SUICIDE OF A TAILOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16376, 2 November 1916, Page 7

SUICIDE OF A TAILOR.

CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES.

DISCOVERER WHO WENT

AWAY.

DID NOT INFORM POLICE.

Some peculiar circumstances were elicited at an inquest held yesterday bv Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., in regard to the death of George Stowe, a tailor, 45 years of age who was found on October 25 hanging in his bedroom at the shop in Victoria Street inhabited by himself and his aged father, also a tailor. The most curious point involved in the matter was that the fact that deceased had taken his- life was a subject of common gossip in and about Victoria Street for some time before the circumstances were reported to the police. Robert Stowe, an infirm old man, father of the deceased, and living with him at the shop, said he last saw deceased alive at 9.15 p.m.. on October 24, when he put ] witness to bed, as was his regular practice. About six o'clock next morning wit- : ness knocked at deceased's bedroom door, but received no answer. Deceased was what might be ca'led a moderate drinker. Witness had never heard him threaten to take his life. Police Find the Body. Evidence was given by John Lipanovich, keeper of a restaurant frequented by the deceased, to the effect that on thenight of October 23 deceased told him that he was worried. On the morning of tho -£>th witness was with the police when they found deceased hanging in his room Another witness, Mrs, Joan M. Butler, testified that she saw deceased alive about ' 11.45 a.m. on October 24, and spoke to him. Florence F. M. Stowe, widow of deceased, who had lived apart from him on account of his unsteady ways, st&ted that I on several occasions he had threatened to take his own and her life. I Another witness, a tailoress, mentioned I three persons who told her o n October 24, ! the day before the police discovered the I body, that George Stow had committed suicide. John Fairley swore that at mid-day on October 24 he was told by David Todd that Stowe had taken his own lifethat he had slept in an adjoining room to that in which the suicide occurred, and found the body hanging next morning, and also that it gave him such a shock that he "cleared out and told no one." Became Greatly Frightened. David Todd, a labourer, said that he slept at the Stowes' shop for about three nights prior to George Stowe's death. During that time deceased appeared to be worried. He asked witness to sleep in the same room with him, but witness felt nervous, because of a rash which he noticed on deceased's body, and declined. After getting up on the morning of Tuesday, October 23, he looked into deceaseds room, and thought he saw deceased standing behind the head of the bed partly dressed. The head was hanging n little to the left. Witness asked him why he was standing there, but received no answer. On looking closer witness saw that an old clothes-lines came down the wall from the ceiling. Concluding that his friend must have committed suicide he became greatly frightened. He had previously heard that deceased had threatened to commit suicide. On leaving the premises witness intended to inform the police, but as he met no constable he dropped into different hotels and had drinks, and after a while he could hardly realise that there had been a suicide and he had seen evidence of it. He told the circumstances to a man named Haggard, whom he met at the Hobson Hotel, and asked him to inform the police. Constable Robertson gave evidence as to the finding of the body, and said that deceased's bed had been sleot in, and that it appeared to have been drawn out from the wall to allow of a clear droD. There were no signs of a struggle in the room. The coroner returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide by banstfne himself while in a state of mental depres- | sion, due to drinking to excess.