Suicide By Taking Rat Poison
Schwartz is on this website from the marriage of Lillie Mae Schwartz to Romaine Williams, and their daughter Mildred Rosella Williams married Thomas Leo Gavigan.
Monday afternoon about 4 o’clock Mrs. Annie Schwartz, wife of John Schwartz, a farmer residing 4 miles west of this city (darlington), while in an insaine condition. took “Rough on Rats”, from the effects of which she died at 2 o’clock Tuesday Morning.
She has for years been subject to fits of insainity, and several times attempted self destruction. She was 46 years of age and leaves a husband and several children, the youngest of which is but 4 years old. On Tuesday Justic Hooper impanneled a coroner’s jury, who after due investigation rendered a verdict substantially in accordance with the above statements.
“Rough on Rats” was a highly popular, arsenic-based poison developed by E.S. Wells in the 1870s/1880s for vermin extermination. Marketed as a “cure-all” for pests like mice, flies, and bed-bugs, it was famously used for rats and, due to its accessibility and high toxicity, unfortunately became a common, well-known method for suicides in that era.
