 26 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. He was smooth shaved and had dark brown hair. There was no jewelry on the body, but in the tie is the remains of a pin from which the setting has been nipped. The pin is locked with a patent fastener."
Halderman and Fox say that there is no doubt that this is the body of the missing horse trader. Dudley says that the coroner of Ray county buried the body without a coffin and took no cognizance of the many identification remarks. The other two bodies found there have been claimed by relatives and removed. One was a suicide from Kansas City, Kas., and the other that of Harry Tuoroff of Independence, drowned while hunting ducks near Sibley, Mo.
There is not one man in a thousand who would have taken any further notice of the body after he saw that it was not the one he sought. It happens that Dudley formerly was a detective, and that instinct led him to take notice of these things and report them to the police here, a matter which the Ray county coroner had overlooked. Fox and Halderman have been on the case about six weeks. Arrests are expected in a few days when a sensation may be looked for.
The Ray county coroner will be ordered to exhume and hold the body of Mason. The detectives on the case say that from the first they suspected that Mason had been murdered, but until Dudley came in yesterday with the fact that the body had been found, it would have been hard to prove. The first thing to establish is the corpus delicti, the presence of the murdered body. Now that that is established they expect plain sailing.Labels: detectives, drowning, Grand avenue, jewelry, Main street, Missouri river, murder, Sibley, Suicide June 2, 1908
NO MORE PENNY ICE FOR THE CITY'S POOR.
SALVATION ARMY WILL DISCON- TINUE THIS CHARITY.
All Effort and Funds Will Be Cen- tered in the Summer Camp for Women and Children -- Dull in Suicide Bureau.
There will be no penny ice this summer.
The Salvation Army has decided that the money usually expended in this manner will be devoted to other and greater needs, and consequently that plan, which has been so popular among the poor people in the slums, will be discontinued.
The announcement was made yesterday, and when it becomes known to those who have had the benefit of this charitable work a wail of protest undoubtedly will go up. Penny ice has been a boon to the poor of the tenement districts for several years. The people in those districts have begun to look forward to the time when the Salvation Army would start its penny ice wagons.
The idea of the Army officers is to concentrate their work a little more. The time that has been devoted heretofore in the penny ice work will be devoted to the summer camp. Preparations for establishing the camp are already being made and by July 1 it will be ready to accommodate guests. The camp will be located on the Swope grounds south of Swope park as heretofore Preparations are being made to accommodate at least fifty mothers and their children for a week or ten days at a time this year This is on a somewhat larger scale than in previous years, and the officers feel that all the time at their disposal will be necessary to keep the camp going.
Another feature of the Salvation Army's work that may be discontinued after a time is the anti-suicide bureau. "We haven't had a case for months," one of the officers said yesterday.
If this bureau is discontinued it will not be because of a lack of its need, but because it is not being made use of by those who need its services. When the idea was new the bureau was brought into prominence frequently, but for many months there has not been a single application for its services.
"Nevertheless, we are always ready and willing to render services whenever called upon," said Brigadier Blanche Cox yesterday afternoon.Labels: charity, ice, Salvation Army, Suicide, Swope park June 1, 1908
SUICIDE FALLS AT FEET OF HUSBAND.
MRS. HARRY SETTLE SWALLOWS ACID AT HER HOTEL.
HAD JUST MADE UP QUARREL.
COUPLE WAS HERE VISITING MR. SETTLE'S PARENTS.
All Sunday Morning He Pleaded Out- side Her Door and at Last Believed She For- gave Him.
As an outcome of several months of domestic troubles, Mrs. Mildred Settle, daughter of Richard L. Long, a prominent real estate dealer of Fort Worth, Tex., 18 years of age, committed suicide in her room at the Humbolt hotel at Twelfth and Locust streets yesterday afternoon by drinking carbolic acid. Mrs. Settle and her husband, Harry Settle, had been in Kansas City since Saturday at midnight, having come here to visit Mr Settle's parents, who live at 1308 Oak street. They went immediately to the Humbolt hotel, and nothing more was seen of them until late yesterday morning.
Settle appeared in the dining room of the hotel for breakfast at a late hour without his young wife. After his breakfast he went back to their room to see why she had not come down for breakfast. He found the door locked, and to his knocking he received no reply.
He called repeatedly, and she finally told him to leave her, as she wished nothing more from him. Surprised at this treatment, he began to plead with her, but the young wife would speak to him no more.
After urging a reconciliation for some time, he left the hotel and went to his mother's home. He enlisted her services, and together they went to the hotel, and stood outside of the door, first one pleading with the girl, and then the other. At last Mrs. Settle opened the door and let them in. Mrs. Settle then left the husband with his wife, and soon it appeared that all the trouble was over between them. They left the hotel together, and appeared in a happy frame of mind.
About noon they returned and went directly to their room. Mr. Settle left and went to his mother's home. As he passed out of sight his wife walked form the hotel to Hucke's drug store at Twelfth and Oak streets, where she purchased a vial of carbolic acid.
SHE RAN THROUGH STREETS.
Soon she was seen running through the halls, out of doors and into her father-in-law's home. In the room she found her husband talking with his father and mother. She ran directly up to him, gasping out an almost inarticulate cry: "Oh Harry, Harry," and then fell to the floor at his feet.
The family physician was called and tried to revive the fast falling girl by administering vinegar. His treatment was without beneficial effect and her husbans sent in a call for the police ambulance. At the Walnut street station, the nearest one, the doctor had gone out for lunch, but the ambulance was sent nevertheless.
When it arrived at the house where the unconscious girl lay, she was hastily carried into the carriage and orders were given for a record drive to the emergency hospital, fourteen blocks away.
The girl was almost beyond medical aid before they had reached the hospital and died a few moments after having been taken in charge by the police surgeon.
Just before Mrs. Settle left the hotel she had opened her door and called to Mrs. A. D. Buyas, wife of the proprietor, asking her the date of the month. Remembering this incident, Mrs. Buyas went into the dead girl's room, expecting to find an explanatory note of some kind. As she passed through the door she noticed a leaf of charred paper in the center of the floor with a half burnt match beside it. She stooped to see if she could make out what was written on the sheet and succeeded in deciphering the last word, which was "dead."
BURNED FAREWELL NOTE.
Apparently Mrs. Settle had written a note telling of her suicidal intentions and at the last moment decided to leave it all to the imagination. Mr. Settle says that he was not greatly surprised at his wife's actions, for on the occasion of their last years' visit to Kansas City his wife had bought a bottle of laudanum and announced her intention of committing suicide. He says that he was able to persuade her not to do so at that time, but the threat had been ever ready with her since.
Mr. and Mrs. Settle had lived for two years on a ranch near Amarillo, Tex. While on the ranch his wife had developed a strange fascination, according to him, of breaking broncos. At the beginning of her riding she was thrown violently to the ground, sustaining a serious injury about the head. Her husband thinks that this fall caused her to become despondent and in constant ill health, which made her very irritable at times. This fact he believes caused her to magnify the family troubles, which have frequently arisen.
Harry Settle was well known in college football circles, having been a tackle on the University Medical school football team for three years, 1899-1901. At that time he was reputed to be one of the best tackles in the West. He is a brother of Mrs. E. J. Gump of 105 Spring street in this city.Labels: druggists, hotels, Locust street, Oak street, sports, Spring street, Suicide, Twelfth street, visitors May 10, 1908 SAYS HE DIDN'T WANT TO DIE.
James Rowland Revises His Story Now That He Is Well.
James Rowland, 14 years old, 1516 Harrison street, was discharged from the general hospital yesterday afternoon as out of danger. He was taken to his home by his father.
Young Rowland is the boy who, late last month, was knocked from the north approach of the Hannibal bridge and fell thirty feet. A step on the baggage car of the Rock Island train which struck him fractured his skull on the left side and the fall broke and dislocated his right arm. Drs. J. P. Neal and H. R. Conway trephined the lad's skull at the emergency hospital an hour after the accident, and to that quick work the boy owes his life. They removed several pieces of bone which were pressing on the brain.
On the night the boy was injured, he was walking across the bridge from Harlem when James Knowlden, a farmer, called to him and said, "Look out! There's a train coming across the bridge."
Not seeing the train himself, and, being of a joking turn of mind,, Rowland called back: "Oh, I don't care. I want to die anyway." On that account it was believed that the boy had tried to commit suicide. He says now that he made the remark just in fun and did not see the train until it was upon him.
