Show 7 The Inquest SALT LAKE CITY April 218EO Editors Herald In your issue of the let inst the following fol-lowing statement is made headed The Baicide At 4 oclock yesterday afternoon the coroners jury resumed the examination as to the cause of the death of George W Drake Many of the points cone over were the same as given on Wednesday morning The pistol was identified as having been soldto a man of the description descrip-tion of the deceased with the cartridges while evidence was introduced showing that ho had been seen in saloons on different differ-ent occasions when he acted like one demented de-mented wringing his hands looking at persons and saying Thats no harm No harm intended and then shaking hands with entire strangers etc Mr George A Hcears yesterday made some 1 experiments with a pistol like the one found firing at human hair and he dates that at a distance of six inches the hair was not effected ia the lightest and at three lincnes it was just scorched Dr Benedict testified that he could not tell whether the hair near the woand was burned or not as it was matted with blood which had dried Thu jury returned re-turned a verdict that ho iiamc to his death by a bullet shot in his head from hands unknown While many still believe be-lieve that it was murder the preponderance preponde-rance of testimony seems to indicate that it was suicide Now I am not responsible for the verdict of the jury consisting of Meesrc Burns Golding and McGurdy i yet in justice to these gentlemen gentle-men I deem it my duly to correct some of the misstatements made in tho foregoing article as it was evi uenuy written oy some ono ignorant of the facts presented and on which the verdict was predicated For evidence evi-dence of this I beg leave to t < refer you to Judge Pyper the Drs Benedict Mr Ed Harris and a number of others who were present during the investigation FirstMany of the points were not the same as given on Wednesday morning i Second The pistol was not sold to a man of the description of deceased de-ceased but to a tall man wearing a slouched hat ThirdEvidence was not introduced intro-duced showing that he deceased had been seen in saloons on different occasions oc-casions when he acted like one demented de-mented wringing his hands looking at persons and saying Thats no harm No harm intended and then shaking hands with entire strangers etoIn In regard to the experiment with the pistol at my suggestion on the first day of the inquest Mr McCurdy fired at a newspaper six inches distant with a pistol of the same calibre containing a cartridge found on deceaseds person and the powder burned through three thicknesses of paper and subsequently severely scorched a large feather under the same conditions Yesterday a similar pistol under like circumstances twice scorched very perceptibly a bunch of human hair obtained from a barbers shop Respectfully GEORGE J TAYLOR Coroner |