The Blackpool Herald. — 1886-07-02 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

SUICIDE AT BLACKPOOL.  An inquest, touching the death of Benjamin Steele, who, as reported in our last issue, committed suicide by hanging, yesterday (Thursday) week, was held before Dr. Gilbertson, district coroner, on Friday afternoon last, at the Manchester Hotel. The jury was constituted as follows :—Messrs. John Worthington (foreman), James Waddington, Gilbert Lithgow, Isaac Wilde, John Andrew, Isaac Hemingway, Richard Edward Taylor, Joseph HardSou, Samuel Wolstenholme, Joseph Brooks, John Wylie. and James Bury. Mrs. Steele was the first witness called. She said: I live at Seacombe, and the deceased is my husband. He has been at Blackpool for about three years, having come to reside in a house which he had bought in Winifred-street. He was a dyer by trade, and 56 years of age on the day that he committed suicide. He had enjoyed good health up to about a fortnight ago, when he became very depressed, and telegraphed to me last Saturday to come over to Blackpool, and I came. I was sent for because he did not feel so well, and last saw him alive yesterday. He got up from his dinner, and I asked him where he was going, and he said, "I am going upstairs." He ate a hearty dinner. We had dinner a little after one. He went upstairs, and I followed him five minutes after, when I had finished my dinner. I found the door fast, and I then called out for Mrs. Morton, the landlady, and told her that Mr. Steele had fastened himself in his bedroom. The door was forced open, and a man named Irwin cut him down. The Foreman : Had he shown any previous intention of destroying himself? No; he had behaved very strangely that morning on the sand. hills. He also gave me his keys, and told me to take all that was in his box. Edward Albert Irwin said : I am a cabinet-maker and live at 32, Tyldesley-road, Blackpool, and knew I Mr. Steele slightly. I was called into Mrs. Morton's yesterday, and went upstairs to the bedroom occupied by Mr. Steele. The door had just been pushed open a little by Mrs. Morton, bat she could not get it open properly because of something behind it. I pushed myself through, and went into the room, and found the deceased hanging by the neck by a silk handkerchief fastened to the iron bedstead. The handkerchief was tied once round his neck and then fastened to the bedstead. His feet were on the floor, but his body was hanging solely upon the handkerchief. The handkerchief was very tight, the deceased being a very heavy and stout man. I pulled a small knife out of my pocket and cut the handkerchief. I thought that he was quite dead, because he neither stirred nor breathed. I had gone when the doctor came, but I waited for the constable and saw the deceased laid out. The Foreman : Where were you at the time they came for you ? I live next door. Mrs. Morton came and said that there was a man hanging, and I then went in. William Temple deposed : I am a constable stationed at Blackpool, and from information received yesterday, I went to the house where the deceas,d was. I found him in a sitting posture behind the door as described by the last witness, quite dead at 1-35 p.m. I searched the deceased's clothing, and found the articles produced, viz., a gold watch and chain, 4s. 44 in money, a pipe and tobacco pouch, and three or four letters from his son. Sergeant Smith said he had seen Dr. Sharpe, who said that he had visited the deceased twice during the last week, and he appeared very depressed. The Coroner said although one of the jurymen had mentioned that there had been some differences between deceased and his wife, that had nothing whatever to do with the case. What they were to find out was whether the man was in his right state of mind or not, when he committed the deed. The act, certainly, was very deliberate, and he had no doubt as to the sad condition of the Man's mind, and it was clearly a case of suicide. The jury accordingly returned a verdict of "Committed suicide whilst in a state of temporary Insanity."