Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1886-09-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SUICIDE'S CAREFUL PLAN.  The investigations by the London, Leicester, and Manchester police into the mriterious death of Mr Lowe, a Memehester merchant, while travelling on the Midland Railway between London and Leicester, have resulted. the Leicester correspondent of the 'limes says, in some very extraordinary discoveries. 'the case was of a very complicated character. Some of its circumstances are not only quite Moon- I statent with an ordinary case of suicide, but I seem to point almost conclusively to the crime of murder. Indeed, 'it. is almost certain that had there been any auspicious passenger by the same train whose movements were of a very , doubtful character the ease would have I assumed a very different aspect. The state- , ment made by the deceased in a letter to the effect that he had been paid the sum of £1,200 by someone in London is now believed to be entirely false, and to form only a part of a series of deliberate acts and designs for making his act of suicide appear a horrible murder for the sake of plunder. When he entered the midnight express at St. Pancras it is now conjectured that, in accordance with designs previously planned, the deceased got a railway porter to get his ticket for him, giving him two sovereigns and receiving back 15s 6d in change. The guard of the train as well as the porter saw the deceased put -his money into his pocket, and it is believed that he adopted this method of getting his ticket to make it absolutely certain and well known that he was possessed of some money when he started. It is now almost certain that in the journey from London to Leicester this money was thrown out of the carriage window by the deceased himself, and then, in order to still further support the theory of foul play which the deceased evidently wished to create, it is supposed he tore his coat pocket and pulled off the buttons, as if to suggest that there had been something of a struggle in the railway carriage. Singularly enough, however, the rings, gold watch, and other valuables on the deceased had not been disturbed in the least. He must, however, have elaborately arranged how to use the revolver, so that when he had blown out his brains his hand should not retain the weapon in his death grasp, but that it should fall outside the window. In this the deceased was to a large extent successful, for he fell a sufficient distance from the carriage-door to ex- , cite the gravest doubts as to the possibility of his having died by his own hand. The revolver, I too, had slipped trorn his hand, and, strangely ! enough, fell on the footboard, where it remained while the train travelled, it is supposed, over forty miles. The movements of the deceased , for several days before his death suggest suicide, 1 but no adequate cause has yet been assigned boyoud the suggestion in one of his letters that I he was in pecuniary difficulties. It is stated i that his life was assured for a large amount, and I it is suggested that this supplies a motive for , the alleged elaborate and detailed plan for , making his suicidal death appear to be one %using from the attack of a robber.--The enquiry into the death of Mr Lowe was concluded on Wednesday • Further evidence was given to the effect that all efforts to trace the persons who had purchased the revolver, or who had paid £1,200 to the deceased gentleman shortly before his death, had failed.—Mr Assluetou Bennett, of Portsdown-road, London, the deceased's father-in-law, stated that Mr Lowe was not at all pressed for money, and pecuniary difticaltiea could not have been the motive of suicide, if such had been committed. The deceased gentleman was heavily insured with several offices, one policy for £B,OOO baring been issued by the Guardian Office last March on condition that if the deceased gentlemancommitted suicide within thirteen months the policy would be void. There were five policies on his life in the Reliancie Office, the last being issued on August 3rd lain for £l5OO. in the name of Mr Gray, of Edinburgh, a relative. Counsel on behalf of the family of the deceased contended that the position of the body and the revolver pointed to improbability a suicide, for which there was not the alighteet motive. The iury returned an Orion verdict