Jonathan Altman
Jonathan Altman, an elderly man, was being taken by an officer from jail to a train bound for the state penitentiary at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, in April 1882. A news dispatch datelined Oil City, Pa., says that while they waited for the train he was allowed into a hotel, where he drank gin containing poison he had hidden and died within five minutes. The dispatch describes the suicide as the officer's act of letting him into the hotel, and it is the only account available here. No other sources in this record describe the officer's conduct or whether Altman was watched.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). A news dispatch from Oil City, Pa. says an officer let him into a hotel while they waited for a train to Kittanning, where he drank gin with poison he had hidden and died within five minutes.
Reported by: news dispatch datelined Oil City, Pa. (reporters).