Two Men - Suicide - Grand Island, Nebraska

The Steubenville Hearld (Steubenville, Ohio)
February 11, 1897

MYSTERIOUS SUICIDES
Two Well-Dressed Men Shuffle Off at Grand Island, Neb.

NO CLEW TO THEIR IDENTITY

All the Gas Jets In the Room Where
They Were Found Were Turned
on Full - Name on Hotel
Register Illegible.

Grand Island, Neb., Feb 10 - A mysterious double suicide has occurred here. Two well dressed men arrived in this city from the east and inquired for the best hotel in the city, and only one registered, saying one would do for both. The name on the register is very vague, evidently made so purposely, but looks like R. A. Newcome and the residence as Billings, Mon.

About noon the two men were found in the room dead. All the gas jets in the room were open full,, and on jet, placed very high up and of which no possible use could have been made for lighting purposes, was also open.

Neither had any baggage other than a small grip, which contained nothing but two shirts and a few collars. They were all new and bore the stamp of a Chicago firm. With this exception there is nothing to indicate from whence they came. The coroner's jury could obtain no light onthe case and returned a verdict of suicide.

Both are tall, fine looking men, dressed in dark suits. One wore a full beard and was of sandy complexion, and probably five years the senior of the other. There were no papers in the pockets of their clothes, though ashes in the toilet bowl suggest that some papers had been destroyed.

A Baptist student from Scotia, Neb., late last night thought he recognized the bodies as those of two merchants of that city.