CONGRESSMAN’S SUICIDE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29237, 22 June 1960, Page 20

CONGRESSMAN’S SUICIDE

No Explanation Of Death (N.Z. Prtss Atsociation—Copyright) CHAMBERSBURG (Pennsylvania), June 20. Mr Douglas Elliott (Republican, Pennsylvania), a Congressman less than two months, committed suicide yesterday. The body of the 39-year-old member of the House of Representatives was found near the exhaust pipe of his car a few yards from his lake-front summer cabin in a nearby State Park. A deer skin was draped over his head and the end of the car’s exhaust pipe. Coroner John Mares of Franklin County ruled that the Congressman died of “carbon monoxide poisoning selfadministered.” It was Mr Elliott’s custom to make early morning trips alone to his cabin near the south central Pennsylvania city of Chambersburg. He had attended a wedding reception with his wife last night. A friend said he seemed to be in good spirits. Friends and associates were unable to provide a clue that might explain his death. He was sworn in on May 7, and since then had not missed a House vote, although he had not yet moved his wife and three school-age children to -Washington. He had said recently that his first month in Congress had given him a “liberal education in parliamentary procedure." Mr Elliott was vice-president of Wilson Women’s College at Chambersburg when he was called upon to run in the April 26 primary election to fill the un-

expired term of the late Mr Richard Simpson. He won not only the seat by a 2-to-l margin in the traditionally. Republican 18th Congressional district but also the Republican nomination to run for a full term in the November election. He was on leave of absence from the college. He was elected to his first public office— State Senator in 1956. He represented Franklin and Adams County, the district in which President Eisenhower has his farm.