Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-04-14 | Page 3 | Prominent Illinois Leader Kills Self

PROMINENT ILLINOIS LEADER KILLS SELF Despondency, Following Death of Ills Wife, Believed to Be Koason for Suicide. CHICAGO, April 13. W. A. Stead, former attorney general of Illinois and preseut director of trade and commerce in the administration of Governor Low-den, Low-den, committed suicide at a hotel here today. Mr. Stead's home is at Ottawa. He was one of the most prominent Hepub-lican Hepub-lican leaders in the state, die registered regis-tered at the Great Northern hotel, his usual stopping place, as YV. H. Stead, Springfield, 111. The body was discovered dis-covered shortly after noon". There was a bullpf hole in the head and life ap- Farently had been extinct for about our hours I Mr. Stead 's wife died eighteen ! months ago and friends said he had been greatly depressed since. He was worried also about his eyes, which had been troubling him for years. He was born in La Salle county. 111., in 1S5S. He served two terms as attorney at-torney general of the state and was appointed director of commerco by Governor Gov-ernor Lowden shortly after his election. Friends attributed the suicide to the brooding over the loss of his wife. He often spoke of his loneliness. She had been an invalid for years and the association between the-m was very close.