CYANIDE IN TEA.

Evening Star, Issue 10899, 6 April 1899, Page 3

CYANIDE IN TEA.

A determined suicide was committed on March 27 by Edward Devereux, aged twentythree, who had a small business in George street west, Sydney. He went on a visit to some friends at Redfern on the evening of the 26th, and next morning he joked and chatted with them until ten o’clock. He then left the breakfast room, and, followed by some -inmates of the house, went into the yard, where they had a cup of tea. In the midst of a conversation Devereux drank his tea and “ Good-bye; it only takes four minutes to die. The remark was regarded as a joke, but almost instantly the man fell to the ground, and before the time mentioned by- mm had elapsed he was a corpse. None of Devereux's fnends saw him place anything in the cup after it was VmnHpd to him,, and they were consequently totally unprepared for such a tragic termination tn, their morning’s chat. The cause of the suicide is believed to be an unhappy love affair. The poison was cyanide of ootassiura. and it would seem as if its use was suggested by the recent doable love suicide at Newcastle, where the poison was employed.