A DETERMINED SUICIDE.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 737, 15 November 1870, Page 3

A DETERMINED SUICIDE.

A very determined case of suicide occurred at Ballarat on Oct. IS, and an equally determined attempt to commit the same crime by the husband of the unfortunate woman was happily frustrated. It appears that Mr Logan, watchmaker, Bridge-street, had recently taken a Mr J. M. Proctor into partnership with him, and opened a watch and clock making shop between them, he and Proctor and Mrs Proctor occupying the rear parts of the house, and everything seems to have gone smoothly until the morning of Oct. 14. On that day Mr Proctor, who was a long time in New Zealand, found a letter that had fallen from his wife's pocket, and which contained matter that no married woman should have allowed to be sent to her, much less kept after receiving it, and this at once aroused Mr Proctor's suspicions, if it did not indeed confirm them, for it is said he had reason before that to suppose she had been on too intimate terms with some one in New Zealand. He knew that she used to visit the postoffice very regularly after the arrival and before the departure of New Zealand mails ; and on Saturday or Monday, I do not know which, he watched her and her sister go out, and followed them to the post-office, where Mrs Proctor remained on the footpath while her sister went to the window to ask for letters, He took that opportunity of telling his wife that there was no occasion for her to come there any more, as the letter he had in his possession, of which she seemed ignorant, was quite enough. She demanded it, and he refused to give it up, but the parties went home, and nothing more was heard of Proctor's suspicions by any one except Mr Logan, to whom he had confided them, till Tuesday morning, when Mr Logan, while sitting in his shop at work, heard a strange scuffling noise, and a sound as if some one had fallen on the floor. Immediately on entering the back room he saw Mrs Proctor with a pistol in her hand, and her husband lying on the floor on his back. She appeared to have taken the pistol from him and to have caused him to fall. Mr Logan at once took the pistol, and threw it out in the back yard. Proctor then described how his wife had tried hard to get the letter from him, and finding it of no avail, had taken a dose of strychnine from a phial kept in a drawer in the shop; that he had taken some of what she had left, but that she had taken a second quantity, and it is supposed that when he saw that she was falling under its influence, that he had taken the pistol to shoot himself, but that she had strength enough left to wrest it from him. A neighbour who

went to Mr Logan's assistance was asked to attend to Mrs Proctor, while Logan looked after her husband. On going in to the dark room he found Proctor holding the phial that had contained the strychnine in his left hand, and in an inverted position over his mouth, while with his right he was tapping it, as if to shake any loose poison into his mouth. The phial was at once taken from him and put outside, but when Mr Logan returned he found that Proctor had got the other pistol; but, perhaps from the pain of the poison he had taken, ho had not time to use it before it was taken from him. While this was being put out of his reach by Mr Logan, Mr Proctor had managed to get to the cupboard where a number of chemicals were kept, and was in the act of pouring muriatic acid into his mouth when Mr Logan returned. The latter at once threw him on his back, and got hold of the bottle and threw it into the fireplace, and getting a jug of water, he held Proctor on his back on the floor while he poured a quautity of water down his throat. Moreassistancehaving been obtained, Mrs Proctor was at once sent to the hospital, and Proctor was not long in being sent after her. The unfortunate woman died within five minutes of her admission, but Proctor still survives, and, though very ill, there are strong hopes of his recovery. It appears that Mrs Proctor's daughter by a former husband, who lived with her, had been sent out once or twice early in the morning for brandy, and Mr Logan is of opinion that both Proctor and his wife had drunk too much. It appears there is some ground also to suppose that Mrs Proctor had been married to a second husband, who is said to be still alive, before she became Mrs Proctor.