The Tragic End of the Moncks
A young couple is found dead in a Seattle hotel room, a desperate final act following the husband's unemployment.
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.
A double suicide was committed in this city Saturday or Sunday, evidently with the most fatal intent. A man named Monck and his wife were parties to the shocking transaction. He was an employee of the construction department at Chatham, Ontario, and a guest at the Franklin House here. On Saturday evening their month-old child was placed into temporary charge of a lady connected with the hotel to take care of, and Monck then locked his wife in her room and went away. The lady, growing tired of her charge, came about midnight to return the child to its mother, but was unable to get into her room. An entrance was finally effected by means of a pass key, and Mrs. Monck was found dead on the bed, with every evidence that she died from morphine administered either by her own hand or that of her husband. The same evening, Monck went to the Brunswick House, registered under an assumed name, and, telling the clerk he would not breakfast, went to the room assigned him, where he was found yesterday in an unconscious condition from the effects of a dose of morphine, and died later in the evening. Both parties were under 30, and left parents and other relatives living in Chatham. It is supposed that despondency over the discharge from his position and failure of all efforts of restoration drove the pair to the commission of the crime.
“It is supposed that despondency over the discharge from his position and failure of all efforts of restoration drove the pair to the commission of the crime.”
This 1883 tragedy highlights the era's lack of a social safety net, where job loss was frequently synonymous with total ruin. While the stigma of suicide has evolved, the intersection of economic instability and mental health crisis remains a hauntingly familiar aspect of the urban experience in Seattle.
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