The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1908-12-14
LEAVES MYSTERIOUS
NOTE FOR FRIENDS
Reads "After Seven Years of" and
Then Stops There-Victim Is Will
liam Deneen. Foreman for Green
& Sons Company-Death Follows
a Debauch With Companions.

With a smiling countenance, William
Deneen left a Gary drug store yesterday
moo nsyith an ounce bottle of carbOlic
acid in his pocket which he had just
purchased. As he turned to leave the
store he inquired: SIS this enough to
kill a man., A half hour later the
clerk who sold the drug identified q
IifeIess form in the morgue as the man
who had purchased the acid.
William Deneen, a foreman for the
Green & Sons company, the big sewer
contractors, drank the carbolic acid as
he lay on his bed in a shack at Eigh-
teenth and Massachusetts street His
death came instantly, although several
of his comrades worked necessarily for
fifteen minutes on his body until ply
stefan could be called.
Death Follows De5auch.
The suicide of Deneen followed a long
debauch with a number of his COM
rades. All of the men in the shack had
been drinking all day Saturday, nearly
all night Saturday night and again Sun
day morning. During all this time,
however, Deneen did not intimate in
any way that he was respondent. None
of his friends could design his purpose
when he went down to the drug store
and returned in a few minutes, ready to
take his own life. They did not even
grow suspicious when the man called
out to them: "Goodby boys; m going!'
just as he drank the fatal liquid.
The acid was procured at a local
drug store shortly after noon. The
clerk testified at the inquest that the
man seemed perfectly sober at the time
he asked for the acid and that he was
not suspicious of him in the least. The
man laid down ten cents on the counter
probably the last piece of change he
had. and took the bottle labeled poison
and walked towards the door.
Tells Friends "Goodby.'
Just as he started to open the door
Denen turned around, and with a smile
asked the clerk if the acid in the bot
tie would be enough to kill him.
I should say So" answered the clerk
But if 1 thought for second that yol
wanted it for that purpose you woul,
never get past that door," Deneen di,
not reply. but left the store at once an,
hurried down the street. The mex
heard of the man he was lying in tn
morgue.
AS soon as the acid was taken and h
had yelled "goodby' to his friends i
the next room of the shack Christophe
61Iey ana Joe MCCarty, VINO were IN tn
next room, suspected that everythin
was not right. They Investigated an
found their friend dying. He was a
once carried out into the open air wher
they pounded his back and forced wa
ter down his throat in an effort to in
duce him to vomit. His death was a.
most instantaneous.
Leaves Message Unfinished.
The only message left by Denee
was on a piece of wrapping pape
written in an almost illegible name
He was either very nervous or weak
the time from his long debauch, as II
more he wrote the worse the writir
became. AS near as could be deciphers
the following was on the paper:
Rooney CHS alias).
Dec IL, 1898.
"Goodby kind friends.
After seven years of'-t11is senten
was never finished. 1t might be pc
sible that he intended to write co
fession of some kind but did not ha
the courage to finish 1t. What he
tended to say will never be known,
thought that might have had somethi
to do with the suicide.
The body was removed to Jon
morgue, and the police notified rel
tives in Chicago. The deceased has
brother working on the Chicago f
department, and other relatives in a
about Chicago. Deneen has been e
ployed by Green & Son for seven yea