Ada County ID Archives History .....ATTEMPTED  SUICIDE-Jacob Drake March 22, 1873
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Christine Storey chrissy_7@q.com May 10, 2010, 11:26 pm

Jacob Drake, convicted at the October term of court, 1871, in this county, for 
an assault with intent to kill Thomas Kingsbury, and sentenced  to the 
penitentiary for five years, and now serving out his time, undertook to commit 
suicide day before yesterday. The particulars given us by the Prison Warden, 
United States Marshal Jo. Pinkham, are as follows: Drake has been a trusty 
prisoner, and worked in the kitchen. On Thursday morning of this week, after 
he had his work done up, he sat down and wrote a letter to Peter Sonna of this 
city. He then went into his cell, his usual custom, to lie down on his bed. 
The guard went to his cell about ten minutes afterwards, and found him lying 
on his bed with his throat cut and a stab in his breast. He had taken a common 
sized pocket knife, that he use to cut tobacco, and cut an ugly gash four or 
five inches long on the right side of his neck, but not quite deep enough to 
touch the jugular vein, his knife running deepest just back of this vein; he 
had also cut a deep gash or stab in his breast, just below the breast-bone, 
two inches deep. Drake is very fleshy, and the doctor who was called to dress 
his wounds, thinks he has not cut through into his vitals, and may possibly 
recover, though it is hard to say how it will terminate. Some of Drake's 
friends, paticularly A. J. Wyatt, of Dry Creek, have always contended that 
Drake was not of a sound mind, and this circumstance is almost positive 
evidence that such is the case. Mr. Pinkham says that Drake has always been 
peaceful and well disposed, and they have considered him perfectly trusty, 
although he has a very weak mind. At the trial it was showed that a loaded 
wagon had run over his head sometime previous, and he had not appeared to be 
the same man since that time. The letter he wrote to Sonna was about a few 
dollars he owed him, which has always troubled Drake, although Sonna has told 
him it was a matter of no cosequence.

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