Horrible Suicide

Horrible Murder and Suicide.

By the passengers who came in the cars from New Haven, on Tuesday, we learn that a most horrible murder and suicide had been committed early on the morning of that day, at Wallingford.

It seems that an individual by the name of Hotchkiss, had for some time been living in unlawful connection with a married woman named Harriet Allen. A divorce had a short time previous been obtained by this woman from her husband, and she was to have married Hotchkiss, on Sunday next. Some difficulty arose between them in regard to the wedding day, and on Monday night last, Hotchkiss returned from N. Haven, where he had purchased some N.E. Rum, and drank a large quantity.

About 6 o’clock on Tuesday morning, he took an axe and went to the room where his intended wife was sleeping with her mother in the same bed, and with one blow of the axe split open her head, and repeated his blows till her head and breast were cut to pieces. He then went into an adjoining room and, with a jackknife, cut his own throat so as to occasion his death in a very short time.

This is certainly one of the most horrible deeds of blood and murder that ever disgraced the annals of our State, and makes no less than the seventh or eighth murder committed in the State within the year. It is supposed by some that the murder was committed in a fit of jealousy and a desperation excited by that monster of so many crimes RUM! We shall send a reporter on Monday to obtain the full particulars of this most dreadful affair, and publish them in our next.

From The New England Weekly Review (Hartford, CT) Saturday, October 24, 1840, pg. 43, col. C.

ULYSSES, (TOMP. Col, N. Y.,) April 4, ‘46.—SUICIDE OF AN OLD MAN.—Yesterday afternoon a man about 70 years of age was discovered dead in the woods, about half a mile from Trumansburg.  He had taken life by a double process.  When found he was suspended by the neck with two strands of a rope from the limb of a tree.  A few steps from him lay his budget; upon it lay his knife and razor, the latter quite bloody.  His throat was cut in two place, but both too high, or near the chin to effect a speedy death.  Near his budget was a pool of blood, where he undoubtedly had sat and bled.  But finding so severe a struggle between life and death, he made a finishing stroke by hanging himself; though it can hardly be called hanging, for his knees touched the ground.  It appears that after cutting his throat he untwisted a small rope and took one strand, attached it to the limb of a tree, then made a slipping noose and placed his head through it; this was found broken.  He then took two strands, and succeeded in his object.  His name was David Baker.  I learn that he lived in Washington county, had a nice house and lot, and was withal a man of good character.

from The Boston Daily Atlas, (Boston, MA) Wednesday, April 29, 1846, pg. 1, col. E

THE BEREAVED CAT’S SUICIDE

(From the New York Times.)

A curious story of an animal deliberately committing suicide comes from a little village in the western part of this State.  A cat and a dog brought up together were great playmates and very fond of each other.  They were the pets of a family whose home was not far from a railroad track, and one day the dog raced over the rails too near an approaching train and was struck by the engine and instantly killed.  The cat was in full chase after him at the moment, and saw her playfellow meet his death.  She was inconsolable, refused her food and would not run or play about in answer to the children’s efforts to arouse her.  She strayed often down to the track where her friend was killed, and, finally, one day less than a week after the dog’s death, the cat leaped in front of an oncoming engine and was herself killed.

from The Weekly News and Courier, (Charleston, SC) Wednesday, October 28, 1896; pg. 9; col D 

Driven to Suicide by his Victim’s Ghost.

John H. Smith, a giant oil well driller, of Pittsburg, [sic] committed suicide by tying a fire escape rope around his neck and swinging himself out of the third story window of Boley’s hotel, on Diamond street.  The noise of his dead body swinging against one of the windows led to the discovery of the act.

Smith was 6 feet 3 inches in height, and was known throughout the oil country as “Murderer John Smith.”  He was very gloomy at all times, and other drillers would not work with him, as he was looked upon as a Jonah.  Many years ago he and a companion killed a man at Edenburg, Clarion county.  Smith turned state’s evidence and was released.  His companion fled and was never captured.  Ever since Smith was said to have been haunted by the ghost of his victim, and has attempted to commit suicide in several different ways.

Once he tried to shuffle off by the aid of a can of dynamite, but was caught and his life saved.  Another time he contemplated self destruction and three revolvers were taken from him.  Again he walked into the river.  He tried to borrow a revolver from the clerk of another hotel than the one at which he was stopping, but it was refused.  Then he went to Boley’s and hanged himself.—Philadelphia Times.

from The Atchison Daily Globe, (Atchison, KS) Saturday, June 14, 1890

BLEW HIS OWN HEAD OFF

Farmer Commits Suicide in Novel and Horrible Fashion.

ST. Paul, Minn., Aug. 3.—A special to the Pioneer Press from Cumberland, Wis., says: “Christ Wold, a farmer near Poskin Lake, this county, committed suicide to-day by deliberately blowing off his head with dynamite.  He placed a quantity of dynamite in a hole in the ground, laid his head over it and touched off the fuse.  Near-by was found a scrap of paper, on which was written: ‘Here I go, and the Lord go with me.’

