Union Cemetery

Locke, Polly


BORN IN: California
DIED: 3/28/1905
AGED: 37
CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot wound self-inflicted
DEATH LOCATION: San Mateo


PLOT INFO: OBITUARYS:
FINDAGRAVE PAGE:

BURIED NEARBY IN PLOT PG:
CURRENT EVENTS:
  • 1869 National Woman Suffrage Assoc.
  • 1871 The Great Chicago Fire
  • 1876 Telephones (Alexander Graham Bell)
  • 1876 Baseball's National League
  • 1877 Phonograph (Thomas Edison)
  • 1879 Light Bulb (Thomas Edison)
  • 1901 Teddy Roosevelt elected President
  • 1903 First powered flight (Wright Brothers)
OBITUARY ---------------

POLLY LOCKE

Redwood City Democrat

April 6, 1905

Given a paupers burial.

At the inquest held at San Mateo Saturday, the jury rendered a verdict that Polly Locke, who came to her death in a saloon in that city on the previous Tuesday, had committed suicide. The verdict was based mainly on the testimony of Sheriff Mansfield, who had made experiments by shooting into a piece of pork at close range, the result of which satisfied him that the dead woman had killed herself by shooting into the right side of her neck.

T.J. Stewart, the barkeeper who was in the company of Miss Locke when she ended her life, testified to all that had transpired between him and the deceased up to the time of her death. He omitted not even the minutest of the vile details, exhibiting no feeling or remorse, but with a show of bravado and brutality that was disgusting to the sensibilities of decent men. He was discharged from custody Monday, at which time he was notified that the sooner he took his departure from the county, the better it would be for him. He promised to go as quickly as possible.

Miss Locke was buried at the county’s expense in Union Cemetery, Thursday. Her brother, Larkin Locke, who is a constable in Pleasanton, was here, but refused to pay the expenses of the funeral. His only regret seemed to be for the man who was in his sister’s company when she took her life.

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