Denison
Daily News
Thursday, January 11, 1877
pg. 3
SUICIDE IN SHERMAN
Throat Cut with a Pocket Knife
[Daily
Register, 9th]
About 4 o'clock yesterday
afternoon a bloody tragedy occurred at the
Texas Pacific house,
in this city. Thomas Beecher, who
has been a
hotel runner in this city for
about 3 years, in a fit of temporary
insanity laid his throat
open with a pocket knife and ended his
life.
Beecher was a man of intemperate
habits, about middle age, and it seems came to Sherman from Rock
Island, Illinois. He was taken sick
with pneumonia about
a week ago, and was under treatment by Dr.
Eagon for that
disease. From the statement of the
Doctor and other witnesses before the jury of inquest it
appears that delerium tremens came on
him yesterday
morning, and he was perhaps laboring under
some frightful hallucinations when the rash act
was committed.
Mr. Scruggs, the proprietor of the
house, testified that Beecher came down from his room early in the morning
and made several attempts to escape from the house. He prevented
him from doing so, and finally got him to
bed in a room
adjoining his own, down stairs.
After he had put him to bed Beecher grew more rational and
asked Scruggs to telegraph his brother at Rock Island that he was
on his death bed. Mr. Scruggs sent the dispatch, and then went to the
train. When he got back from the depot, he went into Beecher's room
and asked him how he felt. Beecher replied that he felt very
well. Scruggs, on nearing the
bedside, noticed blood on his hand, and asked if
his nose had been bleeding. Beecher
replied by throwing
down the cover and revealing the ghastly
gash across his
throat, from which the life blood was
pouring. Scruggs asked him what made him cut his throat,
and Beecher replied that he did it to keep Scruggs from doing it - - -
that Scruggs had "gone back on him."
Dr. Eagon was called at once and
did all in his power to save the dying man, but he was past the power of
the skillful surgeon, and died in about half an hour. Shortly after
the doctor came Beecher became more rational, and asked him if he had
ever been to Rock Island, and if he knew Miss Katie D.
Beecher. He wanted the doctor
to write to her and tell her of his condition.
He also sent for the Catholic priest and
had him offer prayer
for him. When the doctor reached the
bedside the dying man was found to have the knife with which the deed was
committed tightly clutched in his hand, and it was not without a struggle
that it was taken from him.
An inquest was held over the body
this morning, and the verdict of the jury was in accord with the facts
above given.
The
Register learns that the brother
of the deceased is on his way to Sherman to take charge of the
remains.