Rowland said that on that day he played "hookey" from school and was induced by a boy called "Rusty" to go to Harlem. After reaching there, Rowland changed his mind and concluded to go home. He had only 5 cents left and intended to go home by way of the toll bridge. He walked onto the trestle approach instead of the wagon road below.Labels: children, doctors, general hospital, Hannibal bridge, Harlem, Harrison street, railroad, Suicide April 4, 1908
SHE TRIES SUICIDE AFTER THREE WEEKS.
MARRIED LIFE IS BITTER TO 16-YEAR-OLD BRIDE.
Mrs. Rowena Townsend Drinks Bi- Chloride of Mercury at Her Father's Bedside -- She May Die.
Three weeks of married life, one week of separation and an attempt to commit suicide last night, ended a chapter in the life of Mrs. Rowena Townsend, 1101 Michigan avenue. Mrs. Townsend is 16 years of age and was married to Edward Townsend, who is but four years her senior, at the home of her mother on the night of March 4. Townsend is a shipping clerk in the Kansas City Elevator Company.
After the young couple were married they made their home with the bride's parents and, to outward appearances, were perfectly contented. The mother, Mrs. James Smith, said that she had never seen a happier couple and that she began to regret having made objections to the marriage. After three weeks of this apparent bliss, Townsend failed to return to his home after working hours. Mrs. Smith then asked her daughter if there had been any trouble between them and Rowena replied that she did not care to discuss the matter; that it was an affair strictly between themselves and that she would never tell anyone what the trouble was.
After Townsend's disappearance Rowena did not seem to be in particular low spirits and went about the house laughing and singing; she never mentioned her husband's name. Yesterday afternoon she went down town after having told her mother that she was going shopping, and purchased two ounces of bi-chloride of mercury. She did not return home for supper, but her mother was not disturbed, believing that the girl had gone out to dine with one of her girl friends.
Shortly after 8 o'clock Rowena returned and walked into the room where her aged father was lying, dangerously ill; looking long at him, she turned her back and drank the contents of the phial which she had purchased. Immediately she began to choke and strangle. Mr. Smith called his wife, who was in another room. She hastened to answer her husband's summons and found her daughter lying on the floor by the bed.
Mrs. Smith thought that her daughter was in a fit, and dragged her out into the hall to the front door. There she removed the girl's wraps and hat and loosened her collar. The neighbors, hearing the sound of excited voices, hurried to the assistance of Mrs. Smith, with whom Rowena was struggling violently, declaring over and again that she must die.
Dr. B. W. Green, Twelfth street and Highland avenue, was called in and took charge of the girl. In her unconscious state she grew delirious and told how she had been deceived by her husband, whose affections for her had cooled so soon after the wedding. Dr. Green was unable to pronounce his patient entirely out of danger up to a late hour this morning.Labels: doctors, Highland avenue, marriage, Michigan avenue, Suicide, Twelfth street March 30, 1908 OUT OF WORK, TOOK POISON.
Jacob Kohn, Sick and Discouraged, Ends Life With Acid.
A man, believed to be Jacob Kohn, committed suicide in room fourteen at the Plaza hotel, Missouri avenue and Delaware street, Saturday night, and the body was found at 9 o'clock yesterday morning by Sara Ridgeway, the housekeeper. Coroner George B. Thompson says that during his term of office no other Jew has taken his own life in Kansas city and that the crime is almost unknown among men of Jewish belief
Kohn, in a farewell note, directed that the Jewish Society of Kansas City take charge of his remains. The society will bury the body, but it cannot be laid in a Jewish cemetery.
Kohn's farewell note, which he wrote just before drinking carbolic acid, as the pencil left on the table bears witness, reads:
"To whom it may concern -- This is my second attempt at suicide. I
think I shall succeed this time. I am in poor health, am unable to get
work and have no friends and no money. Give my body to the Jewish
Society. -- Jake Kohn."
Mrs. Ridgeway says that Kohn came to the hotel Saturday night late and registered as John Johnson. She had never seen him before. He paid for his room. Shortly before 9 o'clock yesterday morning when a maid was unable to get into the room to tidy it, Mrs. Ridgeway, who was called in, was informed from a man who had spent the night in room 15 adjoining, that he had heard the man in room 14 groaning and rolling around during the night. Upon that statement Mrs. Ridgeway called the police, who forced the door and found the body.
Coroner Thompson was notified and sent the body to Freeman and Marshall's morgue. Not a penny was found in the clothes. There was nothing to identify the man, excepting the signature on the note. In the pocket were cards from business houses and factories in many Kansas and Oklahoma towns. Kohn was evidently a laborer and had been in these towns looking for employment.Labels: Coroner Thompson, hotels, Jews, laborer, oklahoma, poison, race, Suicide, undertakers March 27, 1908 WAS SLAPPED BY HER MOTHER.
Lena Vaughn, a 15-Year-Old Girl, Tries Suicide With Acid.
The specter of suicide in her bedroom, and a door without a knob, almost broke the heart of 9-year-old Edna Vaughn last night. Her sister, Lena, 15 years old, after insolence to her mother and a slapping, had sulked through the evening, supperless, at a neighbor's until Warren Vaughn, the father, a contractor, sent Edna after her He said she must come home for bed. She went with her sister to a little square bedroom, where, in a moment, she said: "I'm going to take something to kill myself, Edna," and tipped a bottle of carbolic acid to her lips. The child was paralyzed with terror for a moment, then shutting her eyes, turned and beat her little hands madly against the door, from which the loose knob and handle had fallen to the outside.
The parents had retired across the hall, and did not hear at once. When they were aroused there was difficulty in opening the door. Lard and vinegar were forced down the girl's throat, while the police ambulance was making a run to the home at 1820 Summit street. Dr. Carl V. Bates, ambulance surgeon, found the girl a stubborn patient and it was only after a continued resistance that the stomach pump was used. When he left, the doctor said the girl would recover She was a laundry employe. When she came from work she resented her mother's refusing to fix a sewing machine for her.Labels: children, doctors, poison, Suicide, Summit street March 20, 1908 SAY SWANSON WAS DEMENTED.
While Serving in Philippines He Suf- fered Sunstroke.
It is the belief of relatives of Thomas Swanson, who entered the home of Mrs. Rose Everett, 819 Orville avenue, Kansas City, Kas., at 12:30 o'clock yesterday morning, apparently with the intention of criminally assaulting Irene Everett and afterwards committed suicide was insane.
"My brother had not been just right mentally, for over a year," said Mrs. Effie Hess, a sister, yesterday.
"He was a soldier during the Philippine war, and was then sunstruck. At times he was almost violent, and neighbors advised mother to have him taken to a sanitarium. I think he tried to commit suicide by drinking carbolic acid a year ago."
Many neighbors who have long known both the Everett and Swanson families believe, with Mrs. Hess, that Thomas Swanson did not know what he was doing when he entered the Everett home.
They say he had always borne the reputation of being a young man of good habits, but had lately been subject to fits of melancholia.Labels: Kansas City Kas, mental health, Suicide, veterans March 19, 1908
STABS WOMAN; SLAYS HIMSELF.
HORRIBLE DEED OF A CRAZED MIDNIGHT PROWLER.
TRIES TO ASSAULT A GIRL.
BREAKS INTO HER ROOM AND THREATENS LIFE.
Mother Rushes to Her Rescue, Seizes Intruder and Is Stabbed -- He Takes Carbolic Acid.
Rather than face arrest and trial for attempted criminal assault, James Thomas Swanson, 23 years of age, stabbed and probably fatally wounded Mrs. Rosa Everett, the mother of his intended victim, at her home, 819 Orville avenue, Kansas City, Kas., at 12:30 o'clock this morning. Immediately after having stabbed the woman, Swanson ran to his own home, just two doors distant, 823 Orville avenue, and drank an ounce of carbolic acid. Half an hour later he died.
