Sunday's Obituary: S. W. Fitzwalter (1912)

Alexandria Gazette
Saturday, 10 August 1912

VIRGINIAN FOUND DEAD

Blames Unknown Woman in Notes for His Downfall and Death

S. W. Fitzwalter, of Nokesville, Va., who was found dead in a room at a hotel in Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, yesterday afternoon, left half a dozen notes telling of misfortunes which it is believed led him to commit suicide by taking poison.

Most of the notes were addressed to a woman who did not bear his name. In a staggering sort of script which showed Fitzwalter was mastered by drugs or emotions or both while he was writing, he declared to this woman that she had caused his downfall and death.

But a last note, full of a lasting love, he addressed to his wife. It was something like a dying confession:

"Dear wife: I love you best of all."

And to this note he signed his name "S. W. Fitzwalter."  At the hotel desk he had registered as "L. T. Simpson."

The proprietor of the hotel found Fitzwalter dead in his bed about 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Fitzwalter looked ill when he entered the hotel, it is said, and the proprietor was solicitous about him, and for that reason entered the man's room.

The police were notified, and the body was removed to the morgue. An autopsy performed by Assistant Coroner White showed that Fitzwalter had died of poison, it is said. It is believed Fitzwalter took the drug with suicidal intent.

Fitzwalter had several slips, showing he had deposited money in a Nokesville bank, and a railroad ticket and a small amount of cash in his pocket.

The police last night communicated with the authorities in Nokesville and were informed that Fitzwalter's friends would come to Washington today for his body. He was about fifty years old.