Arizona republican., 1895-08-06
TIRED OF LIFE. Frank Bergmeier De-
 termineS to Die. He Was Found Dead in Bed at the Central. A Bottle of Morphine Tells a
 Significant Tale.
When Discovered He Had Been Dead Many Hours and De-
 composition Had Set In.

Yesterday about one o'clock Joseph Thalheimer of the Central, entered Justice Johnstone's court in an excited manner and imparted the startling news that dead man wBs at his hotel in one of the rooms. The justice hastily collected coroners jury and re- paired to the scene. The room occupied by the dead could not be entered by means oi the door as it was locked and the key on the inside. The window was open however, through which Mr. Thalheimer made an entrance and un- locked the door for the jury. An soon as the door was opened the stench that pervaded the room was conclusive proof that decomposition had ret Tn.
 The man was dead, there could be TO doubt on that point, but his position on the bed was by no means unnatural.
 The body was laying diagonally across the bed with one leg partly hanging over the side and the other partly drawn up. To superficial observer it would seem from the position of the man that he was in repose. The sur roundings, however, denoted that the sleep was the sleep of death. The face was partly buried in the pillow so that it could plainly be seen that pool of blood had gathered in the cavity of the pillow made by the head. The body was discolored, proof that dissolution had happened son hours previous. Near by neatly folded lay the mans wearing apparel as if the wearer had intentions of donning them once more.
 Dr. Purman was called and he took a hasty glance and gave it as his opinion | from the blood or the pillow that the man might have died from apoplexy or congestion of the brain, but the body was in such bad state of decom. position that nobody cared 10 handle the remains so the jury retired and left the undertaken to do the rest.
 Nobody about the hotel knew the man. He applied for 8 room Sunday morning about o'clock which he paid for without registering. He did not ap pear that day and about 7 o'clock in the evening the porter rapped on his door and asked him if he was sick or wanted anything. He got up and opened the door. stating that he WAS well and after getting drink of water again entered the room. Yesterday at noon the porter thinking it peculiar that the man would possibly be sleep ing all that time, again knocked at his door. He repeated the performance several times and still getting no ans. wer got stepladder and looked over the transom. The sight that met his gaze nearly caused him to lose his bal ance and fall The house wac given the alarm with the result as already stated.
 It was subsequently learned that the name of the deceased was Frank Berg meier, man who had recently been employed by Cor Hurley at his dairy. No papers of any description were found on the clothes worn by the dead man, but bottle of morphine with half of the contents gone was found in the bureau. The presence of the poison threw an entirely different aspect on the manner of death, which was strengthened by the testimony of sev- eral witnesses at the coroner's inquis- tion. Several who knew him stated that at times the deceased had often made remarks that he would be better dead than alive, and on one occasion, about year ago, did attempt self destruction, but was talked out of it by a friend :. He was former member of the Salva- ton Army and religion was his hobby.
 Last Saturday night in company with q couple of friends he visited the Salva- tion Army tent and upon coming out he showed them a bottle containing morphine. They asked him what he was doing with the drug and he replied that he could not sleep at night and took the drug for that purpose. They remonstrated with him against the poison explaining that the habit would grow and he would not be able to rid himself of it. He replied that he would never use enough of it to become ad- dicted to the habit. That was the last they saw of him alive. From one of the men 1t was learned that the deceased was native of Germany and about 3f years of age. He came to Arizona a couple of years ago from Pennsylvania where he has a sister living.
 The coroner's jury brought in a yer dict that deceased had come to his ) death from morphine overdose.