“His head and one arm were completely torn away.  Wold was thirty years old, and leaves a wife and family, whoa re unable to assign a cause for the deed.”

from The North American (Philadelphia, PA) Friday, August 4, 1899, pg. 1, col. E

A ridiculous Suicide.  Yesterday morning, a man by the name of Thomas Smith, and his wife, residents of Flushing, having come to this city to purchase household furniture, were about to embark for home in the steam-boat Flushing, in front of Fulton Market, when it was found that the cart-man, in conveying their purchases to the pier, had broken one of the chairs, upon which Smith refused to pay the carriage.  The dispute having drawn a crowd of persons together, Mrs. Smith, in order to end the strife, took an opportunity to pay the cart-man his fare without the knowledge of her husband, who, on being told of this piece of conjugal interference, in a paroxysm of rage, threw himself into the dock, and was drowned.  He was a shoemaker, about 25 years of age, and had been married only a few weeks.

from the Lynchburg Virginian, (Lynchburg, VA) Monday, August 19, 1833; col C

SELF-BUTCHERY.

Horrible Suicide of a Poor Wretch in Delirium Tremens.

LOUISVILLE, KY., July 17.—Tom Hanlon, aged 37, confined in the jail with delirium tremens, broke a window pane, and with a triangular piece of glass stabbed himself in the left lung.  Turning the glass round and round he made a horrible aperture, into which he thrust his hand a pulled out a portion of the lung.  He is still living, but will die.

A Victim to Strong Drink.

Special Dispatch to the Globe-Democrat.

PHILADELPHIA, July 17.—Jos. Bould, a man 49 years of age, residing with his wife and two children at No. 226 Berkley street, Camden, called his 14-year-old daughter Agnes to him last night, kissed her good-by, and soon afterward drank an ounce of laudanum.  At 7 this morning he was dead.  The suicide was employed as a horse-collar maker in Philadelphia.  He had become addicted to the use of liquor, and was apparently unable to break off the habit.  This caused unpleasantness between him and his wife, and for several days he had been drinking more than usual, although he kept at work.  Last night he returned home at 7 o’clock, threw himself in a chair, and said to his wife: “I’m tired of lying to you about this thing,” referring to his dissipated habits.  He soon afterword swallowed the laudanum.

A Despondent Farmer.

LYNNS, N. Y., July 17.—Christian Goezman, a wealthy farmer, committed suicide yesterday by taking laudanum.  He had been very despondent since about two weeks ago, when the Russian fly destroyed his crops.

from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, (St. Louis, MO) Saturday, July 18, 1885, pg. 3, col. D

A young Irishman having resolved to blow his brains out, and being very anxious to have a Christian burial, wrote the following letter, and then committed suicide: “I killed myself accidentally whilst playing with a pistol.  I hope my body will be received into the church.”

from the Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco, CA) Tuesday, June 02, 1863

A Student’s Suicide.

[From the Portland (Me.) Press.]

George G. Howard, a student of Monmouth Academy, committed suicide on August 31, by shooting himself in the most deliberate manner.  He took off a portion of his clothing and hung it upon a tree, laying aside also his knife and wallet.  Across two large stones almost breast high, he had laid a stick on which to rest the gun, cutting notches in the stick to prevent the gun from slipping, and confining each end by placing upon it rocks for a weight.  By tearing cloth into shreds he formed a string which he attached to the trigger, and thence carried it over the stick as a purchase, designing evidently to pull it after he had seated himself against a huge bowlder, with the muzzle of the gun in his mouth.  But the string broke, and he then discharged the gun by pushing against the trigger with the ramrod.  The top of his head was fairly blown off, and pieces of his skull were found several rods from the terrible scene.  With his clothing he left a paper collar, on which he had written these words: “I have lived long enough, and so here goes.  I have got in a mighty charge.

from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO) Saturday, September 11, 1875, pg. 2, col. G

Horrible Suicide.

A Religious Zealot throws herself before a Locomotive and is crushed to Death!

Thomas Philips, formerly employed in a scale factory on Columbia-street, and a well-known resident in the lower quarter of the city, committed suicide yesterday morning on East Front by throwing himself before the locomotive of the morning Marietta train, which broke every bone and mangled his body frightfully.

Philips was a member of the High-street Baptist Church, and regarded as quite an exemplary and worthy person.  For a twelvemonth he had been devoting a great deal of his time to religion, attending one or other of the prayer-meetings almost daily.  He read hymns and the Scriptures nightly, and his mouth was full of quotations therefrom. As the months advanced, his ardor in the cause augmented, and religion occupied his mind so much of late that he has attended to little business.

Evening before last he had participated in a prayer-meeting, and seemed at its close to be entirely insane; talking incoherently and raving about God and Christ and the angels like an inmate of a mad-house.  A friend who saw his condition, persuaded him to visit his house and sleep there; but Phillips arose about four o’clock in the morning, and walked down Front-street, occasionally stopping and preaching to a lamp-post, and then singing and praying.—He wandered about in this insane mood for more than two hours, and when the train started, he walked slowly along, and stopped on the side of the track as if waiting for the cars to go by.  As soon, however, as the locomotive was within a few feet, he threw himself before the engine, which, with the tender, passed over his body, although the bell was rung and the engine reversed—but too late.

Phillips was killed instantly, and presented a frightful and sickening spectacle.—He was crushed to pieces and mangled beyond the power of recognition.  A number of pieces of bone were picked up after the corpse had been carried away.

The Coroner held an inquest upon the body, and the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the facts.  He leaves a wife and four children.—Cin. Enqr., Nov. 19th.

from the Newark Advocate (Newark, OH) Wednesday, November 24, 1858, pg. 1, col. E