Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-12-22

In q Moment of Mental Alteration.
SO Say the CorOner's Jury.


yer J. Miller, who died on Tuesday evening
from the effects of injuries inflicted by him.
self, assembled for the purpose Of hearing
testimony. Several persons we're examined,
and the following evidence was ELECTED:
Lieutenant Sheftall, sworn, saith: 1 am
Lieutenant of the police force of Savannah;
was on my rounds visiting the men yes
terday afternoon; turning into Tattnall
street, near CASTOR street, my attention was
attracted by the screams OF female; gal
loped up to the house No. 90 Tattnall street.;
there | met the ladies together, one crying
and screaming, who / afterwards ascer-
tanned was Mrs. Zoller; l jumped off my
horse and asked what was the matter; she
answered, saying that her brother had shot
| himself; asked the name of her brother,
which l found out to be Oliver j. MIL
| Ter; l went into the house and into the
room; there | found him lying In
pool of blood, on his back, with Smith &
| Wesson improved self cooking pistol on his
right side, near his right hand; upon exami-
nation l found one ball out of the pistol;
pistol was full cooked; finding that the man
was not dead as yet, and fearing that he
might attempt to use the pistol again, re-
moved the same from the floor to the
| bureau; / then came down stairs; / got
| boy to 90 for Doctor Harden, saying to the
bov for him to come Immediately as man
had shot himself; my attention was called
again to a noise In the room where the man
was; | went up stairs again and found him
living on his side: fearing that he might
get the pistol off the bureau, put the same
in my pocket; 1 then got boy to go for
Doctor Weichselbaum and for the Park
policeman, n. J. Jones the reason sent
| for n J. Jones was to keep the large crowd
out Of the house; in the meantime went into
the street and got Mrs. Z lller to go back
into the house l then went upstairs again
where the man was, and found him appa-
rently sitting up with his hands on his neck
ana face found him bleeding at terrible
rate in that time DIR. Harden came; do not
think 1t was more than ten minutes after
sent for the doctor when he came; the doctor
went right to work on the man; got basin
OF water, and as he commenced examining
the wound he said he is a gone case l
said, Doctor, is there no chance for himY
he said, He is gomez ten minutes after DR..
Weichselbaum came in; asked me who was
there with the man; l told him DR.. Harden
was In attendance; he said, well, enc will
be enough, won't itg' replied, 60 in, D3c-
tor, you may be OF some servicP;' he did so,
and volunteered lis services to DR.. Harden.
then went down and told the policeman,
N j. Jones, to remain there until
Immediately notify the Coroner;
about seven O'Clock l ordered mount
ed policeman Allen Jones to go and as
certain IL the man was dead, and to come
and let me know; he did so, and came back
and said that the man had just died; l then
ordered him Immediately to go to the COro-
ner, notify him of the death, that had the
pistol and knew all about the case; Coro-
ner responded promptly, aud ! accompanied
him to the house and took charge Of the
case.
Dr. Thos. G. Harden, sworn, saith: Yes
terdsY afternoon, about $780, | was sent I r
aud received a message from Lieut.. Sheftall
that y man on Tattnall street had shot him
self; | responded to the call, and upon ar
rival found a man, Mr.. Miller; do not know
his given name; found him lying on the
q ,or in the bedroom up stairs, completely
covered with blood; / got basin of water
and washed off as much blood as l could TO
examine the wounds; l found a cut about
two and q half or three inches on
the left side of his neck, which di-
vided some of the smaller veins at the
portion of the neck; after l dressed the
wound in the neck, he said to me: doctor,
look farther and you will find another
place." / washed fl more blood, and upon
examination found bullet hole in the head
over the right eye; l passed my probe into
the wound about three inches, but failed to
discover the bali; he then appeared to
be sensible, and l asked him II he
had cut his throat himself; he said
Eyes" "Did you also fire the pistol to pro-
duce the wound in your head by your own
handS?' He said Eyes, INTENDED To kill nv
self, and know l will die; there is no use
for you TO do anything for me, as l am
going TO die" l had the bloody clothes
taken off him and put on others, and put
him in his bed, and made him as comfort
able as possible; l remained with him until
be died, which was about 6.i5 o'clock p. m. !;
he appeared 70 be perfectly rati-ra up TO
five minutes OF his death; be asked ar water
aud brandy, which gave him thre different
times; be responded to everything | asked
him, and l could find no trace Of insanity;
| be was not under the influence of LIQUOR,
and was perfectly sober and rational.