Swanson, according to the neighbors, had been paying particular attention to Irene Everett, a pretty girl of 18 years, for several months. He had called at the house many times, but was never seen out with the girl. Gossip had it, however, that the two were engaged. Nothing out of the ordinary had transpired between them up until last night. Irene's bedroom is located in the west side of the one-story cottage at 819 Orville avenue, and has windows on the west and south sides. At 12:30 she was awakened by someone softly opening one of the west windows. Thinking that it was a burglar Irene decided that she would pretend sleep. As the intruder entered the room he struck a match and lighted the gas. It was then that Irene recognized in him her erstwhile lover, Swanson. SHE QUESTIONED HIM. Knowing Swanson as well as she did, she at first made no outcry, but asked him his purpose in her room at that hour of the night. Swanson replied that he had just come over to see her and would probably spend the rest of the night with her. He told her that he was surprised to find her in bed so early. Irene, noticing that Swanson was peculiarly nervous and agitated, glanced at the clock in her room and saw that it was nearly 12:30 o'clock. Then she became frightened and demanded again an explanation of his presence, telling him that he was mistaken as to the time. Then Swanson, according to Irene, became most horrible to look upon. His face was contorted and the muscles in his face and arms moved convulsively. He leaned towards the trembling girl and whispered his purpose to her. Horrified, Irene screamed frantically for help, calling her mother's name again and again. Swanson was somewhat taken aback by the stubborn resistance with which he had met, and grappled with the girl. At this juncture, the door to Irene's bedroom was opened, and Mrs. Everett, dressed only in her night clothes, entered the room. Seeing Swanson she quickly guessed his purpose, caught him around the waist and tried to drag him from the room. Meanwhile both mother and daughter were screaming for help. Realizing that his dastardly attempt frustrated, Swanson drew a knife and plunged it deep into Mrs. Everett's left breast. He then ran from the room, making his exit through the window which he used to gain entrance. HE STABS THE MOTHER. Directly to his own home Swanson ran, and entered the house through the kitchen door. Meanwhile, Mrs. Everett had burst through the south window with her bare hands and leaned out, still screaming for help. S. F. Essex of 817 Orville heard the cries and ran from his home to investigate. Following the sound of screams he came upon Mrs. Everett and her daughter. Mrs. Everett was fast losing consciousness and Irene told the story of the terrible ordeal through which she and her mother just passed.. Essex immediately notified the police and then carried Mrs. Everett into his home, where she was attended by the family until A. J. Gannon, police surgeon, arrived. Mrs. Ida Swanson, mother of Thomas, was awakened at this time by a draft which blew through the room. She arose and called to her daughter, who slept in the adjoining room, asking if the windows were open. Finding that the draft came from the open door in the kitchen of the house, Mrs. Swanson started to close it. As she neared the hallway she heard her son cry out: "I've taken carbolic acid, and I am a dead one!" Her son had fallen in the doorway, and soon died. Labels: Kansas City Kas, Suicide, violence March 6, 1908 ANOTHER MAN WAS CHICKEN.
Edward Williams, Being Feathers, Tried to Take His Own Life.
"Let me die, Doc. I want to die. I'm chicken today and feathers tomorrow. Nothing more to live for, let me die."
With a gash in his throat, four inches long, Edward Williams, a transfer man, living at 214 East Missouri avenue, lay on the operating table at the emergency hospital yesterday and begged the surgeon not to sew up the wound. Williams says that he recently discovered that his wife no longer loved him. After this discovery he decided to kill himself. He went to his room yesterday with suicidal intentions. He had just drawn a knife across his throat, inflicting the would when a friend discovered him and knocked the knife out of his hand. Williams is 28 years old.Labels: emergency hospital, marriage, Missouri avenue, Suicide March 1, 1908 WOMAN DRINKS CARBOLIC ACID.
Mrs. J. T. Woodford Was in Ill Health and Despondent.
Mrs. J. T. Woodward, 50 years old, the wife of J. T. Woodford, formerly an elevator man at the city hall, drank a half ounce of carbolic acid at her home, 1121 Harrison street, about 6 o'clock yesterday evening. A call for a physician was sent to the emergency hospital from this address at 10:20 o'clock last night. Dr. R. A. Shiras answered the call and found Mrs. Woodford in a semi-comatose condition from the effect of the acid. She was revived and may recover.
Woodford had not called in a physician before he sent the call to the emergency hospital. He told Dr. Shiras that he had not thought it necessary, knowing that his wife had swallowed only a half an ounce of the liquid. He thought that she would recover without the assistance of a physician, And he would thus escape the notoriety.
Mrs. Woodford is said to have been despondent and in ill health.Labels: city hall, emergency hospital, Harrison street, health, poison, Suicide February 29, 1908 REPUDIATED HER IN DEATH.
Man Claiming to Be Husband of Sui- cide Shows Indifference.
Mrs. Maude Bearden was taken to the emergency hospital last night suffering from the effects of carbolic acid, which she took with suicidal intent She died within twenty minutes.
Soon after a man called at the hospital and said that he was the woman's husband.
"Where was her home?"
"Her parents live at Osceola, Mo.," said the man.
"Where did she live here?"
"I don't know and I don't care."
"Do you want to take charge of the body?"
"I do not."
And the man who said he was the husband left the station. It was learned that Mrs. Bearden had been living at 510 Central street. She was seen standing at Fifth and Central streets at 8 o'clock last night by G. E. Ritchey, a saloon man. He saw her raise a bottle to her lips. He ran toward her, but it was too late. She had swallowed about three ounces of carbolic acid. Mrs. Bearden was 28 years old.Labels: Central street, emergency hospital, Fifth street, saloon, Suicide February 27, 1908 WOMAN COMMITS SUICIDE.
Mrs. Hickey Dies at Emer- gency Hospital.
Mrs. Margaret Hickey, 41 years old, took carbolic acid with suicidal intent at 517 May street last night and died fifteen minutes later after she had been taken to the emergency hospital. She was the wife of W. D. Hickey, a bartender, who has been employed in Oklahoma. Hickey visited here a month ago. Mrs. Hickey had been living at the May street address for a year.Labels: emergency hospital, May street, oklahoma, Suicide February 3, 1908 FROZEN STIFF IN HIS CHAIR.
Neighbors Found the Body of George Ordway, a Suicide.
Completely frozen, the body of George Ordway was found in a chair in a sitting posture in his home, 2308 Main street, yesterday morning. Some of his neighbors had called to see him, knowing that he had been in ill health and was somewhat desopndent over the death fo his wife which occurred three weeks ago.
Upon entering the room they found the body and a bottle, which had contained laudanum, upon a table at its side. The police found a note Ordway had left for the coroner, containing several names of persons whom he desired to be notified of his death.
Ordway was 75 years old and had been employed as a laborer on a rock crusher at Twenty-fifth street and Grand avenue. He has no relatives in the city. The coroner said that he had probably been dead for twenty-four hours as it would have taken the body that long to have become completely frozen.Labels: Grand avenue, laborer, Main street, Seniors, Suicide, Twenty-fifth street January 28, 1908 WIFE WANTS PUGH'S MONEY.
But Finds That Suicide's Mother and Brother Have It.
The suicide of W. A. Pugh at 721 East Eighth street, Saturday evening, threatens complications regarding the disposition made of his money and jewelry by the emergency hospital authorities. The brother, W. G. Pugh, went with the mother to the hospital and was given the $234 in money and diamonds amounting to several hundred more.
Yesterday the wife returned from Waterloo, Ia. She was told that W. G. Pugh had made affidavit that the suicide had never been married and had no wife, thereby obtaining the property. Dr. J. P. Neal, however, who was in charge of the hospital and after searching the body took charge of the valuables, said that W. G. Pugh gave no affidavit but only a receipt for the articles. Coroner Thompson, who, by virtue of his office, ordinarily takes charge of a victim's property, says that the custom is, where the emergency hospital people have searched a body before death, that he does not receive the property from them.
The wife insists that she and Pugh were married six years ago. She came direct from her train to Stine's morgue to view the body, and found the mother and brother present. The three conversed, the wife telling the others that she had written him she was coming back. It was later, at the emergency hospital, that she learned that his valuables had been turned over to his family.
Mrs. Pugh, before marriage, was employed in a restaurant and studied two years to be a trained nurse. W. G. Pugh, the brother, has remained single and lives with the mother at 3622 Independence avenue.Labels: Coroner Thompson, Eighth street, emergency hospital, Independence avenue, nurses, probate, Suicide, undertakers January 21, 1908 HER HUSBAND TOOK THE BOY.
And Mrs. Mary E. Brown Tried to End Her Life With Poison.
More than a week ago Silas Brown, a driver for the American Butter Company, 540 Walnut street, left his wife, Mary E. Brown, and went to live with his mother at Seventh and Oak streets, taking with him a 2-year-old adopted boy. The wife continued living alone at 1214 East Eighth street, pining for the child. Last night she visited her husband and his mother, and begged them to let her have the boy . It is said they received her coldly, and refused her request.
Returning to her home Mrs. Brown took poison, and notified a friend of her act. She was removed to emergency hospital, where the physicians worked over her until 1 o'clock this morning, at which time she revived sufficiently to tell them what drove her to the attempt upon her life. She did not say w hat kind of poison she had taken, but the doctors believed it to be strychnine. It is thought that she will recover.
