Anne Arundel County Newspaper Data Annapolis, Md., July 17 1823 The following statement is from a gentleman residing in the neighborhood where the occurrence mentioned in it took place. Horrid Suicide On Friday, 11th instant, William Hood, Jr. of Anne Arundel county, aged about 40 years, very deliberately made a pen of a number of old rails, which he filled with combustibles, consisting of dry straw, fodder, and pine brush; at the bottom he left an aperture, through which he entered the pen with a piece of fire, and applied it to the straw & c. In a few seconds the whole was in a state of rapid conflagration. Some persons in the field observed the fire, and ran immediately to the spot, where they discovered the miserable wretch, apparently lifeless in the midst of the flames; they, however, succeeded in pulling him out before life was extinguished. Dr. Gambrill saw him about 12 o’clock that night, who rendered him every assistance his case seemed to require, he found him in manna a potu, cold, pulseless, and in constant convulsions; his skin was excoriated and denuded from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. Saturday morning 11 o’clock he expired, uttering the most dreadful imprecations against the persons who had taken him from the flames. He was, perhaps, the most sickening sight ever witnessed in this country. He has left a wife and eleven small children to lament his death. – Republican. [July 30 1823, Page 3, Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), submitted by N. Piper] ©2007 Genealogy Trails K. Torp