The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-08-02
CHOPPED HIS OWN HEAD OFF
James A. Moons Elaborate Prepare
lions for Committing Suicide

The recent suicide OF former StateI
Senator and Circuit Judge Sellar att
Charlottesville. recalled to a state of
ficer the following story Of anotherl
suicide.
Sunday morning, June II, 1876" hel
said. Il was stopping at the Lair housed
in Lafayette, when one OF the cham
bermaids- rushed into the Office palel
with fright and said that the gentle-I
man in room IL had been murdereo.l
A number of US went at once to thel
room and there I witnessed q slght tnatI
will never fade from my memory
to the floor was the headlessI
body of a man. His head had fallenl
into a box which was partly filled With
raw cotton and a broad axe lay upOnl
the edge of the box. Rugged up near
the body was a strange de-
vice and on one Of the beams of this
was printed in large letters, 'karlkari.I
Patent applied for
The dead man was James A. Noon,
and he had taken a room at the hotel
on the preceding Friday evening. 1t
was at first supposed that a murder
had been committed, but a little inves-
tigation demonstrated the fact that
death, and had determined that it
should be brought about by an inven-|
ton of his own. He was about 30
years of age and was a crank on me-
chanical construction. From the time
he was 15 he and his father worked
upon divers impossible problems,
among them that of perpetual motion.
Moon always contended hat he could
make a machine that would eclipse
anything ever invented for taking hu-
man life. and it is said that he once
went to Europe to study the guilotine
and improve upon it. His 'Karikari,'
as he termed the machine, was the re-
suit of a years study, but he was the
only one that ever died by it.
1.-The inquiry set on foot developed
these facts: On the Friday preceding
the finding Of his. body ne was at home
and apparently cheerful. During the
day he had his beard shaved off and
from the barber shop he went to a
hardware store and purchased two
heaDv bars of iron. He had purchased
a broadaxe some days before and this
he a ground to a razor edge. He
purchased three ounces of chloroform
and then left home with a trunk con
tanning the things he had purchased
and a framework for his mach
went to the Lair house and was taken
to three rooms before he found n tC
please him
"Karikari was an ingenious device
and was so well constructed that the
expected emu was perfectly accom-
plished. The two bars of iron had been
fastened to the broadaxe to insure a
sufficient weight When it should fall
upon it's victim. This was mounted on
a beam, the other end of which was
fastened to the floor. A hook had been
screwed into the wall and the suspend
ed axe was held in place by a cotton
cord which was fastened to the hook.
Immediately under the hoo Moon had
placed a small shelf and on this he set
a candle. which extended up above the
cord, but which burned the string in
two when the candle shortened to it.
When the string was severed the axe,
weighed by the two bars of iron, came
down upon the box on which Moon had
placed his neck.
Everything indicated the utmost de-
liberation and care and the plan must
have been studied out months before it
was carried into execution. After plac-
ing the machine in position Moon lay
down upon the floor, his head in such
a position that it would fall into the
box when severed from his body. Be
fore doing this he strapped his legs to
the floor by means of staples or either
side and when he lay down he drew an
other strap across his breast, fastening
it with a buckle, and thus preventing
the possibility of moving in his sleep.
THE cotton in the box, into which
his head was to fall, was saturated
with the chlOroform, and he inhaled
the fumes at Once and was no doubt
soon asleep. The candle burned down
to the string, severed it and the axe
fell and his head was severed from the
body. The calculations were precise in
every respect, and SO completely was
the head severed from the body that
not a ligament was left to join it to the
trunk.
There can be no question but Noon
wanted TO demonstrate the utility of
the machine as we'll as to put an end to
his own life, and there is little doubt
but he believed that some one would
eventually patent Karikari' and that
his own memory, as the man who had
demonstrated it's perfection, would be
perpetuated by the act."-Indianapolis
Dispatch.