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PLANS
FUNERAL, THEN ENDS HIS LIFE
Felix
O’Neill, a Well-Known Rancher Living Near
Silver Bow, Commits Suicide by Shooting Himself
Through the Head—All Detail Carefully Arranged.
Felix O’Neill, one of the best known and oldest
characters in Silver Bow county, made arrangement with
Undertaker Richards for his funeral on Wednesday, and yesterday
ended his life at his ranch adjoining that of M. P. Dryden,
seven miles below Silver Bow.
The suicide was most deliberate and unusual.
Friends knew that O’Neill contemplated
self-destruction, and, in fact, was bent on cutting short his
earthly career, and they watched him, but to no purpose.
Evading the vigilance of watchers, the rancher went to
his tool house and deliberately blew out his brains with a
44-caliber Winchester rifle.
The bullet entered the forehead about the center and,
crashing through the brain, made its exit at the back of the
head. Death must
have been instantaneous. The
body is now at Richards’ Undertaking Rooms, where Coroner Egan
will hold an inquest tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock.
Left
Widow and two Sons
O’Neill was about 60years of age and had lived in
Silver Bow county for years.
He leaves a widow, from who he had been separated, and
two sons. The widow
is understood to be in Salt Lake.
The sons, John and Brady O’Neill, live in Butte.
They could not be located last night.
Despondency was responsible for the rash act of
O’Neill. He had
been for years a sufferer from cancer of the neck.
Recently the great lump on his neck became so large as to
be particularly inconvenient.
In addition, he lost his voice and his throat became so
sore he could neither eat nor drink without suffering great
pain. Frequently he
declared that he would end his life, saying that he would rather
be in a grave than continue his “living death,” as he
characterized it.
Man
Was Watched Closely
His sons knew of
the several threats at self-destruction, and knowing their
father meant what he said, asked Mr. Dryden and H. F. Hansen and
James Widden, neighbors, to watch the aged sufferer.
Recently O’Neill made several trips from his ranch.
He was disposing of his stock.
On Wednesday he came to Butte and, as usual, was
accompanied by Hansen, who was watching him.
After transacting some business, the men found their way
to Richards’ Undertaking Rooms.
O’Neill being unable to talk, drew form his pocket a
cheap memorandum book and wrote in a labored hand:
“What is the lowest you can bury a man for?”
Richard’s
Price for Burial
Richards did not know O’Neill and he judged from the
manner of the man’s dress that he was some poor fellow who
wanted the cheapest possible burial rate.
He gave O’Neill a figure and asked where the body was
located. O’Neill
shook his head. Then
Richards asked, “Is the man not dead?”
O’Neil wrote in his book, “Not yet.” As O’Neill
left the place he turned to Richards and struck his chest three
or four times with his right index finger, as a person would do
when indicating himself. Richards
laughed and said, “Oh, no; not you. You look healthy enough.
You will not die for a while yet.”
O’Neill nodded his head vigorously, and the look that
came over his countenance showed clearly that he was not as much
in jest as Richards then believed.
Looking
for Their Father
A short while later two men appeared at Richards’ and
asked if their father had been there.
Richards asked as to the name of the father, and he was
told it was O’Neill. Richard
said he knew of no person of that name.
Then one of the men asked if an aged man had been there
to arrange for a funeral. Richards replied that a man had been
there, and he added that he thought the man was jesting.
The two men then told Richards it was their father who
had asked about the burial rate, and they added that they were
fearful he would execute an oft-repeated threat and for that
reason they were having him watched.
He had met them on the street and told them he had been
to Richards’. In
reply to a question from them, Richards stated that the man who
asked for the burial rate had not paid for a funeral.
Richards thought the matter over, wondering at the
peculiarity of the whole affair, and then dismissed it from his
mind when the following day brought no report of a suicide.
O’Neill
Appeared Cheerful
O’Neill was about his ranch as usual yesterday morning.
Hansen and Widden were with him until 10 o'clock, and so
cheerful did the old rancher appear that the men thought there
was less danger than ever of his ending his life.
When they returned to the ranch at 3 o’clock they could
not find O’Neill. A search of the place revealed the lifeless
form of the rancher lying in a pool of blood in the tool house.
A gaping wound in the forehead and the Winchester rifle
were mute evidence of what had taken place.
It is evident that O’Neill feigned the good humor which
had reassured Hansen and Widdin in the morning.
He was waiting for his opportunity.
When it came, he went to his cabin and removed his shoes
and stockings, not to “die with his boots on.”
He also removed his coat and vest and laid them carefully
by. Then he made his
way to the tool house, where he had hid the weapon which was to
send his soul into eternity.
Details
Carefully Planned
He fixed a muslin loop to the trigger of the rifle and
then put his right foot into the loop.,
He stretched himself on his back with his head leaning
forward so that the forehead touched the muzzle of the rifle and
then, with his foot in the muslin loop, pulled the trigger and
sent a leaden missile crashing through his head.
Judging from the position of the body and the rifle,
O’Neill died without making a struggle.
Immediately after making their gruesome find, Hansen and
Widdin notified Mr. Dryden and he drove to Silver Bow and
telephoned to Butte while the others watched the body.
Coroner Egan gave permission for the removal of the body
to Richards’ undertaking rooms.
When the body was moved, it was discovered that there was
a revolver, fully loaded, in a hip pocket.
O’Neill had evidently decided that the caliber of the
bullets in the weapon was not large enough to insure a quick
death, and had determine to use the revolver only in case he
could not find an opportunity to use the rifle.
Often Discussed
Suicide
The book in which O’Neill wrote, asking Richards about
the price of a burial had been used frequently by the rancher
when holding converse with others.
Frequent sentences or paragraphs in the book show that he
often discussed the contemplated ending of his life.
In one place in the book is written, “You stay with the
body so nothing else will happen and you go to the Bow and
telephone the coroner.” In
another place appears, “Richards will bury me, and John will
pay the expense.” In
still another place in the book appears the following:
“I have left the ranch to John and have given him a
bill of sale.” It
is evident from the following paragraphs that O’Neill told
someone he was anxious to die.
One of the paragraphs reads, in substance, “Will you
lend me your rifle and a few cartridges?
I want to make a good job of it.”
Another reads, “You tell the people that I asked you to
stay here and watch the body after the job was done.”
Felix O’Neill was prosperous, so far as is known.
He was at one time in charge of the post office at Silver
Bow, and when Samuel Reynolds was sheriff of Silver Bow county,
in 1894-5, O’Neill was his deputy, detailed at Silver Bow.
He was a staunch republican in politics and was always a
conspicuous figure at county conventions.
The
Anaconda Standard
Anaconda, Montana
7/25/1904
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