Feigenbaum's Lawyer's Suicide

[The Good Michael]

Howard,

I want to say that I admire the way you methodically remove suspects from our imaginary lists. First Stephenson, and now Feigenbaum. I know that others have dismissed these guys as well, but you corner them like a pack of foxhounds. Good on yer, mate!

Mike

[Howard Brown]

Thanks a lot Doc...I passed along the kind words to the Boss.

For a guy who may have graduated from Law School at 19 or 20 ( I say "may" have at 19 or 20" as we still need to verify a few things...I don't want another repeat from the last post and have to go back and corrrrrrrrrrrrect anything) and seems to have had a pretty good career lined up...something isn't right. What really spurred me on to all this is the statement by Mr. Marriott,a former police officer, on the Rippercast program, who vouched for a defense lawyer's word, this Lawton character. Thats what originally got me to thinkin' about things. No offense to Mr. Marriott,of course, but thats unusual. At least in the company I keep.

Anyway,Doc...Lawton's death certificate from Cook County states he was 28 in 1897 at the time he died. However, his brother Frederic H. Lawton,who came outta the same patch as he did,says he was 26 in a news report I have on my site. IF he was 26 in 1897 ( making his birth either 1870 or 1871,of course) and he had served 7 years for this Ingersoll character...then he may have graduated Columbia College in his teens. May have...but we have to check.

Back to the drugs. If he was using cocaine, its possible he may have used it to stay alert. If he used chloral, its anyone's guess. Maybe he used it to calm him down, I don't know. I never made that trip,to be honest. I don't know what its good for except as in the case of a former suspect,Stephenson,who used it to stave off pink elephants.

I think its probably a case of Lawton...at this point in time... simply trying to capitalize off his former client who had convieniently died, which prevented him,Feigenbaum, from ever countering what Lawton said to the New York Advertiser ( Wolf Vanderlinden's article is very good on this whole issue...i suggest reading it) about him being a likely Jack The Ripper. Since no one seemed willing to get Lawton to elaborate,as in a magazine article or book,it looks like a case of Lawton simply giving up the ghost on Feigenbaum-As-Ripper and the story faded into oblivion.

...that is until recently.

Take care and Happy Yule Season to you,Doc.

[drstrange169]

Hello Howard,

Neither of those drugs are halucenagenics so it seems unlikey they would have caused him to hear imaginary claims. Which one he took or indeed if he took any we don't yet know. Both drugs and the suicide itself are consistant with stress or depression.

All in all though, kudos for your and Nina's research. There seems to be a lot more story for us all to look for now.

[Howard Brown]

Ah,silly me...
The previous post should have read:

"I now wonder if Lawton was getting high back when he was defending Feigenbaum ...and when he was claiming Feigenbaum confessed to having "a singular disease,which induces an all absorbing passion" which led Lawton to declare that his client was Jack The Ripper."

Anyone get the impression that Lawton may have been attempting to simply capitalize on this event as more or less,a "career move" ?

[Howard Brown]

Its recommended that the curious Ripperologist peruse Issue 28 of Ripper Notes for Wolf Vanderlinden's fine article on Carl Feigenbaum, the current flavor of the month being plumped by Trevor Marriott. It is also recommended that the curious Ripperologist listen in on Episode 36 of Rippercast for Mr. Marriott's commentary on Feigenbaum,Mrs. Eddowes and her apron and nicked organs from the victims and attention to Mr. Marriott's musing,once more, on this lawyer of Feigenbaum's.

Nina Brown( The Boss ) and I did a little researching on Feigenbaum's lawyer, a William Sanford Lawton since the Rippercast episode.
Lawton,it turns out, committed suicide in a park ( Lincoln Park) in Chicago in February of 1897,just a few months after the execution of the man Lawton claimed confessed to him as being Jack The Ripper.
Mr. Marriott offered the appraisal on the Rippercast program that he found no reason to doubt the veracity of Lawton's claims or Lawton's competency as a lawyer.

Here is a newspaper report from February 17,1897 in the New Haven Register,Page 4... which is a disturbing story and look into the tragic end of Feigenbaum's lawyer.

New Haven Register
Feb 17,1897
Page 4
Clerk Attempts Suicide
Wilson Follows The Precepts Of His Employer Robert G. Ingersoll
HE TRIED TO SWALLOW PRUSSIC ACID
New York,Feb 17-
The teachings of Robert G. Ingersoll,which justify self destruction,seemed to again bear fruit yesterday,when Robert J.Wilson, one of the Colonel's clerks, tried to commit suicide in his employer's office. The young man was frustrated in an attempt to drink Prussic acid.
Wilson lived at 58 William Street, had charge of Colonel Ingersoll's office. He was prevented from drinking the acid by Charles L.Wynne of Spokane, Washington and a stranger who was in the office.

Followed Ingersoll's Teachings
It appears to be more than a coincidence that since 1894, when Col. Ingersoll aroused a storm of criticism by insisting that suicide was no sin and in many cases,desirable and worthy, two of his clerks and two of his relatives have taken their own lives.
Young Wilson is the fifth of those either related to the Colonel or closely associated with him, who have put into practice his teachings on self-destruction.
William Sanford Lawton, who was for several years a student in Col. Ingersoll's office,shot himself to death in Lincoln Park,Chicago last Saturday.
Norman S. Mussey, who had been the Colonel's chief clerk, took his life on August 11th, last, as he jumped from a station of the Sixth elevated railroad and ran up the track toward an approaching train.
He leaped from the track to the ground when he found that he was pursued by a brakeman. Both his legs were broken by the fall and he died from his injuries a few days later.
Miss Hattie Cooper, a 3rd cousin of Ingersoll and her mother, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, was suffocated from coal gas in their home in San Francisco, on December 11,last. Miss Cooper had frequently spoken to her mother of the time when they "could go together". She turned on the gas. Colonel Ingersoll learned of their death for the first time last evening.
When Col. Ingersoll was asked last evening if his opinions of self-destruction had undergone any change,he replied that they had not.
The Colonel had not heard of his clerk's attempt at suicide when seen at his home, 230 Madison Avenue, last evening, but he did not seem very much surprised when told about it.
He had not been at his office for some weeks and didn't know whether the young man had been drinking or not.
Wilson had been with him for 12 years and was formerly a messenger boy of the Postal Telegraph Company. He couldn't remember where he lived but said he had been married but a few weeks ago and for some reason it had not turned out as happily as might be. He had also heard that his clerk, though he had always found him a valuable man, faithful and reliable, used morphine.
Speaking of the attempt he said, " It was a silly thing for him to do- a very silly thing".
"It is a wonder to me though looking at all the misery there is that more persons do not kill themselves.." He said he understood Lawton was a victim of drugs, chloral or cocaine, and that Hattie Cooper was crazy.
Colonel Ingersollsaid that he considered all persons who chose painful means of suicide insane, "but" he said. "a man who has determined to kill himself makes up his mind as to the means and one will pass through a room full of poison out of a window while another must hang himself-nothing else will do". He did not think any were deterred by fear of future punishment "for", he said, "one who suffers what he thinks the worst in this world fears nothing worse.."

Nina and I have also found post-Feigenbaum material on Lawtons's suicide which indicates no known reason was ascertainable for his self-destruction. No apparent reason...except perhaps, the drug use as mentioned by Ingersoll, an intimate of Lawton, being responsible in some degree.

I now wonder if Lawton was getting high back when he was defending Feigenbaum ...and when he was claiming to have heard Feigenbaum confess to being Jack The Ripper 9 or 10 months before his own suicide.