The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1901-10-25
SOUGHT HAPPI-
NESS IN DEATH.
Mrs. w. L. Nichol Ends
Her Life in Chicago.
RESULT OF ILLICIT LOVE.
Was the Daughter of the Late DR.,
Shoup, of the Columbia
Institute.
RESULT OF ILLICIT LOVE

Chicago, Oct. 20.-In despair over
their hopeless love for one another, two
prominent Chicagoans, both formerly
from Tennessee, deliberately planned
to die in double suicide. One, the
woman, and the wife of another, was
found cold and ifeless. The other,
the husband of trusting companion,
is still alive and in the hands of the
police, having been snatched from the
very jaws of death, hat pin piercing
his neck from side to side, bottle of
morphine clutched in his right hand
and his nostrils inhaling the sitting
fumes from six open gas jets.
The woman was Mrs. Charlotte
Nichol, mother of two children, and
wife of w. L. Nichol Jr., commercial
agent with headquarters in Chicago,
for the Nashville, Chattanooga & st.
Louis Railway Company. He who
sought to die with her is DR.. Orville
Burnette, a prominent South Side
dentist, whose down town offices are
in the Great Northern Hotel He has
been revived sufficiently to confess the
details of the tragedy to the police.
By appointment they had met, as
was frequently arranged, Saturday
morning and separated at his Office to
meet again in the evening at one of
the suburban railroad stations. To
gether they made their way to the
South Side cafe, dined and wined, and
then took quarters in handsome suite
of rooms in the Marlborough Hotel in
Twenty second street.
BARRIER BETWEEN THEM.
Over the glasses that had been filled
for them in several public places dur
ing the evening the woman, her COM
panion relates, talked ceaselessly OF
the barrier which kept them from the
continuous enjoyment of their love,
and insisted that nothing could dis
suade her from committing suicide
"Will you die for me and with me?''
she had pleaded for hours with hel
lover, until he saw that he could not
take her mind from her purpose, and
| DR.. Burnette at last gave way to hel
decision. Without registering at the
hotel they went TO their rooms and
there Mrs. Nichol penned this note
with tremling hand;
''To whom it may concern | die
it because loved him better than any
thing on earth and he loved me and
we could not be separated. Goodbye
CHARLOTTE. y
1When she had written this fare
WE'LL I" her companion has explained
in broken sentences, 1--WE sat up ant
talked a while and she asked me agair
and again if I would go to heaven will
her. | told her | would -
DECLARED SHE WAS HAPPY.
Morphine was secured, the gas turned
on and the two retired, the woman
saving constantly: II am so happy
I / never was so happy in my life.
could not be more contented. Deatl
with you will be so sweet. =
Some time in the morning DIR. Bur
nette slowly awakened, half dazed
The woman at his side stirred weakly
She was almost dead.
s'You will find the rest of the NOR
phine on the chiffonler, she mur
INJURED. ~ have taken my share
Good bye" These were her las
words
The remaining portion was not suffi
cient to result fatally, and Burnette
recognizing the fact. used the hat phi
and turned ON more gas jets.
Il decided that l must die in som
way, he told the police, land woul
to God it had finished me.
Years ago the two had been youn
friends in Tennessee. Burnette move
to Chicago to study dentistry and tn
girl married Nichol.
Police sent out to notify the husban
tonight found no one in their sout
side home save the two children, bo
of eight and girl of four. They, i
their prattle, said their father ha
gone out to look for mamma, VIII
had not been home "all the night an
not all the day.
Mr.. Nichol was soon found and take
TO the side of his dead wife.