James R. Rodan
James R. Rodan died in 1892 while held at the Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A Fisherman & Farmer report said he set fire to his bedding, sat down in the flames and cut his throat with a sharp knife, and it described the death as suicide. The Emmons County Record said he died in the prison hospital a few hours later and that he was overwhelmed by the bleak future ahead of him.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide. The Fisherman & Farmer news report says Rodan set fire to his bedding and cut his own throat with a knife at Eastern Penitentiary, and a second account describes the same act as suicide.
Reported by: Fisherman & Farmer news report (reporters); an unnamed Philadelphia newspaper account of the Eastern Penitentiary death (reporters).