A TRAGIC STORY.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18229, 17 January 1931, Page 5

A TRAGIC STORY.

“FINISH EVERYTHING.” NEW ZEALANDER’B SUICIDE. VERDICT AT THE INQUEST. United Press Assn. —Eleo. Tel. Copyright. (Received Jan. 17, 11.20 a.m.) . LONDON, Jan. 16. Further details of the life of Harold Baskin, the New Zealander who committed suicide after being victimised by a confidence man, were revealed at an Inquest at Paddington. The Coroner returned a verdict of death by strychnine, the evidence not showing deceased’s state of mind at the time. Baskin, in a farewell letter addressed to Dr. Charles Pettinger, of Wallsend Hospital, New South Wales, described the robbery and his consequent misery and two unsuccessful attempts to “finish everything ” by means of poison. The police gave evidence that Baskin, when taken to Scotland Yard, Identified the photograph of the alleged confidence man, but the coroner doubted the truth of the robbery story. A fellow passenger on the Hobson’s Bay 'gave evidence that Baskin was moody on the Voyage. He left a wife and two children In Australia, and received a cable at Southampton stating that one child was dead. The Crown: “It Is a strange case. I wonder where he got the strychnine, which Is hard to obtain.”