IS PURSUED BY DELUSIONS.
Dr. S. S. Landon, Former Police
Surgeon, Suffers Mental Collapse.
At the insistence of Roy Shunk, a nurse at the Sheffield hospital, Dr. S. S. Landon, former police surgeon and owner of the hospital, was taken into custody at Twelfth and Main streets yesterday afternoon by Patrolman Michael Cassady of the crossing squad. Shunk told Cassady that Dr. Landon had got beyond his control.
After he was detained in a cell in the police matron's room Dr. Landon grew violent. When no one would bring him the keys and allow him to free himself he overturned an iron bed on which he had been lying and, with superhuman strength, wrenched a leg from it as if it had been a twig. He also smashed an earthen receptacle which was in the cell and cut his hand.
It was about that time that Dr. W. C. Anderson, connected with him in the Sheffield hospital, and Amos Townsend, an attorney, arrived. They counseled with the doctor for a few moments and left the room. He reached through the bars to where a table holding a tray of dishes was standing. Mrs. Joan Moran, police matron, ran in just in time to save the tray of dishes, but Dr. Landon broke a leg from the heavy oak table before he could be prevented.
Dr. E. G. Blair, a visiting surgeon at Dr. Landon's hospital, and a close friend, arrived after a time and succeeded in getting the doctor to consent to take a hypodermic injection. Dr. Blair said he would give him a powerful sedative to quiet him for the night. Relatives and friends intend to make some disposition of the doctor's case today.
"Ever since before Christmas Dr. Landon has been acting queerly and of late has grown worse," said Dr. Anderson. "Recently he has grown more and more delusional and wanted to be constantly on the go. It is our opinion that he has had a breakdown from overwork."
