John PAUL - Dallas, TX obit
I found this while researching some of my PAUl ancestors in TX. I dont know who this is, or even if there is a connection, but thought I would post it:
A TERRIBLE SUICIDE.
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John Paul Uses a Double Bar-
reled Shot Gun.
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HEAD BLOWN LITERALLY IN TWO.
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Brains and Blood Scattered All
Over the Room--Particulars
of the Tragedy.
One of the most shocking spectacles which has been brought to an undertaking establishment in this city in a long time is the mutilated remains of John Paul, who committed suicide early last night at the McCommas place, four miles north of town on the Richardson road. The instrument of death used by Paul was a double-barreled shotgun. He placed the muzzle of the gun to the right side of his face and with the toes of his right foot, pulled both triggers. The charges literally tore his head in two and when one of Undertaker J. E. Dunn's assistants arrived on the scene thirty minutes later, the man was lying in a large pool of blood, and his brains and the blood vessels of his head were scattered all over the room and some had even splattered the walls. The remains were brought to this city last night and dressed for burial in Undertaker Dunn's establishment at the corner of Main and Harwood streets. While the clever art of undertaking has patched upon the wounds so that they can be only faintly outlined, still the evidences of the terrible mental suffering which the man must have endured before driven to this rash act are there and one glance tells the story.
Mr. Paul was well known in the neighborhood, and in the house in which he died, but no cause can be assigned for the act except general despondency. He came to the McComas place last Friday. He had been through a severe sick spell and was still suffering from the ravages of la grippe when he arrived there. He had been taking medicine regularly and was in a very serious mood, but the family ascribed it to sickness. Last night, just after supper, he sat before the family fireplace smoking a pipe. It didn't draw well, and he got up and looked behind a closet door where the shotgun was kept. Some one asked him what he was looking for and he replied by saying that he wished a broom straw. One was brought him, the pipe was cleansed and the conversation resumed, but it was noticed that he kept his eye on the door behind which was the shotgun.
About 9 o'clock, the family retired. His room was opposite the family room. An hour or so after retiring, Mr. McComas heard him rumbling around in his room. Mr. McComas thought he was taking a dose of medicine and he opened his door so that he might have a light from the family room. A few minutes later, the report of the discharged shotgun aroused the household and the family rushed into Paul's room to find the scene above described. Justice Skelton and Undertaker of this city were notified and repaired at once to the scene.
Paul was apparently about 40 years of age. He had been married but about some time ago, his wife gave birth to twins and died. This fact prayed upon his mind and his recent illness drove him to desperate despondency.
His twin children are living with relatives in Wylie and he has a brother living in Hillsboro, who has been notified of his untimely end.
- March 28, 1899, Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 8, col. 3.
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