Mrs. Brown in 23 years of age, and comely.Labels: custody, Eighth street, general hospital, Oak street, Seventh street, Suicide, Walnut Street, women January 20, 1908
LOSS OF LOVE CAUSES SUICIDE.
EARL LEMMON SHOOTS HIM- SELF IN THE HEAD.
GIRL BREAKS ENGAGEMENT.
"Do Not Trifle With a Man as If He Were a Dog," the Last Words by Lem- mon. 
EARL LEMMON.
Because Nellie Hickey, 2521 Myrtle avenue, had broken her engagement to marry him, Earl Lemmon, 24 years old, killed himself in his room at Twenty-sixth and Mersington streets yesterday afternoon. Less than two hours after he had bed Miss Hickey a cheerful adieu, his body was found lying across a bed in his room, a 38 caliber pistol lying beside it and a wound in the head revealing the course of the bullet. Upon a table near by the coroner found the following letter:
To All of My Friends. Please forgive me for what I am about to do. I have suffered as no one knows in the last four or five months, but cannot stand it any longer. You will find my plicey at Mrs. Hanifin's. One deed to a lot at Thirty-third and Brighton, a deed to two lots on Leeds road in that box also. If hell is any worse than what I have went through with, I am willing to welcome it.Mr. Cook, you will find a few bills unpaid. If my brothers care for me, they owe me enough to pay all my bills. Give my watch to Mr. Cook and my ring to Nellie. You don't konw what I went through with for you, and you shall never know. But be square next time. Do not trifle with a man as if he was a dog, because they bite back. I must stop now. God bless you. Love and best wishes to Nellie. (Signed) EARL.
(P. S.) God forgive me for this. Goodby all. What money I had I lost some six or seven months ago in a freind-turn-you-down-style.
TWENTY KISSES FOR NELLIE.
Beside this letter was found a souvenir postcard with the photograph of a girl upon it. Upon this card, scrawled in the dead man's handwriting, were the words: "Twenty kisses; goodby, Nellie. Be a good girl."
Young Lemmon was employed by Clayton E. Cook of the Home Produce Company at 2446 Cleveland. He roomed in the home of Clarence Stumpff, a fellow employe, in a cottage near Twenty-sixth and Mersington streets. During the eighteen months he had been in the employ of Mr. Cook he was said to have been a sober, industrious, hard working young man. He had managed to save a little money which he had invested in real estate.
Early yesterday morning he called at the home of Miss Hickey. About n oon he returned to his room and ended his life.
Miss Hickey is the daughter of Lawrence Hickey, a Missouri Pacific switchman. She was very much distressed at the news. When she was seen at her home several hours after the suicide, her eyes were swollen with weeping.
JEALOUS OF THE GIRL. 
MISS NELLIE HICKEY.
For the Loss of Whose Love Earl Lemmon Ended His Life.
"Earl and I have been sweethearts from childhood," she said. "We have been betrothed for several years. But he was insanely jealous of me, and several months ago I broke off the engagement on that account. At that time he threatened to kill himself, but I never thought he would do it. He seemed very much grieved because I had received attentions from other young men, but I didn't think ghe took it so much to heart. This morning he called upon me and we chatted pleasantly. When he started home, he called out, 'Goodby Nell,' very cheerfully. There was nothing in his manner that indicated he was thinking of killing himself.
The story was corroborated by Mr. and Mrs. Hickey. Both said there had never been any parental objections to the affair between their daughter and Lemmon, and that ever since the engagement was broken off the young man had been on terms of close friendship with the family.
Lemmon has a brother, bert Lemmon, who lives at the home of a Mrs. Hanifin at 3315 East Twenty-second street. He has four other brothers, a foster sister, who lives in Armourdale, and his father, who lives in California.
Labels: Armourdale, California, Cleveland avenue, Mersington street, romance, Suicide, Thirty-third street, Twenty-second street, Twenty-sixth street January 6, 1907 MAIL CLERK DRINKS ACID.
Despondent, F. A. Dunn Kills Himself at His Forest Avenue Home.
F. A. Dunn, a railway mail clerk, 32 years old, committed suicide by drinking three ounces of carbolic acid at his home at 3417 Forest avenue yesterday noon.
His act is said to have been the result of depression following the protracted use of intoxicants. Mrs. Dunn was in the house at the time but supposed her husband had gone upstairs to lie down. Soon after he had left her she heard a heavy fall upon the floor above and and rushed to the stricken man's side, only to find him already breathing his last. Dr. J. W. Kyger was hastily summoned by the man was dead many minutes before he arrived. The body was turned over to Freeman & Marshall.Labels: doctors, Forest avenue, Suicide, undertakers December 29, 1907 YOUNG WIFE TIRES OF LIFE.
Mrs. Grace Kemper, Invalid, Tries to Kill Herself With Acid.
Despairing of ever regaining her health, Mrs. Grace Kemper tried to end her life yesterday afternoon by drinking carbolic acid. She has been in ill health for the past four years. Mrs. Kemper is the wife of T. J. Kemper, and employee of the Central Ice Company, and lives with him at 2030 Holmes street. She was married at the age of 16. They have no children.
When the attending physician caled at the Kemper home yesterday morning on a professional visit to Mrs. Kemper, he left the impression in his patient's mind that she was beyond all medical aid and that she would be more or less confined to her bed for the remainder of her life.
At 5:30 o'clock, when she thought the house was empty, Mrs. Kemper went to a medicine cabinet where she knew carbolic acid was kept and, taking a vial from the chest, drank its contents. She then staggered to her bed and began groaning loudly. Her husband had returned from his work just a few minutes before and, hearing her groans, went into the room.
His wife was in such a condition that she could not speak, and was fast growing worse. Seeing acid burns around her mouth he hastened to the general hospital, just back of his home, where he got Dr. W. C. Smith to go with him to his wife.
When the doctor got to the Kemper home, Mrs. Kemper was unconscious. He applied antidotes before the acid had been assimilated into her system and, notwithstanding the fact that mrs. Kemper was unconscious for several hours after medical treatment, she will survive.Labels: doctors, general hospital, Holmes street, Suicide, women December 25, 1907 DID "FRAT" MEN HANG HIM?
Frank Miller's Father Denies That His Son Was a Suicide.
Did Frank miller, the young Pennsylvania university student who was found hanging ead in his room at the university last Wednesday, commit suicide or was he the victim of a prank played by "frat" men in his initiation into the Psi Omega fraternity? His father, the Reverand J. H. Miller, 2930 Main street, does not believe his son committed suicide, but he will offer no theory as to how he came to his death.
There are two reasons which tend to disprove the theory of suicide. According to the Rev. Miller, his son was not of a morose or nervous temperament as stated in the dispatches from Philadelphia, but was of a cheerful disposition and well liked by his fellow students. The note alleged to have been found in young Miller's room in which he is said to have stated his intention to take hsi life, has not been forwarded to the father, although other letters and personal effects belonging to the young man have been received.
"I cannot believe that he has taken his life until I see that note in my own boy's handwriting," said the grief-stricken father yestrday. "It's a mystery to us all. We only know that he lost his life, but we do not believe he lost it at his own hands. How he came to his death, we are not able to say."
Young Miller was a candidate for membership in the Zeta chapter of the Psi Omega fraternity and the Friday before his death he was initiated into the society. At the initiation ceremony he was roughly handled and one of his toes broken. Whether any further pranks were played on him by the "frat" men is not known. The father stated yesterday that he would write the coroner for a full account of the tragedy.Labels: death, fraternal organizations, Main street, ministers, pranks, Suicide December 23, 1907 COULDN'T WAIT FOR SLOW DEATH.
HEALTH FAILED RILEY AND HE SWALLOWED POISON.
WIFE FOUND HIM TOO LATE.
HAD JUST RETURNED FROM A TRIP FOR HIS HEALTH.
For Many Years Charles C. Riley Was a Department Manager for Emery, Bird, Thayer -- Broke Down From Overwork.
Charles C. Riley, a former department manager for the Emery, bird, Thayer Dry Goods Company, who a year ago next New Year's day went to live in Paloma, La., to regain his failing health, returned with his wife to their home at 3911 East Tenth street at 10 o'clock yesterday morning to await death within a few weeks.
His strength was barely sufficient. Upon his reaching home, for him to climb one flight of stairs to the bath room. He had been in the room but a minute or two when his wife called to him.
"I am all right," he said, but his voice sounded strange.
