Horrible Suicide

Quite a sensation was created on Garrison Avenue at an early hour on Wednesday morning by Richard Marquardt, the well known grocer, attacking George Delorvin, one of his clerks with a murderous cheese knife. He gave the boy a frightful slash across the right hand, the cut extending from the knuckle of the little finger to the wrist, some of the arteries in the palm of the hand being severed. After cutting Delorvin, he chased another of his clerks out the door and was following him up, where he observed Mr. Charles Sengel standing in the door of Morris & Ryan's saloon talking to Mr. Morris. He abandoned the chase after the clerk and made a murderous assault on Mr. Sengel, cutting a gash on the front part of he head about two inches long, the knife penetrating the skull. He followed this up rapidly, but was pressed so close by Sengel that he did not get in any more dangerous cuts, before the knife was wrenched from his grasp by Eugene Morris, who got cut in the hand in trying to disarm the infuriated man.

After the knife was taken from him, he walked back into his store, where he was shortly afterward arrested and locked up in the city jail.

Dr. Stevenson dressed the wound of the young Delorvin, while Mr. Sengel was taken to the office of Dr. Baily [sic], where his wounds were dressed, and found to be very painful though not of a dangerous character. The excitement had not subsided when the report came that Marquardt had hung himself in jail and was dead. A crowd soon gathered at the jail, and it was found that he had succeeded in strangling himself to death by means of his handkerchief tied round his neck and attached by means of a stout cord to the slats of an upper bunk in the cell. He had prepared the thing securely and then allowed his weight to come down on his neck, being suspended in almost a laying position. There happened to be no one in the jail and he was dead before he was discovered. Coroner Kelleam held an inquest over the remains and they were taken to the morgue at Birnie Bros. undertaking establishment to be prepared for burial.

Marquardt came here abot eight years ago from Paris, Logan County, and embarked in



				HORRIBLE SUICIDE Richard Marquardt, Crazed With Whiskey, Uses a Murderous Cheese Knife on One of His Clerks And Attempts to Murder Mr. Charles Sengel, Winding Up by Committing Suicide in Jail Quite a sensation was created on Garrison Avenue at an early hour on Wednesday morning by Richard Marquardt, the well known grocer, attacking George Delorvin, one of his clerks with a murderous cheese knife. He gave the boy a frightful slash across the right hand, the cut extending from the knuckle of the little finger to the wrist, some of the arteries in the palm of the hand being severed. After cutting Delorvin, he chased another of his clerks out the door and was following him up, where he observed Mr. Charles Sengel standing in the door of Morris & Ryan's saloon talking to Mr. Morris. He abandoned the chase after the clerk and made a murderous assault on Mr. Sengel, cutting a gash on the front part of he head about two inches long, the knife penetrating the skull. He followed this up rapidly, but was pressed so close by Sengel that he did not get in any more dangerous cuts, before the knife was wrenched from his grasp by Eugene Morris, who got cut in the hand in trying to disarm the infuriated man. After the knife was taken from him, he walked back into his store, where he was shortly afterward arrested and locked up in the city jail. Dr. Stevenson dressed the wound of the young Delorvin, while Mr. Sengel was taken to the office of Dr. Baily [sic], where his wounds were dressed, and found to be very painful though not of a dangerous character. The excitement had not subsided when the report came that Marquardt had hung himself in jail and was dead. A crowd soon gathered at the jail, and it was found that he had succeeded in strangling himself to death by means of his handkerchief tied round his neck and attached by means of a stout cord to the slats of an upper bunk in the cell. He had prepared the thing securely and then allowed his weight to come down on his neck, being suspended in almost a laying position. There happened to be no one in the jail and he was dead before he was discovered. Coroner Kelleam held an inquest over the remains and they were taken to the morgue at Birnie Bros. undertaking establishment to be prepared for burial. Marquardt came here abot eight years ago from Paris, Logan County, and embarked in
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		grocery business, in which he has been successful. For some time past he has been drinking very hard, and when he made the attacks on the parties as stated above had been for three or four days afflicted with delirium tremens. He stopped with Mr. Joe Sherman Tuesday night, and was very restless, imagining that someone was trying to murder him. About six o'clock Wednesday morning he and Mr. Sherman both got up and the latter made a strong pot of coffee. Marquardt drank two cups of it, and about seven o'clock he went to his store, Mr. Sherman accompanying him. He seemed alright but was suddenly seized with a crazy fit, and grasping a big cheese knife made the attack on the parties as above stated. After his death, he having no family or relatives here, Sheriff Williams closed up and took charge of the store. His brother, who was at one time a citizen of the place, and kept the Star saloon, is now in Galveston, Texas, and has been notified of his brother's tragic end. His funeral takes place today, when he will be buried by the Knights of Pythias, of which order he was a member in good standing.
		Oak Cemetery records show him as being buried there. This article was published on page 3 of the Fort Smith Elevator, Jan. 2, 1891.