William Edward Reiter

THE DESLOGE SUN, Desloge, St. Francois Co. MO, Tues. May 5, 1925

W. E. REITER KILLS SELF AT STATE HOSPITAL NO. 4

W. E. Reiter, 42 years of age, who had made his home in DeSoto until three or four months ago when he was placed in the state hospital at Farmington for treatment, committed suicide by hanging, in his room in that institution, early Friday morning.

Reiter had seemed as usual, Thursday and had spent the day, or a part of the day, in doing certain work that had been assigned to him. He had always been quiet and had not given the attendants any reason to fear that he contemplated an attempt on his life.

The night attendant in the building where Reiter had his room, says he last saw the unfortunate man alive at 1 o'clock Friday morning, when he was making a tour of inspection of the building. Reiter asked for a drink of water at this time, which was given to him. The attendant next went to this room at 5 o'clock in the morning to awaken the occupant.

He found Reiter hanging, lifeless by a window. He had taken a sheet from his bed and had wrapped one end of the sheet around his neck, had passed the other end over a large hinge that held a shutter at the window, securing the ends deftly, and so they would not slip. Evidently he had stood on the window ledge while making these preparations and had then jumped off. The window was sufficiently high to prevent his feet from reaching the floor. Reiter had died of strangulation, his neck not having been broken.

Coroner J. R. Horne of Elvins conducted an inquest Friday morning at the state hospital. The remains were taken to DeSoto for burial.

William Edward Reiter was my great-great uncle (my great grandmother's brother).  For more on him, click here.  Thanks to Stephan W. who found this article and sent it to me.

William Edward Reiter

 My great-grandmother's brother William Edward Reiter has been whispered about for years.  He was Mary Celecia Reiter Long's youngest brother born in 1883.  In the 1900 census he was living at home with his widowed mother Eliza Tyrey Reiter and his sister Annie. His father Louis Reiter had already died.

 He joined Bethlehem Baptist Church around 1909 according to the record above.  He registered from the draft in 1918 naming my great-grandmother Mary Reiter Long as his nearest relative.  It's here that we find that he was tall, slender, blond and blue-eyed---taking after the Tyrey side of the family.
 
We also know that by 1920 he was living in DeSoto, Mo with his sister Annie and her husband Vincent Phenty.  Ed had married Bertha in 1920 but were in the process of a divorce when he died.  He had worked as a blacksmith's helper for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.  But, the whispers were, "Grandma had a brother that committed suicide."  I wasn't sure which Grandma nor which brother, but I was finally able to locate his death certificate. . .

He had been in the mental hospital in Farmington, Mo when he died in May 1925 "By strangulation caused by wrapping a sheet around his neck by his own hands."  How he died didn't surprise me but where he died did---I had never heard that he'd been in the mental hospital.  Oddly enough, my great-grandmother Martha Silas Watson Tuttleton on the other side of the family had been in that same hospital at the same time.  The other surprise on the death certificate was that he had been married although her name is "Unknown".

I wish we had a photo of "Ed", and we may in one of those Baptist group photos, but for now I will just think of him as looking like his handsome brothers and sisters. Click here for the photo that has Ed's brother Fred, and sisters Annie, Amanda and Mary.  If he's on this photo, I suspect he is between Annie and Fred, but we may never know.