Some Macabre Stories of the Silver Trade

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COLE KRABATZ

New York


Cole Krabatz, 25 years old, a Pole, who had a little jewelry shop at 363 Madison St., committed suicide Wednesday night by poisoning himself with carbolic acid. Disappointment in love is said to have been the reason for the act.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 13th May 1896

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ADAM FORT

Waikato, New Zealand


MOTOR CAR ACCIDENT

JEWELLER KILLED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) HAMILTON, Wednesday.

Adam Fort, a middle-aged watchmaker and jeweller, was knocked down by a motor car yesterday. He sustained a fracture of the skull, and died in the Waikato Hospital last night.

Source: Wairarapa Daily Times - 26th September 1918

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CHARLES I. GARDINER

Providence, Rhode Island


Providence, R. I., March 1.—Charles I. Gardiner, formerly a manufacturing jeweler in this city, committed suicide at his home, 21 Prairie Ave., last night, by taking poison while suffering from despondency brought on by advancing age and ill health. The unfortunate man was about 65 years of age and for many years has been a resident of this city.

Some time yesterday he purchased a preparation of prussic acid and cyanide of potassium and retiring to the bathroom early in the evening, swallowed the poison. He was found dead this morning by his son. He was very well known throughout this vicinity and was a prominent secret society member. He retired from the manufacturing jewelry business about seven years ago.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 7th March 1894

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JOSEPH D. FARREN

New York


The death of Joseph D. Farren, a traveler for Mr Henry Carter, of New York, has excited considerable comment. Mr. Farren was stopping at the Metropolitan Hotel in Washington, and had complained of not feeling well during the day. In the evening he retired to his room, but subsequently started to return to his office, and had reached the landing on the second floor, when he suddenly fell against the banisters and was precipitated over the stairs, falling upon his head on the marble floor of the office. He was picked up in an unconscious condition, and although he had the best medical attendance, he died the next day, after much suffering. His body was taken to New Haven, where his sister resides, for burial. Mr. Farren was insured for $5,000 in an assessment accident company of this city, but the company refuses to pay the claim on the ground that his death was the result of his own carelessness.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - April 1887

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EDWARD A. BENDER

Chicago


Edward A. Bender, a well-known gold beater, with a workshop at 184 Dearborn St., was recently found dead there with an ugly wound on the back of his head. At 6 o’clock in the evening the janitor saw Bender at work, and when he next went his rounds he found him dead and notified the police at once. Everything points to robbery as the motive for the deed. Mr. Bender was 43 years old and was well known in the trade. The funeral was held Aug. 21.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 26th August 1908

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ALBERT LANCEL

Paris


Paris. 23rd January. Robert Marge, once an aviator, a noted French rugby footballer, and one of the best sprinters, was shot in his own bachelor flat, and died in hospital.

Albert Lancel, head of a firm of silversmiths, went to the flat and found his wife there. Madame shrieked and fainted, and it is alleged that Lancel fired three shots. He has been arrested.

Source: The Evening Post - 25th January 1926

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SOLOMON C. CRANE

Williamsport, Indiana


Solomon C. Crane Commits Suicide at Williamsport, Ind., in a Fit of Despondency.

Williamsport, Ind., Dec. 22. — Solomon C. Crane, who committed suicide here, last week, by shooting himself in the head, had a long career in the jewelry business, and though he had not been prominently connected with the trade while in Williamsport, he was well known while in business in Nebraska and Colorado. Despondency over domestic troubles and the fact that he could not obtain a reconciliation with his wife is said to have caused his rash act, though he is known to have joked with several friends shortly before putting a bullet in his brain.

Mr. Crane was by trade both a jeweler and barber, and was connected with the jewelry industry for nearly 40 years. After working for some time for E. A. Biggs, at West Lebanon, Ind., he moved to Clarks, Nebr., where he started in business for himself, succeeding E. A. Richardson, of that town. He then moved to California and from 1888 to 1893 was at Cottonwood. From there he moved to Eldora, Colo., in 1898, and several years ago returned to Indiana, settling in Williamsport, where he bought a farm, and remained in this town ever since.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 29th December 1909

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HARRY LINCOFF

Rankin, Pennsylvania


JEWELER KILLS ROBBER; PREVENTS STORE LOOTING

PITTSBURGH, Pa., Oct. 14--Shot by his own revolver in the hands of an intended victim, an unidentified robber was fatally wounded last night in the store of the Lincoff Jewelry Company, in Rankin, Allegheny county.

Harry Lincoff, twenty-one years old, a member of the firm, grappled with the robber when the latter attempted to rob the store, and after a struggle in which showcases were wrecked and overturned and the front window broken, Lincoff got possession of the revolver and fired the only shot of the fight. It hit the robber in the head.

