The Unsolved Despair of Robert F. Hickman
A young man is found dead of poisoning in North Seattle, leaving behind a mysterious secret about a Tacoma grocery venture.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The autopsy over the body of Robert F. Hickman, who was found dead near the Boulevard Wednesday morning, proved conclusively that death was due to strychnine taken a short time after breakfast Tuesday morning. The cause that led young Hickman to take his life is a matter of conjecture. He had a pleasant home with his brother-in-law, George N. Gilson, at 218 Wall street, North Seattle, and was treated in every respect as one of the family. So far as Mr. Gilson knows he was a person of exemplary habits. The letter which was found on his person was in his handwriting. About a year ago he did considerable writing, and collected the matter together in the form of a newspaper. It is thought that he had some business interests in Tacoma, but the exact nature is not definitely known. About two weeks ago he told Charles Evans, a neighbor, that he had gone into the grocery business in Tacoma, together with five other boys. He spoke of it as a secret, and requested Evans not to say anything about it.
“The cause that led young Hickman to take his life is a matter of conjecture.”
Mental health struggles were often framed in the 19th century as 'mysteries' or moral failures, with little room for the nuance of modern clinical understanding. Today, the suicide of a young person remains a devastating community event, though we now have a much broader vocabulary for the loneliness and pressures that drive such tragedies.
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