Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1905 — ABUSE DRIVES MAN TO DEATH [ARTICLE]

ABUSE DRIVES MAN TO DEATH

Suicide of u Millionaire Is Laid at « the IhKtr of Town Topics, a Society Paper. New York. Oct. 2.—Driven. It is said, to desperation by abusive articles in Town Topics, which referred to him as n “social outcast," William Biggin Travers, son of the late W. It. Travers, financier and celebrated wit, killed himself in his apartments ut 150 Madison avenue, where lie lived alone. The magazine attacks were inspired by the recent divorce secured hy the suicide’s wife, who was Lillie Hardman, daughter of Oliver Harrlmau and sister of Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt. Site has been living abroad. The periodical declared that she was well rid of him. That these criticisms hurt him was shown, his friends say. hy the fact that he visited District Attorney Jerome, a distant relative, and asked what redress he had. For years Travers bad devoted himself to taking care of the estate loft hy his father, which is estimated to have been worth about $2,090,000.