npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Weekly News. — 1891-10-01 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

SUICIDE OF A PRIMA DONNA.  -- -On Thursday evening Marie Wilt, the famous singer, committed suicide by jumping from the fourth storey of a house near St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, where she was staying with her daughter. By the time the doctors of the Free Aid Society arrived she was dead. Marie Wilt was 57 years of age, and in her time was the most admired prima donna in Germany and Austria. In 1866 she appeared as Norma at Covent Garden Theatre with great success. She was the last representative of what the Italian school calls bel canto, and her voice was recognised as superior to all but Patti's. Her obesity was a sore trial to her vanity, and she left the opera in 1878. Being of an economical turn of mind, and making much money by her European tours, she amassed a fortune, which became the source of her later troubles. Differences arose with her relatives, by whom, after she had made a gift of 100,0008. for poor students at the Universities of Vienna and Graz, she was declared insane. She was detained in a private asylum for several months, but, again getting free, she lived in her villa near Salzburg. In order to slew her sanity she sang in the Salzburg Theatre two months ago, on the occasion of the Mozart Jubilee, before an audience consisting mostly of Viennese. The public, however, was shocked by the change that had come over her, both in voice and person. She felt that the applause was unreal, and her mind then became really unhinged. It was reported that she was again to be placed in an asylum, and to avoid this she committed suicide. She went to the house near St. Stephen's, where there is a passage to another streettand walked up and down in front of the little shop, whose owners knew her, with a fair young man. After bidding him good-bye she went into the house and up the stairs. At the staircase window she deliberately took off her bonnet, mantle, and gloves, opened the window, and dung herself into the courtyard without a cry. She leaves a daughter, who is married.
Weekly News. — 1891-10-01 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

SINGULAR SUICIDE OF A CABMAN.  Soon after 6 o'clock on Saturday morning, George Seman, a constable in the employ of the London County Council at Clissold Park, found the body of a man in the New River at Paradise-row, just outside the park. The body was subsequently identified as that of Thomas Bennet, a hackney carriage driver. The deceased should have appeared at Guildhall Police-court on Saturday morning to answer a charge of drunkenness. It was known that this had worried him, and it is supposed that he committed suicide in preference to appearing ia court.  - - 1 ..... A sponge bath—One Wren on credit asi %WI A Mount Pleasant (Michigan) telegram says : au convivial spirits mere is no more auncuit part Tourist No. /:- "That Italian is a fine specimen Another accident has been added to the list of balloon of a drinking song than the "refrain." of a man. See how he carries himself." Tourist People who are always wishing for some other No. 2: "Yes; and see how he lets his wife carry • • casualties, and one dead parachutist and a badlyinjure ass kind of weather are getting it this year. everything else." d assistant are the result. The pair are Lewis 18. Earl and Frank Thayder, who on Thursday made We all have our little failings; it is only the Brown: "I don't see Jerry with Miss Charmer an ascent, Earl intending to descend by the parsprivileged few who can fail for a million. lately. You told me he had talleu in love with her." chute. The rope of the latter broke, however, and - Fogg :." Yes, he did fall in love with her, but her ' Earl was precipitated 400 ft., his body turning once A conductor of a tramcar, on a newly-laid line, fatlier raised him." and half in the fall. He struck on his back and calls it "True love," because it never runs smooth. Young wife: "I took great pains with that cucum.. broke his neck. TbaYilet also fell as the balloon Literary aspirant: "I can write about anything.° ber salad, John, and I hope you enjoyed it." neared the ground, the shock of Earl's death Bored publisher: "Then please right about face." Husband (anxiously): "I am afraid, my dear, that having unnerved him. He sustained a broken arm' "What makes a woman marry?" asks an article in I took great pains with it too." and internal iniuries, and is not expected to live. the North American Review. And we answer. man.
Weekly News. — 1891-10-01 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

DETERMINED TO KILL HIMSELF.  Seldom has more determination been displayed under difficulties than that just exhibited by a draughtsman of Paris, who, having resolved on "shuffling off this mortal coil," set to work to carry out his fell design with an amount of energy which if utilised in a better cause might have led him on to competence, and possibly to fame. Haying made up his mind to put an end to his days, he selected hanging as the most practical mode of executing his programme. Accordingly, attaching a rope to a peg in the wall of his bedroom, he suspended himself thereto. The rope, however, was the worse for wear, and it broke ere he had breathed his last. This experience rathet cooled his ardour, but he returned to the charge with a pan of charcoal. Here, again, his plan was frustrated owing to the accidental fracture of a pans of glass. A police official, to whom the circum. stances of these two attempts at self-destruction had been reported, sent for the draughtsman and earnestly implored him to accept the omen., and to abandon his sinister project. But he refused to be guided by th-se kind counsels, and declared that he would be more successful on the next occasion, and that a couple of stabs in the region of the heart would soon settle the question for good. He kept his word, at least in part, for a few days after. wards he was taken to the Hotel Dieu apparent* in a dying state. Singular to relate, the man' recovered rapidly, and in a fortnight he was once more at home, again revolving in his mind the best method of killing himself. Having tried hanging, suffocation, and the knife without any definite result, the would-be suicide next turned his attention to poison. He swallowed a quantity at phosphorus, but the prompt appearance on the scene of a chemist, who administered a strong antidote, again saved him. The draughtsman, however, would not yield, so deeply rooted was his lAermination to make away with himself, and atfcr 15L,-;,ig been baffled four times he succeeded at the tifol ii,tempt with a preparation of chloroform axd bichloride of mercury, and expired in atrocious suffering.
Weekly News. — 1891-01-22 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

