A Horrible Suicide

About 8:30 O'clock last Wednesday evening an inmate of the county hospital retired to a 
small outbuilding in the rear, surrounded himself with loose papers and set it all on 
fire.  Other patients had gone to bed, but one of them finally saw the blaze and gave 
the alarm.  The structure had been nearly consumed, and within it was the charred 
remains of a man who bad evidently planned his own horrible ending.

Justice Davidson, acting as Coroner, yesterday morning summoned a jury and made full 
inquiry as to the facts.  The jury found that "the deceased was names William J. 
McKinley; that he was a native of Ohio, aged 58 years," and that he "came to his death 
from the effects of a fire; that the fire was started with suicidal intent while 
temporarily insane."  Little or nothing was known of the man here, except that he has 
been an inmate of the hospital for the past two years and a half.

The Inyo Register
Bishop, Inyo County, California
Thursday, September 19, 1901

Transcribed by Pat Houser for Inyo County GenWeb, August 6, 2004