The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1904-08-24 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS.  OLD MANS SUPPOSED SUICIDE AT BIRKENHEAD.  Theesony canoed by cancer in the head is sunpmed to have ceased the aikido ou Monday morning of Charles Dodd, aged 71, of 121, Ohvex-street, Birkenhead. He bad suffered for a long time from cancer in the head, and had frequently said that the pain woe mare than he could bear. He was a gee aboker by ocoupetion. but Ice game time pest had been unable to work. On Monday morning, about 7.30, he get up and went into the heaped of has home. Presently he returned to the bedroom, undrestied again, and got into bed. His wife then got up and went downstairs, lot the lire, and got breeklast reedy. When the metal was ready (about 3.20) she called her husband, but got no answer. She meat upstairs to tell lain breakfast was ready, and found the bedroom door shirt. On going in she saw him partly off the bed in & peculiar preition, and- she at came called Samuel Davies, a cousin of the deceased, who lodged in the house, and he lifted the body on to the bed. Dodd wee • deed. Davies found there was a cord round his neck, a 110'CGC having been formed and ' the other end passed over the head of the :bedstead. Dirs. Dodd went and called in a constable.  ji-n--inartest was held at the Town dali by Mr. Cecil Holden yesterday afteratme. Dr. 0. S. Stansfield said be had known the deceased for a number of years, and attended him last an the 15th inst. He had seen the body, and there was no doubt death was doe to suffocation. About three years ago the deceased ibegea to suffer from mincer in the ear, and the disease had progressed go far that one side of his head was almost eaten away. The Coroner: I suppoee his sufferings must have been very severe? Witness: Oh, undoubtedly. Fear months ago he told me he intended to kill himself. I had a serious talk with him about it, and he promised me that be voted not do it. He had aeveral times withn the last few weak. said that the pain woe almost more than he could bear. He had, of course, had strong sedatives, but the pain was really more than they could Margaret Dodd, the widow, gave evidence to the effect stated above.  —.— Samuel Davies, the cousin, who is an elderly man, said the deceased's fee* were on the floor. with the body in a sitting position ea the bed, and there wee a piece of donee line in a noose round his neck, and pawed over the top of the bedpan*. The deaerssed was leaning forward against the cord. _  Coroner: I believe that three months ago he attempted to hang himself in the water ekset.  1 The witness said that was so. P.C. Burgess, who was called in by Mrs. IDodd, .aid, in answer to the Coroner, that there wee no mark on the deceased's neck, so far awl he saw. He wee pressed on the point, and said be saw no mark. Davies. recalled, said be noticed no mark on the neck. He also said the cord was loose.  Is Coroner said this raised a difficulty. Be was informed that the deceased was "foand hailing." and that the body was "cut down,' and therefore no post-mortem examination had been htld. The main point for the jury was this: Was there sufficient evidence for them to end, as a fact, that this man hanged himself? Both Davies and the constable said there was no mark on the neck. There was no doubt he attempted to bang himself, but there was just a possibility that before he did in fact do it he died soddenly from some other essise. He thought the inquest had better be adjourned for a post-mortem examination tote held.  jary---Zourred, and the inquest was adjonrned till September 6th.