The Atherstone, Nuneaton, and Warwickshire Times. — 1889-08-10 (Atherstone, Warwickshire, England)

SAD CASE OF SUICIDE AT EMSCOTE.  On Saturday morning last the coroner (Mr. Moore) held an inquest at the Emscote Tavern, touching the death of Levi Masters, 58 years of age, living at 44, Humphries Street, Emscote, and who committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor. Hannah Masters said the deceased was her husband, and by trade a miller. He was consumptive, and for the last twelve months had done very little work. On the previous Saturday he was mach worse, and after going to the garden went straight to bed and remained for the rest of the day. That day she went to the picnic even by Mr. G. H. Nelson to his employ4s at Ronsham Park, near Oxford, and did not see the deceased until eleven o'clock at night, when he complained of very bad pains in the head. On Sunday he got up for half-an-hour, and then went to bed again and remained until his death. Deceased was very restless all the week —he could not lie down and was continually getting in and out of bed. He constantly complained of pains in the head and region of the heart, and his month was quite closed. The medical gentleman attending her husband said his jaw was locked. She sat up with the deceased on Thursday night, and remained with him until a quarter-past eleven on Friday morning, when he asked her to leave the room for a short time. She did so, and whilst downstairs with her married daughter she heard her husband staggering about the bedroom, and on going upstairs she saw that he had cut his throat and a razor was in his hand. She screamed and fainted away, and her daughter came to her assistance. She never heard her husband threaten to take his life. He kept his razors in a box in the room in which he slept. Elizabeth Ward, daughter of the deceased, corroborated the last witness's evidence, and added that when she asked her father why he cut his throat he gave her no answer. Police-constable Mason produced the razor, which was covered with blood, and said when he went into the deceased's house at half-past eleven o'clock he was in a dying condition, and there was a large quantity of blood about. For the last twelve months the deceased had looked very ill, and three weeks ago he noticed that his manner was very strange. Dr. R. F. Thornton Perkin said he was sent for to see the deceased last Sunday afternoon. He found him in an advanced stage of consumption, very weak, and in a very irritable mood. He could not keep himself still for any length of time. Deceased's nerves were very much upset and he could not obtain sleep. He saw his patient again on the following Tuesday, and he appeared in about the same condition. Deceased could not  take any medicine in consequence of his teeth being locked together. He was sent for the previous morning about twenty minutes past eleven, and on going upstairs found the man sitting on the side of the bed with his throat wrapped in cloths. There was a great deal of blood about, and on examining the throat he found a severe wound, but none of the large vessels of the neck had been divided. He bandaged the throat, but the deceased ceuld not lie down, and he died very quickly. The immediate cause of death was hemorrhage, consequent upon the injuries inflicted. The Coroner briefly summed up the evidence, and the jury returned a verdict that the deceased committed suicide whilst in an unsound state of mind.