DONOVANS FATAL LEAP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9178, 6 October 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

DONOVANS FATAL LEAP.

The inquest on the body of Larry Donovan, who lost his life by leaping from Hungerford Bridge, was held on August 12, before Deputy-Coroner Wood, at Deptford._ William Cook, (i, Angel Court, Strand, identified the deceased, whom he had known for about two months. His principal occupation was diving, but he did not know whether he got paid for it. He had been badly off most of the time the witness had known him. About two o'clock on Tuesday morning week the witness met the deceased casually near Charing Cross Railway Bridge, when he w*as accompanied by about '20 people. He (Donovan) said that he had a match on at Brighton to dive against another man off Brighton Pier, arid he added that he was going to show them that he could do it. Accompanied by the crowd, he went down Villiers-strcet, and on to Hungerford Bridge. He walked along the bridge for about 30 yards, took his hat and coat off, got over the parapet, and then jumped in. When he rose to the surface, in a few seconds, he swam about 30yards in the direction of the Cleopatra's Needle steps, and then sank. He did not cry out or throw up his arms, but sank like a stone. It was high water at the time. Donovan was sober when he dived off the bridge. A waterman, named Harris, stated that early on Saturday morning he picked the deceased's body up, and towed it ashore, where it was removed to the mortuary. The deceased had his boots on, but was minus his coat and hat. The coroner's officer stated that the knees of both the deceased's trousers were missing. A juryman asked if the crowd were sober ; but the coroner said they mk'ht as well ask if the 40,000 people were drunk when they witnessed a man come out of the clouds. The coroner, in summing up, referred to the dangerous experiments now being made, and said it was a terrible state of affairs, but it was a difficult thing to see how to stop them when they were paid for it. A verdict " That the deceased was killed by jumping into the Thames " was returned.

A correspondent writes: —On the day of Donovan's death an appeal appeared in the Sporting Life for funds to enable Donovan to redeem a massive gold medal presented to him by Mr. Richard K. Fox, proprietor of the New York Police Gazette, and to pay his passage to America.. His nonrecognition in England had preyed on the mind of deceased, and for months past he had given way to drinking, and at last he had become so reduced as to have to seek shelter in common lodging-houses, and in one of these on the Saturday previous to his death he was ill-used. On the Monday night, or rather Tuesday morning, lie was taken by some sporting men to one of the German clubs in the neighbourhood of Leicester Square, and on leaving there he went in company with his friends to one of the early morning houses which open at four a.m. in Covent Garden. Here,, as was his wont, Larry began to talk of his jumping feats, and after a lot of chaff and badinage, a bet of £2 to nothing was laid him that he would not jump from Charing Gross Bridge. This Donovan readily accepted, and, in company with the layer of the odds, proceeded to the bridge, and having only taken his coat off, jumped in. No boat was provided in case of accident, and the moment he left the bridge his companions, becoming frightened, left him to his fate. Among the applicants for advice at Daiston Police Court was a man who said that a friend of his, a publican, of Hackney, had purchased a pawn ticket from the man, Larry Donovan, who was killed by jumping from Hungerford Bridge into the Thames. On applicant's friend hearing of Donovan's death, he attempted to redeem the article, which was over £2 in value, but the pawnbroker said that Donovan had sworn a declaration that he had lost his ticket, and, as a consequence, the pawnbroker declined to give up the article until a magistrate had determined to whom it belonged. Mr. Smith expressed his willingness to grant process under the Pawnbroker's Act, but on ascertaining that the pledge contract was entered into in Holborn, he referred the applicant to the City Court.