Frank Zoller, sworn and saith: About
1890 o'clock was at home and Joke to my
brother-in-law, o. j. Miller he was then in
| his bed /; he compliance of having to stay In
bed so long, and said that SIT would kill him
II he stay much longer" and stated he
thought he would get up and go out in the
| afternoon nv wife was present at the time,
and said be had better not, and the best
| thing for him to do was to keep quiet she
was always with him in the afternoon
| had been quite busy, and thought that |
would not have time enough to go home
and be back in time; but then 1
changed my mind about 1t, thinking that
had better 60 home, as they were
very likely TO want my assistance, he being
| sick: upon my arrival found him on the
| floor of his bedroom shot and cut, Drs.
Weichselbaum and Harden attending to
him; started to speak TO him, but was told
| by the doctors not to say anything to him,
so "a to keep him quiet; was with him until
| his death; appeared to be sane, and do not
know why he did the set; recognize the
| deceased to be my brother-in-law,
| Oliver j. Miller, age about twenty-One
years, a native OF New York, resided
with me since my marriage to his sis
| ter, now eleven months, at No. 90 Tattnall
street, Savannah, Ga be was not married; no
parents living; he was sick and confined to
| his bed five days; DIR. Faligant was there
at ten O'Clock; Miller stated that he would
| not bother any more with DIR. Falligant, as
he was not doing him any good; my wife
/ attended to him all the time during his
illness and was very attentive to him, being
in the room nearly all the time, and was
punctual Ia giving him his medicine.
| DR.. Weicbselbaum sworn, saith: Tuesday
| evening ct $50 O'Clock boy came for me
/ to go to TattnaIl street, that a man had sbo
/ himself; on arriving there found DIR. T.
| Harden making pressure on the wound to
control bleeding, which he did; he t7en
sewed up the wound, which did not bleed
after he got through MIR. Miller called onr
attention to his head; on examination found
found the skull fractured, the ball having,
| think, passed directly into the brain; he
was perfectly conscious all the time, an
swering all questions nationally; he inform
ed us that he cut his throat and shot him
self with his own hand for the purpose of
committing suicide; he died half an hour
after arrived there.
Walter Hunter sworn, saith: Yesterday
| evening, about $3.50 O'Clock, l was standing
I in the east door Of the Marshall House, saw
Mr.. Miller approaching from DraYton street;
when he came up to me spoke to him and
| shook him by the hand; l asked what bad
been the matter with him and how he was;
told me that he had typhoid fever, aud to-
day, which was the 10Th, was the first day
| he had been out; l told him ! hoped he
would get well sOoDI he said yes, he would
be all right to morrow | asked him in the
Office to sit down, saying to him that he
| might catch cold where he was; he replied,
IL did not make much difference whether he
| caught cold or not; came iu and took seat
near the cashiers desk; when he got seated
he asked to get carriage 20 take him home;
| told him that as soon as a carriage came /
would get him one, there being none there
at the time; he sat there for while, got up
and asked me to take q drink; refused,
and he said you had better, as Il will be the
last chance you will have to take one with
me: he then said "Walter. bad a dream
about Macpherson last night, J" and asked me
where Macpherson shot himself; l told him
he placed the revolver over his right eye; be
asked me IL he (MacphersoD) died i'm
mediately; l told him no, that he died
about twenty minutes after he had