Tuesday, March 23, 1886

SAD SUICIDE AT OLD SHILDON

Coroner Dean sat at Old Shildon yesterday, with a jury, to investigate the case of William Tarn (29), who shot himself on Friday forenoon in the house of his father, Mr Thomas Tarn, the Cross Keys Inn. - The deceased, it appears, followed no regular employment. Mr Tarn, on hearing the pistol shot, hurried upstairs and found deceased kneeling by the bedside, with his head, from which blood was issuing, lying on the counterpane. Deceased had been in indifferent health, and quite recently, on medical advice, had taken a voyage to the Mediterranean. He had latterly suffered much from neuralgia and nervous prostration. - Dr. Fielden, called with all speed at the time, said he found deceased's recovery hopeless. Witness had never detected previously symptoms of mental derangement, but deceased, besides other sufferings, was subject to constipated bowels and insomnia. - This was all evidence, and the jury next concerned themselves about deceased's state of mind, and one juryman intimated that deceased suffered from delusions. - Mr Tarn (recalled) said about a week previously deceased fancied a child was at the foot of his bed. Deceased also imagined that mice ran about the room, which was clear of vermin. - After deliberation in private, the jury, with one exception, found that deceased committed suicide, but that the testimony was not clear enough to show the state of his mind when he shot himself. - Deceased's remains, the same afternoon, were followed to the grave by a large number of persons.