The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-15
AGED MAN AND WIFE
 ASPHYXIATED IN BED
RECENTLY MARRIED COUPLE VICTIMS OF GAS IN PUTNAM
 STREET HOUSE.

Elderly John E. Rohan and Middle
 Aged Wife Killed by Gas-Had Lain
 cOvered-ORcer Lewis of Howard
 Avenue Precinct Breaks Open Locked
 DOOr-Medical Examiner Says Acci-
 dent.
 Two deaths that had resulted mys- teriously from gas asphyxiation was the discovery made by Officer Lewis, of the Howard avenue precinct, between 2 and 8 o'clock last evening upon breaking open the door of a bedroom on the sec ond floor of the house at 57 Putnam street. The dead are Jchn E. Rohan, aged seWenty-seven, and his wife, aged thirty eight. The couple were discov- cred dead in bed by the officer, the man being in position that suggested an attempt to get up. They had probably been dead all day.
 Death, it appears, occurred during Wednesday night. The couple had re- tired and locked the door of the bed room. Nothing was seen of either Ro- han or his wife during the day, but the other occupants of the house did not suspect anything wrong. A number Of visitors had called on the couple yes- terday, but, finding the door locked, had concluded that they were out.
 Early in the evening Mrs. James Clark, who occupies rooms on the same floor, failing to get any response to her rapping, became suspicious and tried to look into the room through the keyhole. She then discovered that the key was still in the door on the inside. Mrs. Clark then went out and found Officer Lewis, to whom she communicated the suspicious circumstances. The officer then entered the house and broke open the door, discovering the tragedy.
 Medical Examiner Bartlett was sum- moned and after a thorough investiga- ton he concluded that the case was the result of accident alone. Dr. Bartlett found two gas cocks half open in the room, one on the Illuminating jet, the other on a gas heater. The gas was supplied by a quarter meter, so that the supply had long since been ex- hausted.
 .Dr. Bartlett's theory is that the light ing jet was left turned down and that the heater cock was left open by some accident, the gas escaping from this and filling the small room to suffoca- ton, while the other light burned until the supply was exhausted. He said that he had known of many similar in cidents where no explosion had resulted from contact with the lighted jet.
 MT. and Mrs. Rohan were married last July at Bristol, R. l., which was Mrs. Rohan's home. Before her mar riage she was Miss Wade. No do- mestic troubles could be discovered to countenance any idea of suicide, and all the circumstances of the case appear against such theory.
 Those who knew the couple stated that their married life had been a very harmonious one, and that the two were in one another's company much of the time and apparently happy. No one had any knowledge of any friction ex- isting between the couple.
 MT. Rohan had lived in this city for about forty years. He owned the house in which the tragedy occurred, and also considerable other property in that quarter of the city, which brought him in comfortable income, Of late years he had spent considerable of his time in the manufacture of essences on small scale. A building in the rear of the Putnam street house he used as his laboratory.
 Mrs. Rohan is said to have been quite handsome woman. She was MT. Ro- hans third wife, having been married to him in July last. ,e..
 MT. Rohan leaves two daughters, Mrs. Cahill, of Putnam street, this city, and Mrs. Martha Dahlson, of Henry street, Brooklyn, N. Y.
 The house at 57 Putnam street was occupied by family named Clark and by an Italian family, besides the Ro- hans, who had reserved for themselves some rooms on the third floor and the bedroom in which the asphyxiation oc- cured on the second floor.
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