Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-28
FAKE POISON FAILS,
MAKES DEATH SURE
Ned Finley, Actor, Pens Suicide
Note After Taking Soda
Bought for Acid
LATER DRINKS FATAL DRUG

New York, Sept. 2S.-Taking copious
doses Of bicarbonate Of soda, in the be-
lief that II was cyanide of potassium,
Ned Finley, an actor, sat down to
desk In his room. early yesterday, in the
Hotel de France, West Forty ninth
street, and penned the impressions of a
deliberate suicide. 1t was his second
attempt at self destruction in two years.
After waiting for forty minutes for
tho poison to act, Finley realized that
the druggist had peered beyond his NUT
tered excuse that he wished cyanide to
hill a dog and had supplied him with
. cure for indigestion. Then he took
large dose Of strychnine and wrote his
last note. This was his first note,
found by the police on his desk
"I have already taken what the drug
gist said was cyanide. l bought it on
the pretense TO poison a dog At the
time / write this it is . 80 o'clock. just
ten minutes after taking the supposed
fatal dose. feel very much alive and
have had no bad effects"
He Writes Second Note
After waiting few minutes longer
for the effect of q deadly drug that he
knew ought to act quickly, he wrote this
note:
'I have some strychnine. which I am
going TO try next. and hope this takes
my life. | will wait until 3 a. IN. before
! take it,"
Another wait followed and the bicar-
Donate OF soda still failing to cause
death, Finley took a heavy dose Of
strychnine and penncd another farewell
note. Here 1t is:
II have just taken quantity. but
don't know how much. Of strychnine.
The doctor said it is enough 10 kill sev-
eral dogs. The acid did not work. am
suffering no pangs of conscience. Don t
believe | have such thing. Hope this
is goodbye"
At noon yesterday maid raped AZ
the door of his room. There was no re-
sponse. An hour later she called again,
still failing to arouse the sleeper, she
called the manager. The police broke in.
They saw the lights still burning as the
actor had used them while he wrote his
death notes. He was lying across the bed
as II he had fallen there heavily. thC
stump of his left arm sticking out al
the side--he lost the hand with blood
poison two years ago when he SlaShed
his wrist in a futile attempt to com
init suicide in Central Park.
Other Notes Are Found
Turning to the desk, the police found
the death notes, the last written in a
more and more irregular hand as il
reached its end. Death agonies shook
the hand before it had finished the con =
fession, so that the last words were al
most illegible.
There were other notes. too. One
told the Actors Fund Of America to
provide cheap funeral; another asked
that his effects be left TO his wife. who,
the police said was Miss Henri be-
fore her marriage to the actor-they
don't know where she Is now Heaped
near these letters was a hotel bill. a
pile of pawn tickets bearing recent dates
and a single copper-all the money left
In the room.
DR.. George Hohmann. assistant med
ical examiner. said that Finley had
taken enough strychnine Ito kill ar
< elephant" but that the white powder
believed by him TO have been cyanide oi
potassium was merely bicarbonate ot
soda. The physician also said that the
effect of the strychnine apparently had
been counteracted for a few minutes by
morphine. Finley was a drug addic,
and his arm was heavily dotted with
needle punctures.
Finley was born in Virginia about
fifty years ago. He had lived in the
hotel for seventeen years and the walls
of his rooms were covered with litho
graphs advertising his appearance in
various films. Stationery found in tbs
room bore the line: Ned Finley
Theatrical and motion picture produc
tions. Ned Finley. general manager" ."