Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-24
MAN OF MANY
DEATHS IS DEAD
AIGUIER COULD CONTROL HIS
BODY AT WILL
Most Startling Feat Was Death Agony
After Hanging Himself on the
Stage-Autopsy Pre-
vented
Special Cable to The Herald.

Special Cable to The Herald.
LONDON, March 23.-One of the most
original music hall characters, known
as lie Pendu," or the man who used
to hang himself, has just died at Sol
lies Pont, near Toulon, says the Paris
correspondent of the Telegraph. His
real name was Simeon Aiguier, and he
was born at Sollies vile in 1851. Unlike
Fregoli, who initiates various person.
ages by sudden changes of Clothes he
could in a way transform his body, and
possessed the most curious physical
adaptabilities ever known.
When a young man he surprised and
puzzled the army doctors. AS he pre-
sented himself for physical examination
he appeared as thin, spare-ribbed fell
low, almost skeleton, and before the
examination was over he stood in the
presence of the army doctor with an
enormously inflated abdomen, as if he
had dropsy.
While the physician was examining
this abnormal development the abdo-
men retreated, and a big bloated tumor
suddenly grew out on the young mans
throat, as if he had an immense goitre.
He had, apparently, in an instant
transferred the swelling from the lower
part of his body to his throat. When
the examination was over he stood
there, a skeleton-like young fellow as
before
Death Pretense Fooled Doctor
His gifts in bodily transformation
soon became known all over his native
district, and he was induced to show
himself on the music hall stage. For a
long time he was known as the skele-
ton man, though he also exhibited him
self as the fat man. His physical trans
formations did not stop here. He was
able to initiate the process Of dying
and death itself to perfection.
Scientists and members of various
medical faculties often wished to eX-
anime his strange faculties but he con-
stantly refused to divulge the secret oi
his transformations. When he initiated
the state of a dead person he threw
himself into perfect coma. His heart
apparently ceased to beat, and the most
expert physicians are said to have beer
unable to detect the slightest movement
of the pulse They went so far as to
apply various instruments to detect life
without success, and even through the
stethoscope not the slightest action ol
the heart could be perceived. The most
expert doctors would have declared him
dead, and yet in the next instant he
would jump up and crack jokes and
be as much alive as anyone.
Hanged Himself in Public
His last trick, and the one which
kept audiences spellbound, was hang
ing himself by the neck with a cord
There was no mere make believe about
it,. He would hang himself or allow
| himself to be hanged, from a nail in
the ceiling in the presence of a large
audience.
The rope would fasten around his
throat, his muscles would stiffen and
the frightened public would see him
go through every one of the phases OF
man who was actually hanged The
CHASTITY spectacle was first exhibited N
cabaret i'm Montmartre, and despite
its horrors, or rather on account OF
them, 1t had great success.
A story is told that he once played
the trick in a hotel where he was stop
ping. He hung himself from the cell
ing, after ringing the bell, and when
the waiter entered he was Mortified By
the sight and rushed down to inform
the proprietor. Before they returned
TO the room the man who was supposed
To have hanged himself had taken uI
his valise and met them quietly on the
stairs.
Although II might have been ex-
peeted that some day he would hans
himself in real earnest, such calamity
never befell him. He died of a mos
common place illness, the grip, at hi
home near ToulOn. where he had retireC