RATCLIFF, Otis - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Attica, Ind April 17 - A little after noon today son of James Ratcliff ended his life by swallowing a dose of carbolic acid at the home of his parents on North Perry Street his death being a matter of but a few minutes after taking the deadly poison. It appears that the young man had been working for Ira Riffle of Shawnee Twp but for the past two weeks he has been working on the new gravel road west of Williamsport, using Mr. Riffle's team of mules which he had claimed as his own and which he sold this morning to a man at Williamsport for $250 while Mr. Riffle had refused an offer of $400.. The purchaser had some fears as to whether the mules belonged to Ratcliff but waited until after paying for them before asking John D. Trott about them. He was told they were Riffle's and the latter was communicated with at once and went over there as fast as an auto could carry him. Ratcliff had disappeared from Williamsport presumably on the 11:40 train and Marshall Beamer was asked to go to the house and search for him. This was done but the Young man was not found. Beamer had not left the house more than 5 minutes until Ratcliff came in the back door and going at once to his room took poison before Beamer or the Warren county sheriff could get to him. Ratcliff is the oldest son of James Ratcliff and is well known around Attica where the family has lived the past 8 of 10 years. He was evidently mentally unbalanced or he would not have tried such a fool hardy thing so near home nor would he have left the train at Attica when he had the money for the mules which would have taken him to such a distance that he would not have been easily caught.