Perth Amboy evening news. [volume] (Perth Amboy, N.J.) 1903-1959, 1924-10-14
j. s. SENATOR
KILLS HIMSELF
Senator Brandegee, of Con-
necticut, Commits Suicide
in Washington Residence
CHAUFFEUR FINDS BODY
Left Note Telling of His Actor
Inhaled Gas in Bathroom
Motive Is Unknown
CHAUFFEUR FINDS BODY

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14:-Senator
Frank Brandegee OF Connecticut,
prominent for years among the Re-
publican leaders of congress, com
mitted suicide at his home here to-
day.
Worried and distracted, his friends
said, over financial difficulties. he
went to an unused bathroom on the
third floor of his house and, just be-
fore dawn, took his own life by in
haling gas.
He left in his bedroom below a
note to his chauffeur, telling him
where the body would be found. He
was a bachelor and for years had
lived alone.
The note ascribed no motive. A
verdict of suicide was returned by
the coroner after he and the police
had made a complete investigation.
Penciled in an uncertain hand on
senate stationery, the senator's last
message said:
October 13, 1924.
81 enclose 500 for you and 500
for Emma and Refus.
81 am up in the bathroom on the
top floor near. Seventeenth street.
The top floor. The floor above the
one sleep on.
IF you or Lundy come up there
beware of the gas.
Goodbye.
FRANK B. BRANDEGEE.n y
Pinned TO the note were two 500
bills. Emma and Rufus, referred tc
by the senator, are Emma and Rufus
| Kenney, negroes, servants of Mr.
Brandegee. The chauffeur is George
Jones.
The two sentences in the note
''The top floor. The floor above the
one sleep on" were written in red
crayon, as though inserted on an
after thought.
The senator was last seen alive by
Jones and w. ID. Lundy, his secre-
tary. yesterday morning. At that time
he went for a ride with Jones about
the city. Jones said he seemed then
to be in the best of spirits and
health. remarking time and again
during the ride about how beautiful
a day it was.
He was heard about the house last
night by the servants, but his bed
had been untouched except for the
note lying on it.
Lundy and Jones instituted q
search upon their arrival at the
home shortly after . o'clock this
morning. The note was first found
when they went to his bedroom.
In his dying moments the sixty
year-old senator had crumpled a
bath rug beneath his head for a pill
low. The end of small rubber tube,
attached to an open gas jet, still was
in his hand.
Senator Brandegee had no living
immediate relatives. Mr.. Lundy took
charge of the funeral plans and an
nounced that the burial probably
would be in New London. Conn, Mr..
Brandegee's birthplace and home.
The residence occupied here by
Senator Brandegee had been owned
by him for some time. 1t is rather
spacious dwelling close to the down
town section and had been the scene
of many important conferences
among the leaders of the senate.
Although he once was a compara-
lively rich man, his friends said to-
day that he had suffered heavy loss
es In recent years. He was a lawyer
by profession, but for some time has
been heavily interested in real estate.
Senator Brandegee was chairman
of the senate Judiciary committee
and one OF the Republican leaders
on the foreign relations committee.
A close personal and political friend
of Senator Lodge, the Republican
floor leader, he has been one of the
circle of senators who have had
most to say in the conduct of senate
affairs since the Republicans regain
ed majority in congress.
A native of New London where
he maintained his home until his
death, Senator Brandegee had risen
to prominence through a succession
of minor offices including the United
States attorneyship of his home dis
trict, the speakership of the Connec-
ticut House of Representatives, and
membership in the national House
of Representa- tives. He was sixty
years old and had been In the senate
for almost twenty years. He never
married.
The most conspicuous part played
by Mr.. Brandegee in recent years
was in the League of Nations fight.
Taking position from the start
with the irreconciliable opponents of
the Versailles treaty. he threw the
powerful weight OF his forensic
ability against the treat and the
league covenant during the long
senate debate and later at the Chi
cago Republican convention in 1920
was one of those irreconcilibles who
laid down before party leaders a
virtual threat to leave the ranks OF
Republicanism unless the national
platform contained provision which
would uphold the Republican sena-
tors opposed to ratification.
During the past session of con-
gress the Connecticut senator was
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