The Sun. — 1847-08-20 (London, England)

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE AT  MANCHESTER.  On Tuesday morning an inquest was held before the Coroner, at the Old Swan public-house, Long Niillgate, on the body of an elderly individual, about fifty-six or fifty-seven years of age, wlio was found dead in bed in a room in the house of John Lewis, lodginghouse-keeper. The circumstances connected with the melancholy affair are stated in the evidence produced before the Coroner.  The first witness called was Mary Mullineux, servant to John Lewis, who said that on Friday night last the deceased came to their house. He was quite sober. He slept there all night, and on Saturday was up all the day. He slept again there on Saturday night. On Sunday morning witness went into the deceased's room, between ten and eleven o'clock, and asked him to get up, that she might make his bed. Deceased replied that he did not intend to rise at all during the day, on which she left him. In a little time after deceased asked for a pint of beer. About three in the afternoon she looked into deceased's room, and found him asleep. She did not see him again till about nine o'clock at night. When she went into the bed-room she found deceased quite dead. There was a bottle on the dressing-table, and a piece of rope beside it, sufficiently long for any one to hang himself. She ran down stairs and alarmed her master, who at once went out for a doctor. The doctor said the deceased had been dead about an hour. On Saturday afternoon deceased wrote two letters. He asked for the post-office, and took away the letters.  William Hughes, assistant to Mr. John G. Harrison, surgeon, who examined deceased, said that on the table there was a bottle,: marked on the outside " Laudanum, Poison." It would contain quite sufficient to poison deceased. He considered that death had been caused by the taking of narcotic poison. Hawkley, the constable, confirmed the preceding evidence. On searching the pockets of the deceased, he found a number of the London publication entitled the Family Herald, the first paper in which is, " The Story Teller; the Secret Poisoner," chap. 4, which, from its appearance, the deceased had evidently been reading. Up to this stage of the proceedings no evidence had been adduced by which the identity of the deceased could be established, an.l the jury were in the act of returning a verdict upcn him as " a person unknown," when Mr. Thomas Wright, of Manchester, entered. lie came in obedienco to a letter he had received from deceased, in which he informed him of the reasons of his rash act, namely, his dismissal as night watchman for having been found asleep on his post. The letter is signed " W. M. Kelly." Mr. Wright said the body viewed by the coroner and jury was that of William Kelly. By that morning's post he (witness) received the above letter, which was i❑ the deceased's own handwriting, and evidently written under great agitation of mind. Deceased had died under great distress of circumstances. He has left a widow and six children. He had been in the employment of the Manchester and Leeds Railway as an assistant storekeeper, but recently lost his situation, which, no doubt, had prayed un his mind and increased his distress.  The jury returned a verdict, " That the deceased William Kelly died from laudanum, administered by himself while labouring under temporary insanity." The history of the latter days of the deceased is a very melancholy one. Although reduced so far as to occupy the humble situation of a railway menial, it is not more than fourteen years since he held a commission as cap tarn in the 7th Dragoon Guards. Captain Kelly retired at that period on half-pay, which he continued to enjoy for some years. It appears, however, that either from extravagance, the increasing expenditure of a large family, or both combined, he was compelled to sell his half pay about eight years ago, and ever since that period his pecuniary condition ha% been progressively deteriorating, and his family, deprived of any source of regular income, have suffered great privations, and been much beholden to the kindness and sympathy of friend, for the means of support. He had been about eight months in the service of the Leeds Company, for which he was mainly indebted to the exertions of a few old military friends. He was discharged for the reasons stated in his letter to Mr. Wright. This seems to have been regarded by him as the climax in his cat eer of misfortune, and he formed the terrible resolution of cutting short his days of suffering and anguish by committing suicide. For the purpose of more surely and uninterruptedly accomplishing his object, he left his family on Friday, and took up his abode in the house of a stranger. We understood that he actually wrote three letters on Saturday—one of them to his family; and it is remarkable that, although he intimated his resolution to make away with himself, and requested that they would come and claim his remains, he omitted to give any address.— Manchester Examiner.