13 September 1862 Shocking Suicide - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

13 September 1862 Shocking Suicide

THE WESTMORLAND GAZETTE
SATURDAY 13th SEPTEMBER 1862

SHOCKING SUICIDE ON THE LANCASTER AND CARLISLE RAILWAY
Early on Wednesday morning, the 3rd inst, the trunk of a man was found in
the " grip," and the head on the other side of the rail of the down line of
the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, on Eamont viaduct, Yanwath, near
Penrith. The arms of the deceased were folded, and the body lay in such a
position as to favour the conclusion that death by decapitation was
premeditated, and was not an accident. The body was conveyed to the Castle
Inn, Penrith, and it was disclosed that the deceased was Joseph Richardson,
late a railway servant on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, a steady man,
aged 40, but who unfortunately made so serious a mistake in signalling a
ballast train that it was found necessary to dismiss him. It is believed
that this occurrence preyed upon his mind, and that he sought suicide in the
manner detailed ; this opinion appears to be supported by the fact that the
deceased answered the description of a man who a few weeks back was found
lying across the down line, on the same railway at Penrith, when he was
snatched off the rails a few moments before the mail train passed over the
spot where his neck was lying. The man found on the occasion referred to was
apparently in a state of stupor, but when the person who found him came back
to which he had dragged him, while he looked after the mailbags for Penrith,
he had walked off across the fields without thanking his deliverer or giving
any account of himself.