She pushed open the door and found him lying on the floor. He was holding in his hand an empty vial which had contained carbolic acid. As she stooped to speak to him, he smiled and whispered:
"Goodby, dear!"
There were several friends in the house, who had met the Rileys at the depot and escorted them to their home, and upon Mrs. Riley's giving the alarm, someone telephoned for a physician. Dr. W. A. Armour, who lives at 3401 East Twelfth street, reached the house within ten minutes, but Mr. Riley was already dead.
Coroner G. B. Thompson said that an inquest was unnecessary where the cause of death was so plain. The label on the acid bottle showed that Mr. Riley had purchased it in Paloma, and that he had likely many days ago planned to end the hopeless struggle to regain his health.
Three years ago, while Mr. Riley was serving his thirteenth year as manager of the woolen dress goods department of Emery, Bird, Thayer's, his health failed. He kept on working and a year later took upon himself additional work. During the holidays last year he suffered nervous prostration and never returned to his work. His nervous system seemed to be utterly shattered, and the trip to the South, which was his last hope for recovery, failed to build him up.
The only relatives in Kansas City are the widow and one daughter. Mr. Riley's parents, who live in Farmington, N. J., have been notified. The funeral services will be held from the residence after their arrival.Labels: doctors, retailers, Suicide, Tenth street, Twelfth street December 21, 1907 HE WAS DETERMINED TO DIE.
Man Thought to Be Charles Corbett Killed by Sightseeing Car.
A man believed to be Charles Corbett, a railroad laborer from Rossville Station, Ill., was run down and instantly killed by a "Seeing Kansas City" car at Eighth and Delaware streets about 3:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. There were a dozen or more witnesses to the man's death. It is said Corbett was under the influence of liquor.
Harry Criner, 707 Washington street, and William Houser, who gave his address as the Santa Fe cutting house, were standing waiting for a car when Corbett started across the tracks. "Houser grabbed hold of the man," said Criner, "and eh jerked away from him. Just then, seeing the car approaching, I stepped forward and the man was so intent on crossing that he struck me across the nose for trying to interfere with him."
There was nothing in the dead man's pockets but what appeared to be a laborer's transfer from Rossville Junction, Ill., on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroad, to some other point. The name of Charles Corbett is on that. The same name appears in several places in a small account book he had. Not a cent of money, not even a pocket knife, was found.
The dead man probably was 30 years old, five feet seven or eight inches tall, and weighed about 135 or 140 pounds. He had dark hair, blue eyes, fair complexion and smooth face. He wore a blue flannel shirt, blue overalls and black trousers.
The records at police headquarters show that twice this week a man by the name of Charles Corbett was held for safe keeping. Both times he had been drinking heavily and once went into the station himself claiming that he was being followed. From the description given them of the dead man the police are sure that it is the same one.
Fritz Braden, conductor, and Lowry Burke, motorman, of the car, were arrested by Sergeant James Hogan and Patrolman John T. Rogers. At headquarters they refused to make a statement to Captain Whitsett and were sent to the county prosecutor. They were released after their names had been taken. They promised to be on hand when wanted.Labels: Captain Whitsett, Delaware street, Eighth street, laborer, police, railroad, Seeing Kansas City, streetcar, Suicide, Washington street December 17, 1907 FOUR ATTEMPTS AT SUICIDE.
Member of Aristocratic Philadelphia Family Tries to End Life Here.
Four attempts to commit suicide, none of which was successful, marked an eventful day in the life of Robert Patterson yesterday. Patterson, who is said to be of an aristocratic family in Philadelphia, seemed determined to end his life and it was not until he had been strapped to a bed in the emergency hospital last night that his attempts at self-destruction ceased.
Patterson had been at the Baltimore hotel since December 14. He is said to have told that he had wealthy and influential family connections in Philadelphia, but that he had had trouble with his father about a marriage he was contemplating. He told a policeman that an uncle of his was at one time governor of Pennsylvania. he had evidently been drinking heavily for the past few days.Labels: alcohol, Hotel Baltimore, hotels, Suicide, visitors December 13, 1907 HE DRANK CARBOLIC ACID.
Max Sight Was Despondent From Liquor and Illness.
Despondent because of domestic trouble over his habit of drinking intoxicating liquor, Max Sight committed suicide at his home, 1407 East Eighth street, yesterday afternoon, by drinking more than two ounces of carbolic acid. Sight was operated upon for appendicitis two weeks ago, and his illness is also said to have had something to do with his despondency.
The body of Sight was found on a sofa in his house by his wife about 4:30 o'clock.
Sight was born in Russia 42 years ago. he came to Kansas City five years ago from New York and was employed by the Flersheim Liquor Company here. He leaves a widow and three sons, Jacob, 20; Harry, 18; and David, 8 years of age.Labels: alcohol, Eighth street, immigrants, New York, Suicide December 1, 1907
LEFT HIS WIFE'S ADDRESS.
Then Louis Belderbeck Sat Down and Took Poison.
Brooding over business difficulties, Louis Belderbeck, 35 years of age, attempted suicide at the Helping Hand institute last night. At about 12 o'clock he went to the night clerk in the institute and had him make a note of his wife's name and address in Omaha, Neb. He then went around the room telling each of the men present that he was going on a long journey and would probably never see any of them again. He then went into the chapel, sat down and swallowed morphine. Some of the people who had remained in the room after services called a doctor. He was treated and sent to the emergency hospital, where it is said that he will recover. He had been at the Helping Hand two or three weeks.Labels: Helping Hand, Omaha, Suicide November 16, 1907 BANKER SHOT AT MIDLAND.
WITH A BULLET J. B. THOMAS OF ALBANY, MO., ENDED HIS LIFE.
Found in the Bath Room of His Apart- ment of the Hotel Yesterday -- Well Known as a Mason and to State Politics.
J. B. Thomas, cashier of the Bank of Albany of Albany, Mo., committed suicide in the Midland hotel this morning by shooting himself through the right temple with a revolver. Mr. Thomas's body was found in a bathroom at 2:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Coroner Thompson was called and said the man probably had been dead several hours. He ordered the body taken to the undertaking rooms of Freeman & Marshall.
"Mr. Thomas came here last night," T. B. Bishop, the clerk at the hotel said. "He went to his room at about 8:30 o'clock. This morning the maid found his door locked when she went to the apartment to arrange it. About 2 o'clock she went there again and received no response when she knocked.
"No response was made to repeated knockings and the carpenter forced the door open. Mr. Thomas was found dead in the bathroom."
Mr. Thomas was fully dressed. The revolver was still clutched in his right hand and contained one empty cartridge. On his left hand was a Masonic ring. Engraved inside was "J. B. Thomas, Consistory No. 2, From Nicholson."
He wore a gold watch and a chain with a Knight Templar charm attached. In his pockets was found $3 in change and a bunch of rings.
"I can conceive of no reason for his act," Judge Thomas Morrow, who is a close friend of Mr. Thomas, said yesterday. "He was one of the leading citizens of his town. He was a prominent Mason."
T. B. Bishop telephoned the Bank of Albany at once. The officers of the bank could give no reason for the act. Mr. Bishop told them the body would be placed in the care of the Kansas City Masons subject to advice from his relatives.
Mr. Thomas, who was apparently about 60 years old, was a Kentuckian by birth. He came to Missouri as a young man and at first was a village blacksmith. He was elected circuit clerk of Gentry county in 1876 and re-elected in 1880. He was made cashier of the Bank of Albany soon after he retired from office, and had held that position ever since. He was elected grand master of the Masonic order of the state about six years ago and his Masonic ring was the first identification when his body was found. Mr. Thomas accumulated considerable money and invested most of it in mining properties around Galena and Baxter, Kas.
He left one son, Claude Thomas, cashier of a bank in Gravity, Ia., and a daughter, Mrs. Dr. Stapleton at Ha Harpe, near Iola, Kas. His wife is living.
Mr. Thomas was a familiar figure at nearly all Democratic political gatherings of importance. He wore a heavy beard which in recent years has been changing from a dark brown to gray.Labels: banking, blacksmiths, Coroner Thompson, hotels, Judges, Midland, politics, Suicide, undertakers November 15, 1907 DEATH RATHER THAN BLINDNESS.
Probable Cause of the Suicide of Leo Mainhardt.
"I believe I am going blind. I can't see to read the paper at night at all."
Before Leo Mainhardt, the cigar dealer, left his store at 601 Delaware street Tuesday night that was a remark he made to one of his clerks. It is the belief of his business associates that he may have wandered about the streets until 12:00 when he went to the Centropolis hotel, engaged a room, then committed suicide.