Source: The Washington Times - 14th October 1921

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THEODORE REISS

Canton, Ohio


Theodore Reiss, a jewelry peddler, of Canton, O., suicided at that city last week by cutting his throat. Despondency was the cause.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 24th June 1891

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J.E ALLISON

Jasper, Alabama


Prominent Jeweler Shot From Ambush

Birmingham, Ala., Oct. 16.—Near Glen Allen, a small station on the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham railroad, J. E. Allison, a prominent jeweler of Jasper, was shot from ambush and killed at an early hour this morning. Allison, it is reported, had gone from Jasper to visit a young lady who lived near New River Tank. As he was passing the water tank near the house of the young lady he was shot down, it is supposed, by a jealous lover. The body was placed in a box by the murderer, a blanket thrown over it and a tag with Allison's name and address attached. No arrests have been made.

Source: The Evening Bulletin - 16th October 1894

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HUGO C. METZEL

St. Cloud, Minnesota


Minneapolis, Aug. 27, Hugo C. Metzel, a prominent jeweler of St. Cloud and son of a wealthy Hebrew of Milwaukee, was found dead in the basement of his store yesterday with two bullet wounds in his head, self inflicted.

Source: The Duluth Evening Herald - 27th August 1894

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W.E. CANNON

Kansas City


W. E. Cannon Found Dead

Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 14.—W. E. Cannon, 600 Wyandotte St., who has been ill some time with fever and mental troubles, disappeared from his home on Gladstone Ave. while his nurse was out of the room. Mr. Cannon was clad only in his night shirt and pants when he left home.

The search for Mr. Cannon resulted in the finding of his body, face downward, in a shallow pool of water in a culvert under E. 9th St., a few hundred feet from the end of the 9th St. cable line. The state of the body showed it had been there more than two days, and all during that time, while Pinkerton detectives and anxious relatives had been searching diligently, hundreds of passengers on the cable line had passed over it.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 18th September 1895

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EMMA MEMMOTT

Sheffield


FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT BY MACHINERY

About eleven o'clock on Monday morning a frightful accident occurred at the works of Messrs. Hutton and Son, silver platers, Sheffield, to a young woman named Emma Memmott, who was employed as a slver polisher. The young women employed in silver polishing stand at a workboard, about four feet apart, and underneath each board, at about 18 inches from the floor, runs the shaft from the steam-engine by which the polishing spindles are propelled. An iron bar is fixed on a level with the front of each workbench, to protect the clothes of the young women from the shaft. This precautionary measure, however, proved ineffectual in the case of Memmott, for while she was at work on Monday morning her clothes, from some unknown cause, became entangled with the coupling box of the shaft. Feeling the drag at her clothes, she screamed out for assistance, and a man named Birks under whom she worked, ran to her assistance, and, seizing her under the arms, endeavoured to drag her from the spot, both he and she screaming all the while to the persons in care of the engine in a lower room to stop it. The engine was not stopped, and the machinery gradually wound up the young woman's clothes, dragging her down at every moment, despite the efforts of Birks, who, finding it useless further to contend against the force of the machinery himself ran into the lower room and instantly stopped the engine. When he returned to the poor young woman he found all her clothes torn off, and her body mutilated in the most shocking manner; it was literally crushed to pieces. She was quite dead. It is supposed that an iron bar connected with the shaft was loose, and caused the accident, for so great was the force of the machinery, that the bar, though of considerable thickness, was found wrapped round the shaft, as though it had been a piece of cord.

Source: The North Wales Chronicle and Advertiser for the Principality - 9th August 1856

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ANDREW M. MURRAY

Providence, Rhode Island


Andrew M. Murray, who for several years has carried on a small manufacturing business at 143 Sumner St., was last week transferred to the State Asylum at Cranston. The physician who has been attending him is of the opinion that recovery is doubtful.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 9th March 1892

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WILLIAM RAMSEY

Washington, D.C.


Police Piece Together Details of Ramsay Double Slaying

Three Brief Messages Written to Friends By Elderly Jeweler

Faced with the prospect of loneliness at Christmas and racked with illness, 77-year-old William Ramsay, retired watchmaker and jeweler, shot his wife, Mrs. Susan Ramsay, wrote and mailed at least three brief, final messages to friends and then killed himself.

This was the story of the double shooting at 3053 Sixteenth street N.W.. discovered yesterday, as pieced together by police today following
completion of their investigation of the case. Certificates of murder and suicide were issued.

Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay quarreled over her plans to leave for Miami today for a holiday visit with their daughter, Mrs Jean Ramsay Chase, detectives said. Mr. Ramsay’s poor health made it impossible for him to take the trip. Entries were found in his notebook telling of the intense suffering he had endured from increasing physical infirmity. In one place Mr Ramsay wrote that he was “losing my hearing and memory.”

Investigation showed that Mrs. Ramsay, too, was partially deaf and had been ill recently.

Scraps of Food on Table

Detectives declared the shooting of Mrs. Ramsay occurred shortly after lunch Thursday. Scraps of the midday meal were found on the dining room table of their three-story residence. It was the maid's day off and Albert Marlowe, top-floor roomer, was at his job at the Government Printing Office.

