The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-02-02
Suicide With Explosives.

The suicide of the Anarchist Lingg by
means of detonator exploded in his
mouth is not the first self-murder of it's
kind. The annual reports of Col Majeu-
die and his colleagues contain several
instances of suicide by similar use of
explosives.
Thus, in 1876, native of Alsace put a
dynamite cartridge in his mouth and fired
it, with the result of blowing his head
and the upper part ofhis body to pieces.
In June the same year, at Wickham
Market in Suffolk, a woman named Solo.
mon, the wife of an oil merchant, pur.
chased quantity of guupowder, and,
having made circle of it and placed
herself in the midst she fred the powder.
The experiment was unsuccessful only
slight injuries were inflicted upon the
woman. Thereupon she went to an out
house, and, putting quantity of gun
powder into pail, placed herself over
the bucket and applied a match. On
this occasion her injuries we're more
severe, but her purpose was again q
failure, and she hacked at her throat with
a knife. She was found in a most lam
entable condition, and died next day.
At Nittshill in Scotland, In October of
the same year, miner named Duncan
obtained some dynamite and blasting fuse
and went into the street, where he placed
the dynamite on the ground, leaned over
it and lighted the fuse. At this moment
some boys, attracted by his unusual atti.
tude, came toward him. "Keep back"
shouted Duncan, "for the love of God, or
you will be blown into eternityp' The
boys stood aloof; in few moments there
was aloud explosion, and Duncan was
blown to atoms. In September, 1881, a
miner at Runcorn, filled his mouth with
gunpowder, ignited it with match, and
succeeded in blowing the top of his head
of. An almost identical instance occur
ed in 1883 at Canterbury, when waiter
named Simmons destroyed himself by
exploding gunpowder in his mouth.
A more elaborate application of ex.
plosives to the purposes of suicide and
murder combined was recorded tue same
year. At Dunedin, New Zealand, clerk
named Stephenson, who had been separ.
ated from his wife for some time on
account of drunkenness, met her in the
street and exploded dynamite cartridge
closed to her head, his own head being
placed at the same moment very near to
hers. Both were almost completely blown
off.
In the year 1854 three suicides of this
SORT were recorded. One was committed
in June at Munich by soldier of the
Bsvariau field artillery, who had miscon.
Quoted himself and. wished to avoid pun.
ishment. He loaded a cannon with some
guupowder and pieces of iron. and, plac-
ing himself in front of it, fired it.
Another case occurred in the Bois d,
Boulogne the same month, when man
blew himself to pieces by exploding an
iron box capable of containing about ten
pounds of gunpowder. But the most
remarkable case occurred on the west
coast of Africa. The King of Falaha
being attacked by Mohammedan force,
and finding resistance impossible, he
assembled his family and principal off,
cers, and after addressing them and
intimatipg his determination never to
accept Mohammedanism, and inviting
those who did not agree with him to go
away, he applied light 20 large guam.
tity of gunpowder collected for the pur.
pose, and blew the palace and all who
were in it to pieces.-S. James Gazette.