Aged Pair in Suicide Pact, Free Canary First

San Francisco, 1919
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AGED PAIR IN SUICIDE PACT Find No Cure for Rheumatism, Free Canary, Lock Doors, Turn on Gas.

San Francisco.—Deciding to end their own lives, but refusing to deprive the canary bird, which for eighteen years had brought happiness to them by its song, of its life, William Foster, 64, and his wife, Mary, 65, of 1532 Market street, Oakland, gave the bird its freedom and then turned on three gas jets in their home.

The body of Foster was found on the bed, while the woman, gasping for breath, sat in a chair when their daughter, Mrs. William Nash, 1433 Myrtle street, Oakland, broke down the door.

Resting on a table, the doors thrown open, was the bird cage, while from without could be seen the canary singing in the warmth of the morning sunshine from a cherry tree bough.

The daughter called to take the couple for a walk. She found the doors and windows barred and the odor of gas emerging from the place.

Breaking in the front door with an ax, she was forced to wait several minutes before entering the place. Then she rushed from room to room until finding her parents together in the sleeping quarters.

The couple came from Denver, Colo., where they had spent all of their married life. Both suffered from rheumatism and climatic conditions were better on the coast, they were told.

That the two decided to die, like they had lived, together, was evident from conditions about the house Everything had been put in its place and every speck of dust removed.

--The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, September 4, 1919, page 4.

Comment: It's interesting that they're only 64 and 65 but are called an "aged pair."