Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-08
He HAD MANIA TO DIE
Rustin Once InocuIated Him
self With Typhoid Germs.
AND AGAIN WITH TETANUS
Attempt at Suicide BY Apparently
Natural Means.
WANTED TO SAVE INSURANCE
Police Practically Abandon All
Thought That Death Was Murder.
Believe Doctor Killed Self.
WANTED TO SAVE INSURANCE

OMAHA, Neb.. Sept ember San inquest
was begun today on DR.. Frederick Rustin
who was found fatally shot on his front
porch last Wednesday.
After witnesses. jurors and newspaper
men had squeezed into the undertaking
establishment where the inquest was held
there was little room. AS many curious
persons as could do so forced their way in
DIR. Rustins widow. who was one of the
first to reach the place, was given chair
behind a screen and beyond the gaze OF
the spectators.
The indications are that the coroner's
verdict in the case Of the shooting of DR.
Rustin will be suicide.
All the evidence, including that of Mrs.
Abbie c. Rice, the friend Of Rustin, who
is detained at the city Jail, will point to
that theory The witnesses today will
include Rustins widow. Mrs. Rice. the
physicians who attended him and some Of
the neighbors who heard the pistol shots.
The police still are looking for the re-
volver with which the shooting was done.
Chief Donahue is said to have clue to its
whereabouts. The person suspected of
knowing where 1t is left the city yester-
day and will return today.
Convinced of Suicide.
Chief Donahue says that after the pub
lie hears the statement of Mrs. Rice it
will have no doubt that DR.. Rustin took
his own life. He says the statement gives
details of plans the like of which he has
never heard in his experience.
The revelations foreshadowed by the
chief of police probably are contained in
a story published in the WOrld-Herald of
this city regarding former attempts to
commit suicide.
DIR. Rustin, according to this story, in
oculated himself with the bacilli of ty
phOid fever for the purpose of taking his
own life, was stricken with the fever and
was so near dead that the attending ply
sicians despaired of his life. 1t is also
stated that at that time he inoculated
himself with the germs of tetanus, or
lockjaw, as well. but the effects of this
were overcome by the typhoid.
I'm May. 1905, Rustin secured from the
meteorological laboratory, University of
Chicago, two test tubes containing pure
cultures. one of tetanus bacillus, or lock-
jaw, and the other malignant typhoid
fever These tubes he carried in his
pocket and exhibited to his friends. tell
ing them that if he put little of the
typhoid germs into their beer they would
have typhoid fever within two weeks, or
If he scratched them and put the tetanus
bacilli in the wound they would die OF
lockjaW.
Rustin Infected Himself.
.Shortly after that DR.. Rustin showed
evidences of typhoid fever He also COM
planned Of having been bitten on the leg
by a dog, and exhibited a scar. 1t is
thought possible that he infected this
wound with the lockjaw germs, and also
that they were overcome by the typhoid
fever.
DIR. Rustin became seriously i'll with
the typhoid. Physicians were in attend
ance night and day. He sank lower and
lower, until finally the attending ply
sicians. having done everything possible.
gave him up and expressed the opinion
that he could not recover. But after a
long. hard siege he finally pulled through.
Nothing was said by him concerning
the manner in which he contracted the ty
phoid fever until last September, when he
admitted to friends that he had taken the
typhoid fever bacili with the intent to
end his life in such a manner that 1t
would appear to have resulted from nat
ural causes"
In 1908 DR.. Rustin reported to friends
that he had growth in the trachea
which a Chicago specialist had declared
to be OF malignant character. and that
he should submit to an operation which
in nineteen out Of twenty cases proves
fatal. He did not carry out the expressed
intention and nothing more was heard OF
the malignant growth.