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On this week in... 1935

Suicide pact

On 5 November 1935, 22-year-old Robert Wilson Hogg was tried at the Perth Supreme Court for aiding the suicide of 40-year-old widow Nellie Williams. Williams, mother of four children aged four to twelve years, died in Perth Hospital of poisoning. Hogg had wanted to marry Williams, but she had been concerned about their age difference and poor financial circumstances. On his last visit to her she had announced her intention of ending it all with poison, which she then swallowed. Announcing that if she went, he went too, Hogg drank down what was left in the bottle. He then tried to get Williams to throw up, and succeeded in attracting help from a passer-by. Hogg was found guilty and sentenced to two years hard labour.

This trial report is from Mirror

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