AMERICAN CENSUS HUMOUR.  The American census authorities expected to find hit little trouble in securing satisfactory statistics .;oncerning mines; but in this they were very much mistaken. One man, to the question of how many &Millais he employed, chillingly replied, "Three niggers and a Chinese cook." Sometimes answers were delayed by love-making. One letter said, 'The secretary has gone up the lake to see his best girl, and when he conies back he will give you all the information you desire." One letter told a tale of misplaced confidence :—"ln reference to mining, I met a man who told me he was an expert. My, self and partner thought we had the right man in the right place, so we hired him, we being only amateurs. Before we got through with him he mulcted us out of seven hundred dollars. We didn't get 10 dollars' worth of gold out of the mine. I really think the same party knew more about shoeing mules than he did about mining." 'F'ailure to "strike it rich" was reflected in many of the answers. The owner of an unproductive mine wrote :—"The namt Jf my mine is the •U.B.D--,' and all I can say to your questions as to its value is to repeat the name. The only things I have ever got from the said mine are a sore back, a sore temper, and 1,500 dol. worth of debts. If you know any misguided man who would like a mine free of charge, refer him to me. I will give him one half of the and for your trouble I will make you a present of the other half." An equally caustic gentleman—who says he is a Harvard graduate, and adds "B. A." to his name—contributes the following :—"ln answer to your questions, I would say that, so far as I know, the mine of which I have the honour to be sole owner has never produced a red cent, although three former owners committed suicide after vain attempts to make the thing pay. In order to avoid a similar fate, I have secured a flattering position as chief bar-tender and concoctor of liquid delights in Billy Scott's popular Art Gallery and Gambling Palace. If you ever come out this way, hunt me up. I will give you the mine." An enterprising New Mexican, bent on finding the precious metal somewhere, writes :—"Only the Almighty can get any silver out of my mine. It bas all characteristics of a silver bonanza—except the silver. However, I hope to strike the vein some lay; and, in the meantime, may I strike you for the loan of five dollars?" The gem of the collection LS a misspelled tale of woe from Arizona. The form was returned blank, but contained on the reverse the following touching communication "The ;uperintendent is ded drunk, he allays is. the secreAry is in jale for assolt and bettery on the wider. iined. I am sick in Bed from the Effecks. good my."
Weekly News. — 1891-10-15 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE IN THE POOLE POLICE CELLS.  John (or more generally) "Jacky" Cure was rather despondent about his sentence received at the Quarter Sessions. on Thursday and when removed to the police cells he several times remarked that he would never serve the time. Superintendent Hunt endeavoured to cheer him up, and toll him he would enjoy himself—" Jacky " being a great f tvourite at Dorchester gaol. He then seemed t 3 be a little more settled. Superintendent Hunt went to tea about a quarter to five, and :eft the prisoner all right, two police constables being in the orderly room. A few minutes after, P.C. Dean decided he would go for tea, and as he went past Cure's cell he remarked "Well, Jacky! hows't sort o' be gettin' on ?" and let down the iron trap to look at him. He received no answer, and on listening, heard a queer gurgling noise. Becoming alarmed he went back to the orderly room and took the key of the cells. He opened the door and was horrico:d to see Cure suspended about a foot from the ground face upwards. v‘oth his feet on the water closet and his neck fastened by his braces to the hot water pipes which runs round the cell at a height of about 2 feet from the ground. The braces were repaired wit),' round his neck so tight without being cot. Dean  tape, and that was fastened tat it could not be released , called out to P.C. Cornick for Dr. Vernede, but he to Dr. Turner's and met hint , Dean had dragged the man, o the orderly room and cut , however, unloose his lt•inds, or him. Directly after the ,e conscious, and soon revived.  that  who immerltately ran was out, and Le then ran  at the door. Meanwhile, who was unconscious, int( the braces; e could nof, which were clasped befo doctor came, Cure becam€  A
Weekly News. — 1891-10-15 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

