Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1920 — LIEUT. PAT O'BRIEN SUICIDES [ARTICLE]

LIEUT. PAT O'BRIEN SUICIDES

World War Soldier Leave* Noto Blaming Family Trouble* Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 18. —Lieut. Pat O'Brien, an American hero of the British royal flying corps In the world war,' committed suicide by shooting yesterday in a hotel here. “With all my war record I am Just like the rest of the people—a little bit of clay,” he wrote in a note found in his room. “Only a coward would do what I am doing.” The note Indicated that failure to bring about a reconciliation with bl* wife, a motion picture actress, led to .□'Brian's act. 3 Lieutenant O’Brien, a native of Momence, 111, enlisted in the royal flying corps of Canada early in the war and soon gained fame for daring exploits. Once he fell several thousand feet after a battle with a German flier and landed behind the lines. He was put In a German hospital. Later, while bound ' for a German prison camp, he succeeded in Jumping from the speeding train and for seventy-two days 1 wandered through Germany and Luxembourg, finally arriving in Holland, whence he made bls way Into Belgium?.. Two years ago Lieutenant O’Brien fell 2,000 feet at Kelley field. San Antonio, Tex., and escaped with a broken nose.

O’Brien was quite well known to many* readers of The Democrat, and was here at the Armistice day celebration in 1919 and made a short talk. He was also well known at Lowell, from which place, if we remember correctly, he left to enlist in the war. He was married only last June, and both he and his wife were in motion picturedom at Los Angeles.