Kentuckiana Genealogy: Newspaper: Joseph Hogatt Committed Suicide While Awaiting Trial for Murder

By Board Administration (Admin) (96.28.66.101) on Sunday, March 25, 2012 - 10:39 pm:

Elkhart (IN) Truth, June 21, 1902, p. 5.

HUNG HIMSELF IN JAIL

Salem, Indiana, June 21-Joseph Hoggatt committed suicide in the county jail by hanging himself with a rope made out of a sheet. He, with Mag Hendrix, Mrs. Pavy and daughter, were charged by a Washington County grand jury with murder.

The trial was set for next Monday. It is charged that these defendants together smothered a child of the Hendrix woman to death. Hoggatt is about
37 years of age. He is the son of Dr. Hoggatt, a physician, who died some eight years ago. His mother and sister are highly respectable people in Salem.

It is believed by some that Joe Hoggatt, by reason of his former association with the defendant, Mag Hendrix, has created such circumstantial evidence as would lead the officers to believe that he was implicated in this crime but that he did not advise or commit the murder. Early this morning the sheriff discovered Hoggatt hanging in the jail and, not believing him dead yet, at once summoned Dr. H. M. Paynter. Hoggatt had been dead some time when the physician arrived. Recent events in Salem, by which husband and wife have been separated, murder and suicide committed by reason of the actions of immoral women, have aroused the better element of Salem against these characters.


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Special thanks to Randi Richardson