August 2005 - Blown to Atoms
E. J. Wilcox Commits Suicide with the Aid of a Dynamite Cartridge
Burlington, MI - A strange suicide occurred about 10 miles southwest of here last night. Mr. E. J. Wilcox, 60 years of age, was stopping a few days at the residence of William Kidney [James, Minard, Mindert, Jacobus, Robert Isaac, John/Jan]. Last night, after Mr. Kidney and his wife [Eliza M. Fox] had retired, Wilcox went out of the house and, placing a dynamite cartridge under his arm, touched it off. He was blown to pieces and the remains presented a most horrible sight. Wilcox was a stranger in Burlington.
Who E. J. Wilcox was is still a mystery to me. I suspect that he might be Edwin J. Wilcox who was a peddler and living in Adrian, Lenawee, MI in the 1880 census. He could have been staying with the Kidneys on business. He could also be Ephraim Wilcox, the father of Mary Etta Wilcox who married Marvin H. Kidney [Samuel H., Samuel H., James, Peter, Robert Isaac, John/Jan], who lived in Marcellus, Cass, MI. That would have meant that he was visiting a 4th cousin.
The news article attracted a lot of national attention at the time. The Washington Post (1886, 26 Oct) reported it on Page 1 and said of the dynamite blast, "the report was terrific, and the fragments of his body were scattered in every direction."