ALLEGED ATTEMPTED  SUICIDE AT BOURNEMOUTH. At the Police Court, Bournemouth, on Wednesday, before Mr. R. Stephens, a middle age man, named William flanks, was charged with having attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat on September 17th. The prisoner, who is a coachbuilder, living in Holdenhurat Road, has been in the Royal Victoria Hospital for three weeks, and was discharged on Wednesday morning and arrested by the police. He wee accommodated with a chair during the hearing of the case. Frank Sawyer, coach painter, living at 24. Northcote Road, said he was in the employ of the prisoner. On the day in question, he was called in about breakfast time by Mrs. Hanks to see the prisoner, who was acting very strangely. He was downstairs in the back room, talking about someone coming to hang him and pointing to ropes, itc. He was excited and witness tried to pacify him. Prisoner sat down in a chair and suddenly jumped up and lunged across the breakfast table for a knife, which he seized hold of. The knife produced (an ordinary table knife with a horn handle) was similar to the one prisoner had hold Cf. Prisoner tried to cut his throat with the knife and cut the flesh. Witness tried to take the knife away from him, and held him until the arrival of a doctor. The doctor came in abost a minute and a-half. Prisoner made no statement as to his reasons for cutting his throat. Prisoner put no questions to the witness.—By Mr. Stephens: When not in drink he had not noticed anything strange in his manner. Dr. Cusse said he was called in about ten o'clock to see the prisoner, whose wife said he had cut his throat. He found an incised wound in his throat, about four inches in length, and of considerable depth. He stitched up the wound and sent for a policeman, who went with him in a cab to the hospital.—By the ' prisoner: He had attended prisoner previously for complaints in the head. P.S. Cooper gave evidence as to being called in to see the prisoner, and to taking him to the Royal Victoria Hofpital, where he had been detained. He was arrested at the Hospital that morning on a warrant In answer to the charge, prisoner said, "It's all through drink that has brought me to this." Prisoner, in reply to the charge, said, "For years past I have been suffering at the latter end of the season, in the fall, from severe depression, and to alleviate that I had foolishly taken too much drink, Iwhich has brought me to my present position." He was formally committed for trial at the I Sessions next week.  Quarter
Weekly News. — 1891-11-12 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

THE BANK FAILURES IN BERLIN. SUICIDE AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.  The Daily News Berlin correspondent forwards the following particulars of the tragic events in the German capital on Saturday. About 2 o'clock the news spread that the brothers Felix and Siegmund Sommerfeld, of the well known Berliner Wechsler Bank, had committed suicide at their offices. Owing to the heavy failure of Messrs. Hirschfeld and Wolff, numerous customers lost confidence, and withdrew their deposits from the bank. One of these depositors was not satisfi,d, and immediately went to the police, who at his request examined the books. It appears that it was in order to avoid arrest that the two partners decided to commit suicide between 12 and 1 o'clock, while some of the clerks were at the Bourse and the others had gone to dinner. They locked themselves in their private office. Felix Sommerfeld sat down on a sofa, while his brother took an arm chair, and each prepared to take his life, as it appears, according to a well premeditated plan. Each cut open the artery at the left wrist, then shot himself, the two shots being heard almost simultaneously. Each shot himself through the right temple, and received almost the same injuries. The police were informed and the door was broken open and the brothers were found lying unconscious. They were at once taken to the hospital, where in the evening one of then died.  The news of the suicide, says a Standard correspondent, produced a regular panic on 'Change. It is feared, and, unhappily, apparently with only too good reason, that the recent Berlin failures are only the symptoms of an approaching crisis, perhaps even more ruinous than that of 1873. The eagerness to make money fast, no matter how, has already infected whole strata of society which, in the ,n crisis, were free from it. Moreover, the commercial depression now prevailing almost all over Germany is greater than leading merchants, the heads of firms of 30 or more years' standing, have ever experienced. News of similar commercial depression in France, Italy, and Russia is coninactlN- arrk ing.
Weekly News. — 1891-07-16 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

