ENGAGEMENT TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 21 September 1907, Page 3

ENGAGEMENT TRAGEDY.

Further revelations in connection with the suicide of Lieutenant Mack Richardson, who is believed to have taken poison rather than marry the girl to whom he was engaged, present the case in a new light. The man is said to have been a confirmed victim to the morphine habit, and lus friends declare that he jilted Ids fiancee rather than drag her into an alliance when he recognised that his drug mania was past cure. Lieutenant Richardson had been stationed with the 2(ith Infantry Regiment for some time at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and there became engaged to the daughter of Major Kelly. The wedding was fixed to take place at Brownsville, Texas, but on the day appointed Richardson did not appear. He wired that he was ill, and another day was arranged. He arrived three hours late, to find that Miss Kelly and her father had already gone to AVashington. His conduct brought ou him the strongest disapproval of his brother officers, and lie was forced to resign his commission. This was accepted, and in ■ the evening he took prussie acid and morphine. He was taken to the hospital, where he died the following evening.