Mr. Mainhardt's eyesight was rapidly failing and he was constantly worrying about his inability to see.
Constant worry over his ailment," Mrs. Mainhardt said this morning, "is the only cause to which I can attribute his act. He has never said anything that would indicate that he intended to commit suicide, however."
The funeral will be held this afternoon at the house, 1322 Euclid avenue.Labels: Centropolis, cigars, Delaware street, Euclid avenue, retailers, Suicide, visual impairment November 6, 1907
WAITED FOR POISON TO ACT.
Woman Tells How it Feels to Expect to Die. Mrs. Ora Shugart, the young woman who attempted suicide by taking cloroform yesterday at the Sexton hotel, was removed from the emergency hospital this morning to the home of her grandmother, Mrs. H. A. Snyder, at 2010 East Seventh street. She will recover.
Mrs. Shugart and a man giving the name of M. L. Wells registered at the Sexton hotel as husband and wife last Monday night. She was found unconscious in her room yesterday afternoon. "Wells was jealous of another friend of mine," Mrs. Shugart said this morning, "and he threatened to kill me. He left the room saying he was going after a revolver. I thought I would kill myself before he had a chance to do so. "I sent a bellboy out for an ounce of chloroform, saying I wished to use it to clean my kid gloves.
"After I took the poison I combed my hair, polished my finger nails and stood around and waited to see what it was going to do. I took the poison about 10:30 o'clock; it was about noon when I became unconscious." Mrs. Shugart hadn't heard from Wells this morning. Labels: emergency hospital, hotels, romance, Seventh street, Suicide October 9, 1907 WHISKY SAVED HIS LIFE.
Aconite Failed to Take Effect on Lawyer William Grady.
Aconite failed to kill William Grady, an attorney, yesterday noon, because whisky is an antidote for the poison. Dr. G. A. Dagg, with the Walnut Street police ambulance, was called to the Grady home, 1627 Cottage, and found the young attorney had taken several ounces of aconite, supposedly with suicidal intent. It had only failed to kill because the man's system was heavily charged with alcohol. Patrolman Prewitt, who accompanied the ambulance, brought a stretcher into Grady's presence to carry him to a hospital, and the patient's condition improved quickly. A family doctor who arrived then agreed to take full charge of the patient, and as the doctors agreed that the poison's power had been offset, he was allowed to remain home.Labels: alcohol, attorney, Cottage street, doctors, poison, Suicide, Walnut street police station September 28, 1907 HE DRANK CARBOLIC ACID.
Abe Friedman, 21 Years Old, Was Un- der Treatment for Melancholia.
Abe Friedman, 21 years old, killed himself by drinking three ounces of carbolic acid at the home of his mother, Mrs. Rachel Friedman, 1512 Troost avenue, yesterday afternoon between 5 and 6 o'clock. For the past several weeks young Friedman had been an inmate of the Grandview sanitarium, a Kansas City, Kas., institution, where he had been treated, it was thought successfully, for acute melancholia.
Besides his mother he is survived by three brothers, Meyer, David and Samuel, who are associated in the grocery business.Labels: grocers, hospitals, Kansas City Kas, Suicide, Troost avenue September 16, 1907 OPIUM USER TRIES SUICIDE.
Rivers Made Three Attempts on His Life at the Workhouse.
Otto Rivers, an intimate of the city workhouse who is addicted to the opium habit, and who shot John Spangler, head guard at the workhouse a few days ago in an attempt to get the guard's revolver to commit suicide with, tried three times to take hos own life yesterday morning. First he set fire to his bunk. He did not have nerve enough to let the flames envelope his clothing and the fire was extinguished before any damage was done. Later he pounded up a two-ounce glass bottle and swallowed the broken glass. A police ambulance was called and he was started to the general hospital. On the way he seized a revolver which was protruding from the officer's hip pocket and attempted to shoot himself. He was overpowered and the weapon wrested from him before he was able to discharge it.. At the general hospital last night it was said Rivers would recover. He had been given opium, the first time in several weeks, and was said to be resting easily. Rivers' dementia is entirely due to his having been deprived of the drug while confined in the workhouse. He is only 27 years old, but has been using the drug several years. He says his life becomes torture without it and is worse than death.
Rivers was sentenced to the workhouse on a technical charge of vagrancy June 17. He had been seen prowling around a number of office buildings at the time the "office building firebug" was operating.
Spangler, who was shot in the tussle with Rivers several days ago, is still in the general hospital.Labels: general hospital, narcotics, Suicide, vagrancy, workhouse August 29, 1907 THREW HERSELF IN RIVER.
Upon Being Rescued Woman Said She Was Tired of Life.
Mrs. Maggie Lewellen, who lives near the Quindaro water works, attempted suicide yesterday afternoon by throwing herself into the Missouri river in full view of several employes at the p umping station. They hastened to rescue and dragged her from the river. The woman had sunk twice before the rescuing party reached her and was unconscious when rescued.
After rolling her on the ground and releasing a quantity of water from her lungs, she revived sufficeintly to be taken home, where a physician was summoned. When asked her reason for her act, she is said to have remarked that she was tired of life and wished to die.Labels: Missouri river, public works, Suicide August 22, 1907 AFTER A QUARREL, POISON.
Barton Thought Wife Drank Florida Water; She Is Dead.
When Mrs. Mildred L. Barton, 15 West Fifteenth street, drank carbolic acid before her husband, William Barton, last night, he thought it was Florida water. They had quarreled and she soon after started to a drug store, as she said, to buy Florida water. At 7:30 o'clock she re-entered the room and swallowed the contents of a a two-ounce bottle.
The Walnut street police ambulance, half a block away, was called and Dr. G. R. Dagg gave the woman emergency treatment as the team galloped to the city hospital, but she died ten minutes after being placed in the operating table.Labels: doctors, Fifteenth street, hospitals, poison, Suicide August 8, 1907 WAS IT A DECOY NOTE?
Police Do Not Believe Schreider Committed Suicide.
"To the coroner: --Kansas City, Mo.
"There is nothing to say why I did this deed. I simply committed suicide. Please notify my wife, Mrs. Mary Schreider at 3016 Belleview avenue, Kansas City, Mo. Everything in my pockets please turn over to my wife.
FRANK SCHREIDER.
"P. S. : Reason for this deed known only to me and no one else."
The foregoing not was received by Coroner George B. Thompson in his mail yesterday morning. He at once made inquiry at 3016 Belleview avenue and found that Frank Schreider had been missing for three weeks. His body has not yet been located, however.
Yesterday afternoon a woman who said she was a sister-in-law of the missing Schreider called to say that she did not believe the man had taken his life. She said that "financial troubles" had caused Shreider to want many persons to believe him dead. The police have been searching for Schreider on account of those same "financial troubles." A check now in the possession of the Fitwell Clothing Company for $30 and other checks in Leavenworth, Kas., the police say, are a part of the "financial troubles."Labels: Belleview avenue, Coroner Thompson, Leavenworth, missing, Suicide August 3, 1907 JOKE WAS ON THE JOKER.
Pretended Suicide Called for Police to Send an Ambulance.
Walter Radcliffe, while in a saloon at Nineteenth street and Grand avenue last night, was struck with a desire to see the police ambulance "make a run." He called up No. 4 station and said he had taken carbolic acid. As the ambulance rattled up he dashed out of a side door and into the arms of Officer Shelly. The officer loaded him into the ambulance and delivered him to Dr. G. R. Dagg, at the station. The doctor refused to accept Radcliffe's explanation of "the joke" and he was plied with violent emetics. It was Radcliffe's turn then, but he failed to see "the joke."Labels: doctors, Grand avenue, Nineteenth street, No 4 police station, police, pranks, Suicide July 28, 1907 FORGIVEN IN DEATH
BODY OF MRS. INEZ YOTHERS IS FINALLY CLAIMED. MAN WHOSE SHORT HONEYMOON WAS WRECKED ARRIVES
Married in May, Bride Soon Fell in Love With Another and Deserted Home -- Ends Life in The Street With Acid.
The first tear to fall on the bier of Mrs. Inez Yothers since her suicide June 26 was yesterday -- a tear of forgiveness that gave her her first friend in death. With bowed head and strained lips, Walter Yothers, the husband whose home was wrecked when she deserted him for another, stood at the coffin, the coffin that had been shunted back and forth across three states without a claimant.
Somewhere Frank Palmer was, yesterday, released by a suicide's death, from the paramour's claims. Taking the best of her life, he deserted her in death. It was the husband who came with the final recognition.
