The Suicide Machine: An Olympia Pioneer's Meticulous Last Act
A 70-year-old bachelor rigged a gun, a bench and a string in his shed, left a note on a blackboard, and arranged his own death with chilling precision.
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.
OLYMPIA, Sept. 12.—[Special.]—One of the most deliberate suicides on record is that of Oscar F. Boutwell, which occurred here about 11 o'clock this morning.
Boutwell was a resident of the west side and a bachelor. A neighbor visited his house this morning and found written on a small blackboard outside, “Look inside.” On entering the shed the visitor found the dead body of Boutwell and evidence of a well-planned suicide.
Before committing the deed, the deceased had erected a bench in one corner. In the opposite corner was fixed a gun, carefully leveled at a target placed on the end of the bench. A string ran from the gun trigger to the bench, being placed in carefully arranged fashion. Boutwell had attired himself in his best suit of clothes, and, having covered himself with cloths to prevent damage by blood to the suit which he wore, he laid himself down on the bench in the shed, carefully placing his head in range of the gun and target, and pulled the trigger. Evidently he died almost instantly, for the ball penetrated the head at the ear on one side and passed through. There was no evidence of a struggle.
The following note was found in the house, written by Boutwell: “I owe no one. Bury me in Mud Bay burying ground. Put me in the coffin as you find me. If my body must stand over night, put it in one of the light rooms that will keep out rats and mice. What money I have is in my pocket.”
A will was found, leaving his property, consisting of a few Olympia town lots, to a brother in Wisconsin, and also providing for a tombstone and inscription. Fifteen dollars was found on his body. The will was dated in July of this year. The deceased is a New Yorker, aged 70 years. Boutwell came to Olympia in 1851.
“I owe no one. Bury me in Mud Bay burying ground. Put me in the coffin as you find me.”
Boutwell’s meticulous suicide is a window into how isolated and debt-obsessed people could be in an era before mental-health care. His insistence that he owed no one, and his careful instructions about his body and few town lots, show a man trying to control the last thing he could. Today, suicide prevention efforts emphasize connection and intervention, but the underlying isolation can still feel familiar.
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