The San Francisco call., 1904-02-24
BULLET ENDS
LIES BATTLE
Leroy E. Mosher, Well-Known
Newspaper Man, Kills Him.
self on Beach at Santa Monica
LEAVES PATHETIC NOTES
Wife's Sickness and Reverses
in Business Affairs Cause
Him to Become Despondent

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2S.-Ruined
1 in health, his fortune depleted his
wife slowly dying of an incurable dis
ease, Leroy E. Mosher for many
years connected with the Los Angeles
Times and once its managing editor,
ended the struggle of years this after
noon by placing the muzzle of a re-
volver in his mouth and blowing out
his brains. The deed was committed
on the beach half a mile north of the
bathhCuse at Santa Monica. No per-
son witnessed it. A woman, whose
identity is not known, was walking
along the beach and came upon the
body, which was lying propped up
against a broad cement walk. She
gave the alarm and Dr. Fisher re-
sponded, but death had ensued at least
ten minutes before.
In Mosher's lifeless hand was a re-
volver and in his pocket a number of
notes, the text of which indicated that
suicide had long been premeditated.
Most of them were written to relatives
and others to intimate friends, but the
tenor of all of them is the same. They
are the last written effort of a man
who for years had been forceful
writer and there is about their text
touching pathos. He considered life
a failure, said that there was no fur
ther use of his struggling, referred to
the popular disapproval of self-de-
struction, but excused his action by
saying that greater men than he had
ever hoped to be had taken their own
lives.
He had nothing but kind words for
his friends and did not refer to his
enemies Throughout the communica-
tions there is a strain which shows
that he had long been struggling
against just what he did; struggling
to regain what he had lost and at last
growing weary had in an instant ended
the whole matter.
L. E. Mosher was a native of New
York State and was 55 years of age.
Early in life he moved to Kansas and
when but boy he served throughout
the Civil War as a member of a Kan
sas cavalry regiment. After the war he
became telegraph operator and when
he came to California he entered the
employ of the Southern Pacific, ris-
ing through the various steps until al
one time he was assistant general
ments in this section brought him con-
siderable fortune. He acquired an in
terest in the Los Angeles Times and
several years ago greatly increased his
holdings in that corporation and be-
came an active factor in the manage
ment of the paper, both in the editor
ial and business departments. When
during the war with Spain General H.
G. Otis went to the Philippines, Mosher
was made managing editor of the pa
per. Subsequently he went to New
York, where he embarked in an as
phaltum business, which was financial
ly unfortunate, and there he left most
of his fortune. Then he returned to
Los Angeles and engaged in the plas-
ter business, but that was not very
successful. A few months ago his
wife became i'll of cancer, from which
a surgical operation gave only tenn
porary relief. On one occasion to a
former associate on the Times, he had
threatened to commit suicide, saying
that his troubles were greater than he
could stand. The remains will be
brought to this city for burial to-mor-
row.