The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-29
LEFT COAT ON RRRYBOAT.
PETER j. KENNEDY WROTE THAT
HE WOULD COMMIT SUICIDE.
the Theatrical Manager Had Lost Money
I'm Recent Ventures, hut HIS Friends
mini He Had Some Left and Cannot
Think Of q Motive for Self DestructiOn.

In Recent Ventures. but His Friends
Think He Had some Left and Cannot
Think Of q Motive for eIf-DestructiOn.
Friends Of Peter J. Kennedy, the the
atrical manager whose hat and coat were
found on a seat in the ferryboat Brooklyn
on Thursday night, refused yesterday to
believe that he had followed out the threat
of suicide which he made in a letter TO his
wife, which was mailed an hour before
the discovery OF his effects by a deck
hand. Mrs. Elizabeth Kennedy, the actress,
identified the hat and coat as the property
OF her husband in the Fourth avenue po-
lice station, Brooklyn, and told the police
that she believed her husband had jumped
to his death in East River.
Later in the day when inquiry was made
at the Hotel harrington, 1897 Broadway
where Kennedy and his wife and child had
been living since the opening OF the the
atrical season, il was stated positively that
Mrs. Kennedy had left town. She had
told the clerk that she would be in the
country for several days.
Kennedy was seen last by friends at 5
O'Clock Thursday afternoon. At that time
he entered the office of Lift a Dingwald,
theatrical managers, on the second floor
of the Broadway Theatre Building. wherein
is his own office. One Of the members OF
the company said yesterday that at that
time Kennedy seemed in excellent spirits
and his manner betrayed no indication OF
suicide.
The missing theatrical man took dinner
with his wife. Later in the evening, 30
Mrs. Kennedy told the police yesterday,
she received a letter by special delivery
which had been mailed at 7 Il o'clock. This
letter, she said, was from her husband.
Il told her that he was tired OF life and
that he was going to commit suicide. Evil
dences Of his act, said the letter, would be
found on the ferryboat Brooklyn, which
plys between the Battery and ~Thirty-mnth
street, Brooklyn.
A silk lined overcoat and a hat were
found on the seat in the mems room OF
the Brooklyn on Thursday night about 8
O'Clock. The articles were turned over to
the police at the Fourth avenue station.
None of the officers or passengers on the
Brooklyn had seen a man jump from the
boat on It's 8 o'clock trip.
Letters and papers in the pocket OF the
overcoat bore the name and address r.
J.. Kennedy, room 10, Broadway Theatre
Building" The same name was found IN
the hatband.
Those who know Kennedy in the theatre
district said yesterday that they did not
believe he had committed suicide. he
sometimes INDUCED too freely in liquor,
they said, and when under its influence
he was known to have done some strange
things.
Kennedy's friends could think Of no
motive that would prompt him to end his
life. Though he had suffered some financial
reverses in recent theatrical ventures, he
was by no means ruined, they said. DE
owns a handsome house at Bath Beach
and has always lived comfortably, they
added. No report of any domestic diff
culties could be remembered. He was al.
ways an enthusiastic financial hacker and
manager for his wife, who has starred in
several productions handled by him. They
were married more than ten years 9
Elizabeth kennedy was Beatrice Norman
before her marriage. At the time Kennedy
married her he shared with Sam Thall the
rights in ~Yon Yonson' and ole Olsen,
Swedish dialect plays which have been
popular in the Northwest and West. Though
retaining his interest in these plays, Kennedy
started out to make his wife a star.
He procured the road rights for Captain
Jinks OF the Horse Marines from Frohman
after it's run in New York and put his wife
in Ethel Barrymore's place for an extended
tour Of the West. That was a failure. Next
he starred his wife in A You Like II" and
-Magda" in road shows and lost more
money
Mlzpah was MS latest venture. ne
secured the rights from Frohman while the
play was running at McVicker's Theatre in
Chicago. With the rights went the ex-
pensive properties which Frohman had
found to be too great a weight or the play
TO permit OF financial success.
kennedy took -Mizpah" to Baltimore
and Boston and finally staged il at the
Academy OF Music here. The engagement
lasted from September "a TO October 20.
Charles Dalton and Frank Losee were in
the company here. Kennedy spent a great
deal of money in the effort to make the
piece successful. IL failed to draw.
Some say that he tried to get the theatrical
trust to take "Mizpah" of his hands, but
that the effort was unsuccessful