“MOST AMAZING SUICIDE”

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1931, Page 5

“MOST AMAZING SUICIDE”

BOUND MAN SUFFOCATED

MURDER THEORY DISMISSED

ELABORATE PREPARATION

MYSTERY AT CAMBRIDGE By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Loudon, Feb. 24. If the conclusions the police and college authorities reached to-night are correct, Francis Ellis, 19-year-old freshman at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, staged one of the most amazing suicides on record.

The theory is that he committed suicide by suffocating himself after he had gagged and bound himself with such elaborate ceremony as to give the impression that he was murdered. The Daily Telegraph says the conviction is the outcome of full consideration of the circumstances in which the body was found, the reconstructed drama by Scotland Yard and the detailed report of Sir Bernard Spilsbury’s post-mortem.

The grim tragedy is almost inconceivable. Ellis dined in the hall at 6.30 on Sunday, chatted freely after dinner, retired to his room and planned his own destruction. He bound and gagged himself. Having thus completely enveloped his limbs and face in at least two dozen handkerchiefs he buried his face in the pillow and suffocated himself. He was found lying so close to the door that it could be opened only an" "inch or two. This fact alone proved that nobody could have left the room. Furthermore, the room was in perfect order. The police carried out experiments showing that it was possible to be done with his own hands. Sir Bernard Spilsbury’s report makes it clear that Ellis put the gag in his own mouth. Ellis was studying archaeology and anthropology and is described as quiet, studious and intensely interested in his studios.