COURAGEOUS GIRL.  At the North London Police-court, on Monday, Catherine McKie, an elderly woman, with no home, was charged before Mr. Haden Corser with attempting to commit suicide by throwing herself into Ule Regent's Canal. A police-constable said he found the prisoner standing on the bank of the canal. She was very wet, and a young woman who was there told him that the prisoner had attempted to kill herself.—Ellen Wright, 18 years of age, living at 24, Combass-road, Hackney Wiek,said a woman tnhi her the prisoner had threatened to destroy herself. Witness followed the woman, saw her throw herself down on the g,rass,twice, then get up, look around, and threw herself into the canal. Witness got down the side of the canal and waded up to her waist in the water until she reached the woman. she (witness) dragged her out, and told the policeman, —The prisoner now declared that she was without home or friends.—Mr. Corser recalled Ellen Wright, and, awarding her half a socercign, told her she was a very courageous girl, and deserved public commendation.  EXECUTION OF A FRENCH MURDEREI  Meunier, the ex-Customs official who WU found gui:ty of two murders and other crimes, has beea executed at Nancy. He shewed extraordinary fortitude to the end, but complained bitterly that he wu obliged to make away with his child in order to marry a woman who promised him her hand and afterwards refused it. Meunier, however, denied energetically that he Lad murdered the cure of Xivry-Circourt and burned down the presbytery. When in the hands of the executioners the convict remarked that it was not worth while to give him a new shirt, seeing that the collar of the garment had to be cut off in order to allow the guillotine. knife free play. Before the procession was formed the governor of the prison exhorted the condemned man to bear up, whereupon Meunier replied that he knew how to die like a soldier and a Frenchman. M. Deibler, the executioner, and his assistants had seine trouble in getting the felon's head firmly in the lunette, as Meunier seems to have made an attempt to struggle when thrown on the plank. The knife, however, descended soon, and wen the execution was finished the body was handed over to tiv.: doctor for galvano electrical experiments.
Weekly News. — 1891-03-26 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

BRIGAND IN RETIREMEIN T.  \An interesting question has just arisen between Servia and Bulgaria. In the summer of 1888 two railway officials and a rich Greek merchant were cal.tured outside the town of Bellova by a band of brigands. and carried off to the mountains. The robbers demanded a ransom of £5,000 for their ins. The amount was paid and the captives were released. It has just now been discovered that the head of the band of brigands, Kosta Abramow, has for some time past been living quietly on his earnings in Belgrade. The robber has been identifitd by one of the railway officials and the Greek. The ilulgarian Government now demand that, according to the Extradition Treaty, Abramow should be delivered up to them. If it can be proved that the brigand is a Bulgarian subject he will be given up at once; but if there are any doubts as to his nationality there will probably be difficultieA placed in the way of his arrest.  A party of Revenue officers made a raid upon an illicit spirit distillery near Mount Airy. North Carolina. The men engaged in the illegal distilling were hiding in dense brushwood, and they oper.ed fire as a party of gaugers advanced with fatal effect, one officer being killed and five others wounded, one mortally.  A labourer, named Joseph Peach, was on Monday morning charged, before the Peterborough magistrates, with attempting to murder his wife. It Was stated that, during a domestic brawl, In snatched a red-hot iron bar from the fire, and ran it into her throat. The woman lies in a precarious condition at the hospital. The prisoner was reminded.  A t•ase of suicide, in which the victim displayed the most extraordinary determination to put an end to his life, has occurred near Nachod, in Bohemia. A peasant, li‘ing in a village in the :wighbourhood ot that town, set tire to his house, and then fastened himself to a beam by a chain, which he locked by , a strong padlock, immediately throwing away the key. The efforts ot his neighbours to rescue him were thus frustrated, and the wretched man was burned to death. Intelligence front Guatemala states that numbers of bandits are infesting the borders' of Salvador,and are carrying off stack and robbing travellers.
Weekly News. — 1891-09-17 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

SUICIDE IN THE STREET.  At Battersea, on Saturday, Mr. Braxton Hicks held an inquiry touching the death of Augustus Robert Hamur, aged 32, a sugar confectioner, of Holloway,who coolmitted suicide by shooting himself a ith a 'evolver early on the morning of the 9th inst.—Frank Hamur, a silversmith, said the deceased was his brother. Deceased had been out of work for a week, and this distressed him. He had said he should put an end to himself if matters did not improve. When 17 years of age deceased fell down a flight of stairs, and sustained concussion of the brain, which made him subject to fits of melancholy. On the Bth inst. deceased left home early in the morning, and as he never returned his box was searched, and it was found that he had taken his revolver with him.—Creorge Coles, a master confectioner, deposed that while the deceased was in his employ he was of a morbid nature, reading "penny horribles," and always point log to his head as the proper place to kill a person. Witness had had his suspicion that the deceased and another lad destroyed his goods. He kept watch, and afterwards he taxed the deceased with having done so, deceased replying in the affirmative. Witness discharged him, but placed no obstacle in the way of his obtaining another situation, Ponce-constable Mack deposed to hearing the report of firearms early on the morning of 9th inst. Upon proceeding to the spot he found the deceased in a sitting position against a shop in the York-road. Deceased had a bullet-wound throngh his head. The revolver produced was lying on the lett side of the deceased. A doctor was sent for. Nothing was iound upon the deceased except two rounds of cartridges.—Dr. Richardson said there were two wounds in the head. Death, which was due to laceration of the brain, was instantaneous.—The !:turned a verdict of suicide whilst t.emporarily