DRUNKEN MAN IS STRANGLED.
Henry Bernard Found Dead in an
Unfinished Building Near Thirty-
Third and Oak Streets.
Boys playing in a building in the course of construction at 3312 Oak street about 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon found the body of a man lying in a corner of the building, the head wedged against a wall and the neck pressed against a joist. Death had come apparently from strangulation induced by the position of the man's head. A crowd collected and the body was identified as that of Henry Bernard, 50 years old, a stonemason living at 3228 Summit street.
By the man's side was found a pint bottle with dregs of whisky in it. Bernard had been released from the Walnut street police station yesterday morning at 6 o'clock. The question arises, where did he get the whisky?
Bernard had been locked up for safekeeping. When he was released he had nothing of the sort about him. About noon he appeared at the house of William Gepford, a building contractor, his employer, and received from him $10 which was due him for work done last week. Several times in the next few hours he was seen loafing around the drug store of R. S. McCurdy, at Twenty-third and Oak streets, and was talking to Ray Wells, 3120 Campbell street, and others. About 2 o'clock he appeared to be in an unsettled state of mind and was seen to walk towards the new building of which only the side walls and part of the floors are finished. It is thought that he lay down in a stupor and was strangled by the beam pressing against his throat.
Nominally, the saloons were closed yesterday. Besides, there are no saloons in the neighborhood of Thirty-third and Oak streets. Bernard was not seen to leave the neighborhood from the time he received the money from his employer until the time he was found dead. R. S. McCurdy, the druggist who keeps the drug store at Thirty-third and Oak streets, and the only one in the vicinity, said last night that he had sold whisky to Bernard on prescription, but denied that he had sold any to him that day. He added that neither he nor either of his clerks, Louis Woods and D. Self, had seen Bernard in the store that day.
Bernard leaves a wife and nine children. The body was removed to Lindday's undertaking rooms in Westport and the coroner was notified. He will hold an autopsy this morning at 9 o'clock in the undertaking rooms.
