The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-08-05 00:00:00

PRIZE CONUNDRUM FOR AUGUST.
(914.4 ibh and r by 11. R. 11. PRINCE 0 c • E t.l, SWEDEN.)
To what country :Mould a gentleman go in oiler to
put the last touch of imlish to his education?
To Finland. In order to get some Finnish.

A SAD END.

On n.lay an inquest was held in the gaol of New-
gate, London, on the body of Charles Jeanne, a
Frenchman, aged 32, who had been confined there on
a charge of defrauding the Alliance and other insur-
ance offices of about £l,OOO by making fraudulent re-
Kesentations as to the loss of his property by fire.
, He hail been arrested on a warrant on Friday week,
am! taken on the firth iwing day te the justice-room of
the Mandianhouse before the Li inl May. ir, who after
'a short preliminary investigation ail). armed the hearing
for a week. The prisoner, who haal carried on the
business of a print-seller in Great James-street,
Bedford-row, was removed from the court with other
persons under remand to Newgate, and in the ordi-
nary course would have undergone another examina-
tion on Saturday last. He had been remarkably
cheerful throughout his confinement, and although a
Roman Catholic, he attended voluntarily the esnal reli-
gious, services in the gaol. An examination in each
cell is made by the warders daily, and care is taken
that the prisoners do not contriveto secrete about them
or to remove from the cell furniture or anything with
the aid of which they might be tempted to commit
suicide. Various visits are paid to the culls by the
officials throughout the day, and one of the chief
warders passes round the gaol between eight and nine
o'clock in each evening to see that the primmer, are in
bed. The man in question, Jenne, hail, as may be
surmised, given no indication (if his intention to do-
stroy himself, and he appeared in his usual condition
and health on Friday night when William Thomas,
the principal warder visited his cell. He was
then in bed. and the cell was in BO disorder.
That Wadi the last time that he was seen alive. A
watchman parules the passages throughout the night,
anil although unable fnini the darkness to see the in-
mates of the cells until daybreak he is supposed to be
in a isisition to hear any violent noise or movement
made by any one of them. The prisoner, as has been
stated, would have been brought before the Lord
Mayor again at eleven o'clock on Saturday morning.
No noise was heard in his cell either on riday night
or early that morning, but the watchman at daybreak
—which would have been about four rieffick —hoked
as usual through what is called " the inspection
hole in the door, and found the man hanging within
a few feet rif it. He at once got hold of the rope
through thc loophole, and cut it, earring the body
to fall across the doorway. An alarm having been
raised the warder Thomas ran to the slot, and with
some difficulty opened the door, the prisoner's body
and all the furniture of the cell, which had been
ranged there by the deceased, blocking the way for the
time. The body was examined by a surgeon, and it
was found that the prisoner had been dead some time.
The act of suicide had evidently been committed
with the greatest determination. The prioonerseemed
first of all to have twisted tightly his handkerchief, and
putting it through some of the holes in the air shaft,
which is 7ft. or fift. from the ground, to have formed
a kind of loop, from which he hung, a short piece (if
rope. The handkerchief had been dragged through the
holes in the shaft by a piece of comb, and the rope had
been taken out of the mile if his hammock. To prevent
the movements being heard he had removed all the bed.
coverings, and strewn them about the floor. Be must
then have stood upon his stool, and tied his legs
together firmly with a piece of cord. Having made a
noose in the rope hanging above him he must have kicked
away the stool, and thus caused his death. Another
handkerchief hail been folded together and pressed into
his ITS nab and nostrils. He was partly dressed at the tune,
and it is supposed that he began his drculful prepara-
tions after the warder left his cell on Friday evening.
Three letters, written in French, were found in the
cell, addressed to relatives and friends, informing them
of his arrest on charges of fraud, and expressed his in.
tention to commit suicide, a 8 he could not bear the
idea of the punishment he would have to endure for
his crimes, which Inc ascribed to an uncontrollable de-
sire to obtain money. There was also a written request
to the Governor (Mr. Jonas) to allow the letters to be
posted.
The jury, having beard in evidence the circumstances
of the suicide, returned a verclitt to the effect that the
prisoner had committed the act while inn state of tem-
porary insanity.
The letters were directed to be forwanled to the re-
lations to whom they had been addressed. 'Mere has
been no previous suicide in the gaol for bet, en or eight
years.