"Yes, that is my wife. Poor Inez. She couldn't have realized what a great wrong she was doing when she deserted me and our home to run off with another man. She has paid dearly for it all and I forgive her."
Thus spoke Yothers, of Chillicothe, Mo., as he stood in the morgue of Gibson & Porter's undertaking establishment in Kansas City, Kas., yesterday morning and gazed upon the body of the woman. Tears slowly crept down his cheeks as he looked into the face of the woman who a few months ago he had led to the altar only to be deserted by her scarcely before their honeymoon was over.
Mr. and Mrs. Yothers, were married at Troy, Kas., May 3 last and directly after their marriage went to St. Joseph, Mo., to live. While there Mrs. Yothers fell in love with a young man by the name of Frank Palmer and they eloped to Kansas City, Kas., where they lived as man and wife. Palmer secured employment at the Fowler packing house and Mrs. Yothers in her devotion daily carried his dinner to him.
At noon June 26 she appeared at the gate of the packing house as usual with Palmer's dinner. He was displeased with the meal she had prepared and after scolding her emptied the contents of the pail into the street. Mrs. Yothers burst into tears and with the remark, "that is the last meal you will ever throw away of mine," she walked to the middle of the street, gazed once more at Palmer and then swallowed the contents of a two ounce bottle of carbolic acid. She died in great agony before she could be removed to a hospital.
Palmer witnessed the act without making any attempt to prevent it, and then quickly ran away. No trace of him has since been obtained by the local authorities.
At the time of the suicide no one could be found who knew the name of the woman. She went by the name of Palmer after coming from St. Joseph. Upon a description furnished to the authorities, David Hurst, of Muncie, Ind., decided that the body must be that of his daughter, and it was sent to him. However, when he viewed the body he discovered it was not his missing child. It was returned to Kansas City, Kas., and a couple of days ago a letter was received from Walter Yothers, of Chillicothe, in which he stated that he believed the suicide was his wife, who deserted him in St. Joseph.
He arrived in the city yesterday morning to identify the body and arrange for its burial.Labels: Kansas City Kas, romance, St.Joseph, streetcar, Suicide, undertakers July 28, 1907 HIS LETTER TO CHILD WIFE.
Teamster Tells Her He's Going to End Life in River.
My Dear Wife and Baby -- I hope these few lines find you both well, and with you good luck. My body you will find at Wabash bridge, with a rock fastened to my neck, so repeat this to mother. A. J. Daily was born December 22, 1883, and committed suicide July 26, 1907. Wife, goodby. Kiss Ray for me and break the news to all. I hate to, but here goes. God be with you. I can't." This letter was received yesterday by Mrs. A. J. Daily, 17 years old, 1718 West Prospect place, from her husband, a teamster, who left her just before the birth of her baby, three weeks ago. The Dailys were married less than a year ago, but since their separation, he has been boarding at Thirteenth and Liberty streets. He visited his wife and baby last Friday, and at the time said nothing of contemplating suicide.
The police believe that Daily contemplated leaving the city, and wrote the letter to his wife as a ruse to throw them off his track.Labels: Liberty street, marriage, Suicide July 28, 1907 SHOOTS OUT TEETH.
Edward C. Rupard Makes an Unsuc- cessful Suicide Attempt.
Edward C. Rupard, a stock broker living at 2315 Lexington avenue, after dining last evening with his wife and a guest, stepped into an adjoining room and shot out a fourth of his teeth with a revolver. The bullet entered his mouth and came out in front of his right ear.
Rupard did not explain his attempt at suicide. his wife, after taking the pistol from him, telephoned for Dr. Albert M. Wilson. The latter gave emergency treatment and sent Rupard to St. Joseph's hospital. He will recover.Labels: doctors, hospitals, Lexington avenue, Suicide July 26, 1907 FINDS CORPSE SITTING UP.
Laborer Shoots Himself Leaning Against Freight House.
W. C. Hopke, on his way to work at the Interstate Ice Company at 5 o'clock yesterday morning, found the body of a dead man sitting upright against the north side of the Kansas City Southern freight house at Second and Wyandotte streets. The police ambulance was summoned and Dr. Ford B. Rogers found that the man had evidently shot himself. A bullet from a 45-caliber Colt's revolver had entered the right temple, come out at the left temple and imbedded itself in a wooden timber at the dead man's side. The revover was still clutched in the right hand.
Coroner George B. Thompson sent the body to Stine's morgue, where it has remained so far unidentified.
The dead man, who has the appearance of having been a laborer above the common class, appears to be between 47 and 50 years old. He is six feet tall and weighs probably 200 pounds. His complexion is dark, his hair and mustache and eyes are brown and the head is bald. He had only four teeth remaining in the upper jaw. He wore a blue shirt and dark clothes.Labels: Coroner Thompson, ice, Kansas City Southern, laborer, Second street, Suicide, undertakers, Wyandotte street July 26, 1907
SHE WAS HIS FIRST WIFE.
Body of Suicide at Last Identified by Chillicothe Man.
Coroner J. A. Davis, of Kansas City, Kas., received a letter from Walter Yothers, of Chillicothe, Mo., hyesterday stating that the woman who committed suicide here on June 26 by drinking carbolic acid and was his first wife, whom he married at Troy, Kas., May 3, 1907. They went from there to St. Joseph, Mo., where she formed the acquaintace of Frank Palmer and eloped with him.
Palmer, the young man for whom she left home, disappeared the day of the tragedy and has not been heard from. She had just carried dinner to him at the Fowler packing house when she swallowed the poison.
The body is at Porter & Gibson's undertaking establishment, being returned to this city Wednesday from Muncie, Ind., where it was sent to Edward Hurst, who thought it was that of his daughter.Labels: Kansas City Kas, St.Joseph, streetcar, Suicide, undertakers July 19, 2007 BEHIND ANOTHER'S BODY.
HOW WOMAN HOPED TO CONCEAL TRUTH FROM HER FOLKS.
Allowed the Body of a Suicide to Be Indentified As Hers and Sent Home for Burial.
"I did not want my people to know of my circumstances. I preferred that they should think me dead, and that is why I said nothing to prevent the dead body of another woman being sent to my home as mine."
So Mrs. Ina Ford, 529 Walnut street, is said to have confided to a friend, Mrs. Blanche White, her reasons for not notifying her father, Edwin Hurst, of Muncie, Ind., that she was alive and well in Kansas City, notwithstanding the fact that Kansas City papers had informed her that the body of a suicide had been identified as hers and forwarded to Muncie.
On the afternoon of June 27, a woman who had been living with Frank Palmer, at 928 Genesee, went to the Fowler packing house, where Palmer was employed, and, after a few words with him drank carbolic acid from the effects of which she died soon afterwards. Palmer left city that night, and the authorities were given information leading them to believe the dead woman to have been Miss Ina Ford of Muncie, Ind. Mrs. Ford's parents were notified, and under their directions, the body was shipped to Muncie.
Mrs. Ford's father discovered the mistake as soon as the body reached Muncie. He notified the Kansas City police of the error in identity and sent the body of the suicide back to Kansas City.
When Mrs. Ford learned that the mistake had been detected, she at once wired her home. But she does not deny that she knew that the other woman's body had been sent to Muncie as hers.
Attempts to locate Mrs. Ford at her rooming house last night were ineffectual. Patrolman Larrabee and a newspaper man obtained an inverview with Miss White, an intimate friend of the Ford woman, in which it was learned that Mrs. Ford had left Kansas City. She is said to have told Miss White that she did not notify her parents of the error until she knew the secret had been discovered, as she was in poor circumstances and preferred they should think her dead than to know the truth about her. She avers that a former lover is responsible for the mistake in identity of the dead woman.
A searching inquiry last night developed the fact that the dead woman was Miss Ines Others, who had eloped with Palmer from St. Joseph, where her husband, Walter Others, resides. There was a slight personal resemblance between the two women.Labels: Genessee street, police, rooming house, St.Joseph, streetcar, Suicide, Walnut Street July 19, 1907 CIGARETTES HIS CURSE.
MOTHER'S REASON FOR SON'S SECOND SUICIDE ATTEMPT.
Young Man Who Falls on Street From Strychnine Poisoning Talks of a Love Affair -- Will Recover.
A young man was seen walking unsteadily along in the vicinity of Twenty-second street and Dunham avenue shortly after 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Presently he stopped, drew rigid and fell in a convulsion. People who called the ambulance from the Walnut Street station thought possibly it was heat prostration, but Dr. George Dagg, ambulance surgeon, diagnosed the case as one of strychnine poisoning. The man was taken at once to the general hospital, where followed several other convulsions indicitive of strychnine poisoning.
