WORLD HAPPENINGS

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18630, 7 May 1932, Page 12 (Supplement)

WORLD HAPPENINGS

SWALLOWED HIS SAVINGS

BANK NOTE SUICIDE. A man committed suicide in Lyons France, last month, by swallowing all his savings. He was Jean Colffier, aged 42, who owned a prosperous oafo In the Ruo de la Vigilance. Ho first took an overdose of veronal which only plunged him into a deep slumber. When he awoke ho took from his desk In his bedroom a bundle of 5-frano, 100-franc, and 1000-frano notes, which ho oarefully tore to shreds, rolled into a ball, and tried to swallow. The money stuck in his throat and he fell unconscious on the floor, but neighbours who heard the thud of his fall called the police and he was taken to hospital. There a doctor extracted the shreds of bank-notes from his throat but too late to save, him. A post-mortem examination revealed a number of other torn bank-notes In the throat. The man died of suffocation.

55 YEARS IN DARTMOOR

HEALTHY AND CHEERFUL LIFE. The death has taken place in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum of Mrs Mary Hirst, who had been an inmate for 55 years. Mrs Hirst was tried at Leeds Assizes in 1576 for the murder of her child, and' being found guilty but insane, was removed to Broadmoor. During the whole of her stay there she enjoyed good health, and was of a very cheerful disposition.