Officers learned yesterday afternoon that Mr. Marlowe came home late Thursday night, slept in the room and left for work early Friday morning, unaware that both Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay lay dead in the house. He said that he heard no unusual noises and that he did not smell gas.

After shooting Mrs. Ramsay, whose body was discovered on the kitchen floor with two .38-caliber revolver bullets in the chest and another in the head. Mr. Ramsay wrote farewell messages to friends.

One, on a postcard, was addressed to an old friend and former employe, Albert Spletter, watchmaker in the National Press Building.

"Dear Al", it read, "please open safe for my daughter" in one corner, as a postscript. Mr. Ramsay had written: "Mrs. R, she is now dead. I come next.” It was postmarked 4:30 pm. Thursday.

Two Other Communications

Police said today that at least two other brief communications had been mailed to others at the same time.

Returning to the big house, which stands on the triangle where Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets meet at Irving street, Mr. Ramsay went to his wife's bedroom on the second floor, bolted the door, turned on a gas jet and shot himself in the temple with the .38-caliber revolver, which officers found at his side.

Neighbors said that the Ramsays lived quietly and were seen infrequently except in the summer months when they often sat on the front porch or walked on their large lawn.

Mrs. Chase was expected to arrive in Washington today, and funerals were set tentatively for Monday afternoon.

Source: The Evening Star - 16th December 1939

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C.W. YOUNG

Chicago


C. W. Young, a jeweler of 628 W. Van Buren St., has asked the assistance of city detectives to help him find out whose body was buried at his expense at Crystal Lake, Ill., Nov. 4. He thought he had buried his friend T. B Smith, a Burlington locomotive engineer. An injured man, whom Young identified as his friend, died at the county hospital on Nov. 2. A few days after Smith himself called on Young.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 14th December 1892

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WILLIAM FAESSLER

Oakland, California


Mrs. Louise Faessler, who gained so much notoriety in Oakland, Cal., a few days ago by horsewhipping her husband, William Faessler, jeweler, has been arrested at the instance of her husband on a charge of insanity. A commission was unable to say that she was insane, so they would not make an order committing her to an asylum. It was decided, however, to let her remain in jail one week in order that she might think over the situation.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 21st February 1894

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JOHN C. MEYER

New Orleans


Jeweler Meyer Sends a Bullet Through His Brain

New Orleans, La., July 4.—A jeweler, John C. Meyer, Jr., residing with his parents at 1233 Decatur St., last week committed suicide by shooting himself through his brain. He assisted his father in conducting a jewelry store and was engaged to be married next month.

A short time ago Meyer returned from Tennessee, where he had gone in hopes of regaining his health. He failed to secure the desired relief and returned very much broken down and disheartened. The young man became despondent over his condition and about a week ago his family noticed that his constant worrying had unbalanced his mind. They deemed it advisable to keep a watch over him through fear that he might do himself harm. However, he showed no signs of contemplating suicide. Mr. Meyer was 36 years of age.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 10th July 1895

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ANTON WAHL

Cincinnati


Anton Wahl’s Terrible Experience with a Pinching Bug

Cincinnati, O., Aug. 20.—Anton Wahl, jeweler, 610 W. 8th St., has just passed through a terrible experience.

At 8 o’clock Monday night Mr. Wahl was sitting with his family in front of his establishment, talking, when a large black bug that had been buzzing about him suddenly darted into his right ear. Mr. Wahl clapped his hand to the ear and leaped to his feet with a cry of pain. His efforts to get the bug out of his ear only pushed it further inward, and immediately it inserted knife-like pincers into the tympanum, at the same time beating its wings against the sensitive membrane. Up to this time no one knew what was the matter with the jeweler, when he suddenly went mad with the awful agony and began running up and down the shop yelling at the top of his voice:

“Take it out! Take it out! It’s killing me! " Those present did not fully appreciate the situation, as they did not know that the vicious bug was boring its way, like a living gimlet, into the interior of his ear. But they sent over to Brehm's drug store near-by for assistance and applied what remedies they had at hand. They were unable to assist Mr. Wahl, who by this time was raving like a maniac. His cries, which had attracted hundreds of people to the place, became incoherent and at last unintelligible. Half a dozen strong men were required to hold the victim.

The bug had finally to be killed by pouring hot water into the victim's ear. Mr. Wahl was then given some quieting medicine and later on fully regained his senses. The physician says he has never heard of a parallel case.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 26th August 1891

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MARTIN BRUNOR

New York


Mrs. Martin Brunor died June 24, at her home, 402 Van Brunt St., Brooklyn. She is said to have killed herself by taking paris green after quarreling with her husband. At the funeral, Friday, Brunor was denounced by an adopted daughter of his wife’s first husband as having caused Mrs. Brunor to commit suicide, and was nearly mobbed by friends and relations of his wife while on the way to the cemetery. Brunor has been connected with the jewelry trade of New York as a plater and polisher for several years. He married his late wife last August. She is said to have kept a small jewelry store near Hunter’s Point.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 3rd July 1895

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