It was learned there that the young man's name was Benjamin Rowland, formerly a bill clerk in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railway. He lives with his widowed mother at 2045 North Valley street, Kansas City, Kas. It was stated at the hospital late last night that Rowland would recover.
During a conscious period at the hospital yesterday, Rowland intimated that a love affair had caused him to attempt his life.
While calling at the home of Miss Hettie Fredericks, 18 years old, Sixteenth street and the Paseo, last spring, young Rowland attempted suicide by drinking laudanum. He had gone there in the afternoon to make a call. No one was home but Miss Connie Fredericks, an older sister. Rowland said he was going to the bathroom for a drink. After being there some time he called Miss Connie to the door of the parlor and, holding a glass of dark liquid high in the air, said, "Good-bye to all. Here goes." It was later discovered that he had taken laudanum.
She called in the janitress and the latter telephoned for a doctor. After working with Rowland for an hour or more, he was left in good condition, and was later taken home.
A stranger called at his home of the widowed mother, 2045 North Valley street, Kansas City, Kas., soon after the occurrence yesterday and told Mrs. Rowland of the son's second attempt. She went at once to the emergency hospital in the city hall, as she heard he had been taken there. When his employer was called up at the C. M. & St. P. freight office, Fourteenth and Liberty streets, Mrs. Rowland learned for the first time that her son had quit his job there a week ago. What he had been doing meantime she did not know.
"If he lives through this," she said, "I intend to take steps to have him restrained. He has smoked cigarettes until he is a complete nervous wreck. He smokes them all day and then smokes them during the night. I have begged and pleaded with him about it, but it does no good. I think cigarettes are a greater curse to the younger generation of boys than whiskey and should be placed under restrictions just as stringent. I shall place him in some sanitarium if he lives through this attempt."Labels: doctors, Kansas City Kas, Paseo, railroad, romance, Sixteenth street, Suicide, tobacco, Twenty-second street, Walnut Street July 18, 1907 HUSBAND FINDS HER DEAD.
Emma Woolf Had Vial in One Hand and Revolver in Other.
Emma Woolf, 206 College avenue, Rosedale, committed suicide early yesterday morning by drinking carbolic acid. When found by her husband, Benjamin Woolf, when he returned from work in the Frisco yards at 6:30 o'clock last night, she was lying on the floor with a small vial in her right hand and whthin easy reach of her left lay a loaded 32-caliber revolver. She had evidently contemplated using the latter in case the poison failed to do its work.
Woolf noticed Coroner J. A. Davis, of Wyandotte county, who ordered the body to the Eylar undertaking rooms, Fifteenth and Main streets. Coroner Davis said last night that the body had probably lain since early morning.Labels: College avenue, Fifteenth street, Rosedale, Suicide, undertakers July 15, 1907 SAY BODY IS NOT DAUGHTER'S.
Funeral Planned at Muncie, Ind., Is Postponed.
The body of a woman who committed suicide in Kansas City, Kas., June 26, and was identified by several friends as that of Mrs. Inez Ford, or, as she was better known, as Ona Ray Polk, and was sent to suppoosed relatives in Muncie, Ind., is said by those to whom it was sent to not be the body of Mrs. Ford. Chief Hayes received a telegram last night from the chief of police at Muncie, asking that an investigation be made and learn, if possible, if anything could be found that would establish to a certainty her identity.
The woman had a quarrel on the morning of June 26 with Frank Palmer. At noon of that day she carried his lunch to him at Fowler's packing house, where he was employed, and swallowed carbolic acid in his presence, dying a few minutes later. Her body was taken to the undertaking establishment of Gibson & Porter, in Kansas City, Kas., and there it was held for several days before the whereabouts of relatives were learned. Two women, who lived in Sheffield, called at the morgue and identified the woman as Mrs. Inez Ford, who deserted her husband, Irwin Ford, in Terre Haute, Ind., and came to Kansas City with Frank Palmer. Ford was notified, and, in turn, the father, Edward Hurst, of Muncie, was informed.
The body was ordered removed to Muncie, and the body was sent collect on delivery. The express charges were paid at the other end, and an undertaker in Muncie was instructed to take charge of the body. However, when arrangements were being made for the funeral, a doubt arose on the part of Mr. Hurst as to whether the body was really that of his daughter.
The funeral was postponed and the police there were asked to appeal to the police here to make a thorough investigation.Labels: Kansas City Kas, Police Chief Hayes, Suicide, telegram, undertakers June 27, 1907 DRANK IT LIKE A TOAST.
Woman Who Forsook Husband for Another Man Takes Poison.
After warning Frank Palmer, of 920 Bell street, Kansas City, that he would never again receive a dinner from her hands, Mrs. Inez Others, of St. Joseph, Mo., at noon yesterday raised a two-ounce vial of carbolic acid to her lips and drank it like a toast.
The tragedy happened directly underneath the front entrance of the Fowler packing house, and just as the laborers were filing out to receive their lunches from the hands of children and wives who were bringing them. A dozen men where standing about Mrs. Others when she took the poison, but none of them noticed anything extraordinary in her action. They said they thought she was only joking.
When Mrs. Others reached the center of the Fifth street car tracks, however, she was een to fall. A policeman who happened to be riding on a westbound car had it stopped and an ambulance was called to take her to No. 2 police station, where she died a few minutes later. Her body was then removed to Porter & Gibson's undertaking rooms.
Mrs. Others four weeks ago left a husband, Walter Others, in St. Joseph, Mo.
Palmer is now being held at No. 2 police station pending investigation. He said yesterday that he, like the other men who were standing about when Mrs. Others committed suicide, thought the act was only to deceive him, and that the contents of the bottle was water. He said they had quarreled in the morning, and that she had then declared her intention of killing herself, but that he had not paid much attention to the threat as she had once before drank what she claimed to be poison, but which had no effect on her.Labels: Bell street, Fifth street, No 2 police station, poison, St.Joseph, streetcar, Suicide, undertakers June 25, 1907
ENDED LIFE WITH SHOTGUN.
Former Deputy Sheriff Left Note Saying"Put Me in Hole."
"Put me in a hole tomorrow."
Just those six words to indicate that he died by his own hand was the parting message to the world left by James Flanery, who committed suicide yesterday afternoon at Lee's Summit. After brooding for weeks over his ill health, Flanery, a former deputy sheriff of Jackson County, and member of a prominent Lee's Summit family, went to the home of an uncle, Ed Chrisman, about nine miles from Lee's Summit yesterday afternoon and obtained a shotgun on the pretext that he wished to go out hunting. A few minutes later his body was found in a little thicket, the head almost torn to pieces by a charge of buckshot.
Beside the body was a shotgun, both barrels of which had been recently discharged. A small forked stick near the left hand indicated that Flanery had placed the butt of the gun against the ground, with the muzzle at his head and pressed the triggers with the stick.
Near the body was a hastily scrawled not which read:
"Put me in a hole tomorrow."
Flanery was at one time prominent in local and county politics. His family was an influential one in the eastern part of the county and the man himself had at one time been a deputy sheriff. Of recent years he had been in bad health and he had threatened a number of times to kill himself. His relatives did not take the threats seriously, however.
As his death was a plain case of suicide, no coroner's inquest was ordered.Labels: guns, Lee's Summit, Suicide June 24, 1907 HAT LED TO IDENTITY.
Man Who Killed Himself June 13 Was Wallace Whitman.
The suicide whose body was found June 13 in the Grove, a parkway at Fifteenth street and Agnes avenue, was Eugene Wallace Elliot Whitman, of Laramie, Wyo. The hat he wore bore the name of a Cheyenne (Wyo.) dealer, and Eylar Bros. undertakers had a picture of the man made and sent to the hat dealer. This was placed in a window with a note of explanation, asking for identification. In a few days Harry Holiday Whitman, a brother, passed the store and recognized the picture. He at once started to Kansas City, arriving here yesterday. Both brothers were railroad men, the suicide having formerly served as a police officer in Cheyenne.
Eugene Whitman was seen to baord a train for the East the night of June 9, but made no explanation of his departure. He had been at his mother's house a short time before and left some money. His brother said he had at times spoken of suicide, but was never taken seriously, and no motive for despondency was known. He was 34 years old and unmarried. The body, which was buried in potter's field, is to be removed to a grave in Union cemetery.Labels: cemetery, clothing, Suicide |
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