Obituary Record

The following sorrowful news is taken from this morning's New Orleans Times-Democrat:

Anthony Buechel was found dead in his bed at his lodgings on the third floor of the preises No. 136 (old number) Common Street. His body was discovered at 4:30 o'clock last evening by Arthur Brown who went to call him.

"Tony" died by his own hand. He made doubly sure of death. One means was a portion of laudanum, and the other was by turning on the gas after swallowing the deadly drug.

That his deed was premeditated was evidenced by the fact that a carefully penned letter lay near the vial containing the drug, written to his wife, and addressed to the care of his stepdaughter. Both the vial and letter were on a table near the corpse.

The last seen of "Tony" was at midnight Thursday. He was with a number of his friends in the vicinity of his lodgings. When midnight came, he bade them good-night and said he was going to bed. He appeared to be in the best of spirits and was laughing and joking. He went to his room, and that was the last seen of him alive. The porter, Brown, slept in the same building, and about 2 o'clock he was awakened by hearing a noise. He noticed that the noise was caused by "Tony" walking in his room. He looked at his watch and saw that it was 2 A. M.

Nothing more was heard of the deceased until 4:30 o'clock when the porter went to his room to rouse him. As Brown entered the room, he was stifled by gas. He entered quickly, went to the bed, and tried to arouse Buechel. He found the man was dead and at once notified others on the place, first taking the precaution to shut off the gas and open the windows to let the fumes escape.

The facts were at once reported to the police, and Corporal Jacobs and two patrolmen went to the death chamber and took charge of the body.

Coroner LeMonnier was notified and visited the place. He examined the body and the empty vial, which had contained laudanum. He then opened the letter directed to Mrs. Mary Buechel. The first three lines said that the writer had taken his life by laudanum poison. As the coroner saw that the rest of the epistle was of a private nature, he sealed it up without perusing its contents and turned it over to Buechel's stepson, to be forwarded to Mrs. Buechel in Bay St. Louis. The corner gave a certificate of death from opium poisoning.

The body was turned over to Johnson & Sons.

A telegram was sent to the wife, and she will reach New Orleans this morning.

No cause can be assigned for the man's act as he was well off, enjoyed good health, and had employment.

The deceased was fifty-two years of age and was a native of East St. Louis, but had resided in this city for the past thirty-five years. He had been employed by Messrs. Bush & Johnson for over twenty-five years. His present occupation was that of a clerk for a bookmaker at the race track.

Source: Sea Coast Echo 03-12-1898