LIBERTY AND
DEATH WERE HIS.
______
W. J. COGLAN COMMITS SUICIDE.
______
He Had Recently Been Pardoned Out of
the Penitentiary, but Could Get no
Work as a Telegraph Operator
and Was Out of Money.
Saturday night, a man registering as William J. Coglan, engaged a room at the Phoenix hotel, and was not particularly noticeable in any respect, until yesterday morning, when he did not leave his room after repeated attempts to arouse him.
At 6 o'clock last evening, Mr. W. L. Robinson, proprietor of the hotel, heard him breathing heavily, as if under the influence of morphine, and after breaking open the door, found the inmate of the room unconscious. A doctor was sent for, and every effort made to save him. The man died at 8:30 o'clock last night. A careful examination of the body and the room failed to establish any clue to an identity. The deceased was neatly dressed; his pockets contained two knives, 30 cents in silver and a map of the International & Great Northern railroad. A bottle that had contained a drachm [dram] of morphine, with about twenty grains of the drug left in it, was found concealed in the mattress.
Justice Ed S. Lauderdale, after viewing the body at 10 o'clock last night, certified that the deceased came to his death by means of morphine administered by his own hand. The body was taken to Linskie's undertaking establishment.
Subsequent developments established the fact that William J. Coglan was the right name of the deceased, and his former home was in Terrell. He was a telegraph operator and several years ago, was employed in that capacity at the Dallas Union depot, going afterward to Goldthwaite, Tex., where, for some offense not developed here, he was sent to the penitentiary for a term of two years. After serving one year and a half, he was pardoned and liberated several weeks ago, and coming to Dallas, it is supposed that the want of money and employment had produced the despondency that resulted in death by his own hand.
- January 31, 1895, Dallas Daily Times Herald
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