The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1912-05-02
KILLS SELF WHEN
GIRL J|[TS HIM
FRANK TOULOUSE, A YOUNG MAN
FROM IOWA, SHOOTS SELF
NEAR BRUCE.
IS DISAPPOINTED LOVE AFFAIR
When School Tea s. Refuses to
EIope With Him TVS Out His
Rrains.-GirI VII s ses Tragedy

The man who xii s himself in the
schoOlhouse in Pre- : n township on
Wednesday afterno' . If last week, as
mentioned in our la - sue, was Frank
Toulouse, aged twenty-three and the
son of a farmer living near Fort
Dodge, Iowa. The reason for his sui
eide was the refusal of the teacher of
the school, Miss Ridout, to marry him.
The facts as We have been able to
gather them are as follows:
Toulouse and Miss Ridout had
known each other for years, the fami-
lies having been ~neighbOrs in Iowa,
and the two had been childhood sweet
hearts. The Ridout family moved to
B%rookings county a couple of years
ago. settling in Trenton township,
southeast of B~rookings. Miss Ridout
has been the teacher of the Kenney
the past year. Several weeks ago Ton
house came up from Iowa to visit her,
ed home. At the time he displayed a
revolver, but made no threats, and
was finally pursuaded by Miss Ridout
to give it to her. About two weeks
ago some ~busybody, living in the viclI-
ity of the school, wrote Toulouse a
letter telling him that Miss Ridout
was going with some other man and
that he had better come up and look
into matters for himself, and this
dastardly interference with another's
affairs was the direct cause Of the
tragedy. AS soon as Toulouse receiv-
ed this word he left Immediately for
South Dakota, arriving here on Tues
day evening, the 23rd. On Wednesday
he went to school with Miss Ridout
and after the children had gone home
in the afternoon he begged the teacher
to become his wife and return to Iowa
Will HIN. lutN uloSdOESh IHO
for a time and finally Miss Ridout told
him frankly that she would have
nothing more to do with him, and
with this statement Toulouse drew a
revolver from his pocket and shot him
self through the head. The teacher,
half crazed with fright, ran to a neigh
boring farm house and gave the alarm.
Sheriff Halvorson and Coroner Rood
went Immediately to the scene Of the
tragedy, and an inquest was held on
Thursday. Twelve witnesses were eX-
amined and their testimony clearly
established the fact that Toulouse
came to his death by his own hand.
Before he fired the shot Toulouse who
was sitting in a chair had wrapped a
handkerchief about his right hand
and had raised the revolver, a 80 cali
bre, to a position above his head. The
bullet entered the front part of the
skull, ranging downward and lodging
in the bones Of the back part of the
neck, and must have caused instant
death. There was no stenographer
present at the inquiry, but the testi-
mony of the witnesses was taken down
in writing by Sheriff Halvorson. The
law requires that each witness must
sign a statement of his own testimony
and these have to be examined by the
jury before they render a decision.
The statements were typewriter this
week and as soon as they have been
signed by the witnesses they will be
submitted to the jury. However, the
jury cannot, in the face Of the facts,
give any other decision but that Ton
house came to his death by his own
hand.
The c~oroner's post-mortem examina-
ton was held at Volga Saturday, but it
revealed nothing further than stated
above. Tonhouse's father arrived here
from Iowa to claim the body or his son
and took it back home for burial. He
is a well-to-do farmer, and he paid ali
the expense connected with the
tragedy, stating that he did not pro-
pose to have Brookings county pay out
one cent on account of his sons violent
deed. He was heartbroken over the
sad ending Of his boy and he and his
family are certainly deserving of SYM
pathy.
Miss Ridout, an unwilling and entire
ly blameless factor in the tragedy, is
also entitled to much sympathy. The
people Of Preston township ere un-