Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-05-25
MADE HIS OWN GRAVE.
suicid- Of a Mrsirnn 1Wdian VINO ""o
Brcn Thrown From HIS
Horse.

lose Mendez was a Mexican indian VINO
killed himself In issg In san Jose. Cal. says
a writer in the rhotosianhic Ian d!,neS; va. rs
years OF of age % ne had all his lite been a. an
exceedingly active man. Am9nE s,r Iose
ing characters then resin'nF ,inet OF Mild
horses. He Was also very ins. ginhs Of
could not only make The MEM ,hs,n IN k"ns many
novel and original ways; .,.,, .o s,lef
one day the daring riicr came 70 En'vt,,i;
Ry some means he was i,ihhtn9ns1 iITd and made
heipicss by the fall. he was dt1sgea i2r
some distance In the stlrrups W. ys,ild
have bsen stif. ana almost instant d"atn
10 any but a man Of wonderiui h'''' 49,
Injured and helpless. he recovered SUM-
cientiy 10 realize that he could never IN
euse In active pursuits asain, am life
In which he was precluied from DARING
riding on unframed mustangs n"I, tts
snterinrp hnn of from o Internal ni injuries he made
frequent threats or suicide. once IN ,neahS
ing q The matter 70 az an intimate @ ,ni IfSSn ,Sen.
he said that when he Killed hlmseu ~, u
would be done in such a mann,r 'nat ',n1aanbis
with him. II was thought at the time that
he Intended to drown himself IN the sea
whore his body would never De rygo Sa,e. 80
Every morning Tor several weeks lnyr,t
after Jose crawied away from the adone
hu; In which he and 3 number OF otncrs
lived, and came back quit" lhle "N.lN ''.I
ing. on these trips he took a plck ani
shovel and occasionally piece Or 'ittlnel
no one knew for what purpose. some sup.
posed he was mining somewhst., 1E w he
time he had grown so desrondent as 70 us
entirely unconinunicative. and no eNnihna
tion of his conduct could be ootnined ron t
him.. one. evening, az was eNpee'er, ar, ,bh ,bc
invalid did no. return to the adobe; ana the
next day a search was mage IN the uHcS-
tion In which he usually went ,.,o
Something like mile from the anopt ansn,
Aaatta ft. rak In found
clearing in the grass and weeds; 10 Io1ee ,he
surprise OF every one Of the party. ru9t
hoard, box about three iesi VIDE esss enu sin in
depth was found lying upside down III the
middle OF the open space. The poN Was ,
Immediately over,lrned' ,. , nut nT,h mnasr W."
closer examination revealed the tayt that
attached TO the box, were a numpSr ol
pieces OF lariat. The explanation OF an o,' ,nIf
was a mystery, and at first II was NOT con
nec;ed with the disappearance oil the MeA''
can.
then made an explanation which was pro,
nounced entirely plausible. ana cleafei W
the mystery. The man said that the Mex.
can, after sustaining his injury. nag oe,, 81.
support and sus tenance, and he was ieter
mined, II possible. after he was deai mo-
TO give them any more b ,roashlGI Which f he eoniJ
no, only kill. but also at the same tin,i
bury himself. How the thing was inansgeI
easily enough determined pN an iNefN
ton of the ground. The deceased nad uu.
a grave, a rather shallow one, in which MI
skeleton was found some years later.
After the grave was dug. which required
some time, owing to the feeble conditio,
OF the deceased. he placed the loose eartn
In box that had been made Tor tha'
purpose The earth was packed in as
solid as possible by being wet and ther
allowed to dry again. so that when ,hs
tho earth toward the ground none OF II
feil ont Several Iariats were then
stretched across from the upper side OF the
hox as IT lay across the grave to stages
on the other side -.
The hox was then carefully balanced SO
that any object that might fall on me
iariats would cause IL to fall over the
grave and empty the earth 1t contained
on top OF the body. In this manner the
also buried himself in the same instant oil
time.
So well satisfied were those who made
tho surprising discovery that theii
theory was correct that they did not take
the trouble to dig in order to ascertain
that the body was underneath. The
theory. however, was further strengthened
the shooting had been done in some loose
earth near the edge of the grave. II had
evidently dropped there from the suicide 5
hand after he fired the fatal shot. This
fact convinced the searchers, ana they
returned without making further investi'
cations, so that the desire of the unfortu-
nate that no one should he troubled with
burying him was realized.
Some years later the skeleton OF Jose
Mondez was accidentally discovered, and
the theory of his friends fully corrobo'
rated.