The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-02-02
TAKES CARBOLTC
ACID AND DIES
Miss Mary Thomas Of ROg-
ers Park Commits Sui
eide Sunday.
CLERK GIVES WARNING
KradWell Clerk Refused to Sell
Drug and Confides Suspicion
to Hotel Man.

Outwitting the efforts of Kradwell
drug store clerk who refused to sell
her carbolic acid and who trailed her
to her hotel to warn the proprietor,
Miss Mary Thomas, aged 40, Of Rogers
Park, Ill.,, obtained the poison else
where, and took dose of it in her
room at the Hotel Kenosha while the
drug store clerk was down stairs ex-
planning to D. T. McOwan that he
thought the woman contemplated sui
eide. Miss Thomas died within the
next half-hour at the Kenosha hos
pital. She was ofound to have been q
domestic in the home of family
named Wright at r6828 Lakewood ave-
nue., Rogers Park, but it is not known
whether or not she has relatives.
Miss Thomas appeared at the Hotel
Kenosha Sunday noon and took room.
She signed her name on the hotel reg
lister as "Rose Schaeley, Butte, Mont"
Mr.. D. T. McOwen, proprietor of the
hotel, talked with her as she registered.
He noticed that she appeared nervous,
and as if she were undergoing some
mental stress. The stranger told Mr..
McOwen that she had come to look for
work, and was advised that it would be
better for her to take rest in the
afternoon, and start in quest of a po-
sition Monday morning. Miss Thomas
went to the room assigned her with
her bag, but presently left the hotel.
Got Angry With Kradwell Clerk.
She went directly to the Kradwell
drug store where she asked Edward
Torson for an ounce of carbolic acid.
Tcrson went out into the prescription
room, filled with misgivings. From the
women's nervous appearance he was
suspicious of her purpose, and made
feint of complying with her demand
while he could think up an excuse. Not
knowing but that she was Kenosha
woman he hesitated to offend her, and
yet he made up his mind not to meet
her request.
Torson returned to the counter and
told his customer that he had only
chrystallized carbolie, and that it
couldn't be sold or dispensed in IL
guild form. The customer grew angry
and abusive, making scurfilous re-
marks about "drug store ethics" but
Torson was firm. TheSwoman left the
store in rage, but the clerk, the more
he thought of the situation was certain
he had been right. He spoke of the
matter to others in the store, and one
of the young men, John Schovan, start
ed out to trail the odd customer.
Schovan watched Miss Thomas start
to the lake, and kept her within the
line of his eye cautiously, until he
watched her turn back. In an effort to
conceal from the woman the fact that
she was being trailed, Schovan lost
sight of her as she returned to Main
street.
TraiIed to Hotel.
In the meantime Albert Negri, who
had been at the drug store at the time
the woman made her vain application
for the drug, had been to the Hotel
Kenosha and learned that she had reg
istered there, of which fact he in
formed Torson.
Torson lost no time in hurrying to
the hotel, and narrating the circum-
stances to D. T. McOwen. He was in
the midst Of his story about 1890
O'clock when the subject of it, Miss
Thomas herself, entered the hotel and
proceeded upstairs.
McOwen sent the bell-hop, Fred
Gruebe, to Miss Thomas room on
prextext to investigate. Gruebe
raped at the door, and getting no re-
spouse, walked in. The woman lay
across the bed apparently unconscious,
and bottle Of carbolic acid stood upon
the dresser.
While the proprietor summoned Dr..