The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1908-01-06
TORE HERSELF
FROM NURSE
TO END LIFE
NOman's Third Attempt at
Suicide Successful-. Threw
N Self From Window

Although a nurse tried to restrain
her, Mrs. Wilhelmina Kuhne, so wears
old, of Is Beacon street, succeeded in
breaking from her grasp in the City
Hospital yesterday afternoon and threw
herself from a window in the second
story of the institution. She received
in, suries internally, which caused her
death about three hours later. This
was the third attempt the woman had
made tn end her life. She tried twice
before to kill herself with gas.
The won van, who is of large build,
squeezed her Self through a window IS
by 10 inches IN a lavatory about six
feet above the door. The nurse, Miss
Blanche Heath, seized the womau's
dress and foot in an effort to save her,
but her weight and the height she was
above the floor handicapped the nurse.
After dinner Mrs. Ku1ne said she de-
sired,to go to the lavatol,T. Miss Heath
her. While the patient
went into a closet the MUSE left her
for a minute to get some medicine.
Mrs. Kuhne evidently seized the OPP
p%ortunity on the spur of the moment,
for when the nurse returned she noted
the absence of the woman off the floor
of the closet. Opening the door Miss
Heath saw her forcing her body
through the window above. She shouted
for help and tried to pull Mrs. Kuhne
back, but by that time the patients
hody was more than half way through
the window, and the nurses grasp on
the woman's dress and foot was too
weak to hold her weight.
Mrs. Kuhne fell on her right side. She
broke her right ARM, right shoulder and
a number of her ribs, which pierced
several organs and caused death. She
fell between 20 and 80 feet, the window
from which she threw herself being on
the Cabinet street side, where the grade
of the street is much lower than in
Paramount avenue.
The woman has no relatives in this
city since the death of her husband,
about four a ago, when he COM
mitted suicide by inhaling gas, but at
the hospital she CAV as the name Of
her nearest friend, a step-daughter,
Mrs. Minnie Kranz, of 440 Hunterdon
street, Fall River, Mass.
1t was Intended at the hospital to
turn Mrs. Kuhne over to the police of
the II OuTtl ICClilCl lOocig L cAoNSA ~
charge of attempting to commit suicide.
Whether the woman knew of this n
became desperate is not known posi-
lively, but it is thought probable.
Mrs. Kuhne was taken to the hos
pital on December 90 from her two
room apartment in the rear part Of a
big old ramshackle double tenement,
at Is Beacon street. She was suffering
from the effects of illuminating gas,
which she had inhaled in the hope OF
ending her life.
Mrs. Kuhne expressed regret then
3 that her attempt had failed. and said
that she would be better prepared next
time. s.-{e haf
When it came she went to a window
on the second floor of the institution,
and threw herself head-first to the
ground. Her injuries were such that
she died a few hours later after having
been carried back into the ward.
The woman's husband was a laborer,
who lost his place, got discouraged n
inhaled the gas with fatal results.
Since that time Mrs. Kuhne has been
despondent n resented attentions
from neighbors. Each day she went
out to work, but so thoroughly did she
keep her own counsel that there was
no one in the house in which she had
lived for years who knew by just what
means she earned her living.
A year ago Mrs. Kuhne tried to end
her life. She chose the same method
as her husband, but was resuscitated
then.