Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1909 — TIPTON SUICIDE ONCE IN BUSINESS HERE. [ARTICLE]

TIPTON SUICIDE ONCE IN BUSINESS HERE.

Man Who Fleeced Delphi Citizens and Suicided When Arrested Was Lon Mossier. Many Rensselaer people will remember Louis Mossier, brother of William Mossier, and who for some time was engaged with Bls brother in business in this city. It has been quite conclusively determined that the man who committed suicide in the jail at Tipton one day last week when Marshal Hubbard arrived there to take him back to Delphi to answer to the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses, was none other than Lou Mossier. He had operated at Brookston and Flora as welLas at Delphi and possibly at other places. Hewould enter a town and show suit samples, making a remarkably low price, take orders, accept a small cash down payment and then disappear. He selected business men as his victims and the duped Delphi men determined to apprehend their swindler. He was located at Tipton and placed under arrest. He gave the name of Dessauer. The Delphl marshal was sent to Tipton to bring him back there for trial and just as the jail doors were opened the prisoner* swallowed the contents of a small vial of morphine. He died before medical aid could be summoned. The Tipton officials began a search to establish the man’s identity, but he had torn every piece of paper that might identify him into shreds before he took the fatal dose. In some man-, ner, however, the names of relatives were learned and a brother-in-law came to Tipton from Cincinnati and the remains were shipped there for burial. He is said to have had a wife and son in New York. A letter from the town marshal at Tipton to the marshal at Delphi gave the name as Mohler, but it was later learned that his name was Mossier. The Tipton marshal wrote,- “Our Undertaker told me he had to ship him in a common box, as there was nothing in it for him. We found his grip but there was not a cent in it. He was a tony old, chap, and his underwear was all silk.” Mossier was at one time a very prosperous man, and is said to have been reduced to poverty through speculation. He was very”popular when he lived in this city..' -. ' J