Iowa
Old Press
Weekly Council Bluffs Bugle
Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie co., Iowa
Wednesday, April 18, 1860
Suicide.
In our last issue we gave an account of the arrest and
lodgment in jail of two horse thieves – Hazleton and
Bartlett.-Since their commitment, Bartlett was taken, or feigned
to be taken, with a diarrhoea, and applied to the Sheriff for
some laudanum for the cure of the same, and was furnished with a
small vial, the entire contents of which he swallowed on Friday
last, which caused his death about 8 o’clock P.M. of the
same day.
The following letter was found in his vest pocket:
Mr. Sheriff – Dear Sir: This life is one that does not suit
me. I will leave you my watch, which I wish you to send to Joseph
G. James, Bridgeport, Belmont county, Ohio. And as I will be in
the future state of existence before tomorrow’s sun-down,
and there to meet my Judge, I am an innocent man of the crime
that I am charged with.
Yours Truly,
J. E. Bartlett
[transcribed by L.D., November 2014]