Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1916 — GENERAL AND STATE NEWS [ARTICLE]

GENERAL AND STATE NEWS

Telegraphic Reports From Many Parts of the Country. SHORT BITS OF THE UNUSUAL Happenings in the Nearby Cities and Towns—Matters of Minor Mention from Many Places. TROSCHIER COMMITS- SUICIDE Tailor Employed in Rensselaer Last Summer Ends Life. William Troschier, the Lafayette journeyman tailor, who was employed in 15. K. Zimmerman's tailor shop here the fore part of last summer and who was recently convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a term of front two to, twentyone years in the state prison at Michigan City for killing Charles Harris, committed suicide at about 6 o’clock Wednesday morning in the county jail at Lafayette. Troschier had declared frequently that he never would go to the penitentiary, and the jail authorities had watched him very closely. Troschier strangled himself with a piece of cord he wrapped around a ventilator pipe and twisted about his neck by standing up In his cell and bowing his head until he choked to death. Troschier came from Germany. He had worked as a tailor in Lafayette and other Indiana cities for the last fifteen years. He was convicted on circpmstantial evidence and throughout the case stoutly maintained he knew nothing about the killing. A four page letter written in German was left by Troschier in which he again asserted his innocence of the murder of Harris and the police and others who were instrumental in convicting him were scored for their part in manufacturing evidence against him, as he termed it. Troschier was to have been taken to the penitentiary two weeks ago, but asked permission to remain in jail there until after his birthday, December 16. He was to have been taken to Michigan City Thursday. Charles Harris was killed In a room over a Main street saloon. Troschier was accused of killing Harris for money Harris was known to have had. Many people still believe Troschier was innocent.