Albert Hankins, Obituary/Death NoticePorter County obituaries and death notices . . . .
Albert Hankins
DEATH BY STRANGULATION.
Albert Hankins Suffocates Before His Body is Extricated From The Folding Bed.
Woman Who Could Have Saved Him Delays in Giving the Alarm and Mysteriously Disappears From The Scene
-- Career of the Noted Gambler
"Farmer" Al Hankins, race horse man, speculator, philosopher, was a victim of the treacherous folding bed, having been smothered to death Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 25, at 1 o'clock in a room in the rear of his gambling place, 3908 Cottage Grove avenue, Chicago.
The sole witness of the accident, the only person who could, by timely warning, have prevented its fatal termination was a woman who rather than risk a confession of her identity, delayed in giving an alarm and mysteriously disappeared from the scene. The personality of the woman is shrouded behind a cloak of doubt and shielded by the care of a few who know who she is, and are familiar with the circumstances which brought here within the scope of the tragedy.
After all the delay in the rescue and the unexplained tardiness in alarm-giving Mr. Hankins was not quite dead when found. Medical assistance was at once summoned, but when the men who accompanied him laid him out on the bed that had been the executioner, his life flickered and went out before he regained consciousness.
Dr. Bigelow, who was called, made a hasty examination and found that Mr. Hankins' neck was not broken by the collapse of the bed, but that death was due solely to strangulation and suffocation. The physicians verdict is that which necessitates that the woman be found to explain why minutes elapsed before she called for help. Had those minutes been taken from the time during which the body of Mr. Hankins lay jammed and imprisoned the disclosures of the medical examination leave no ground for other belief than that if the cry for assistance had been given immediately, the speculator would now be living.
"Farmer" Hankins home was near Hurlburt, southeast of Hammond, where he lived with his family. He was well known in Hammond, having spent considerable of his time here during the last ten years. On his stock farm, which he named the Surburban, removed in fact and feeling from the surroundings, the reckless, riotous, panoramic acts of speculative vicissitudes, he was an ardent student of the things which made Darwin, Huxley and Spencer famous. The abtruse laws of breeding among horses formed his special study on the farm. He was thoroughly familiar with the characters of all the animals on his farm, and those which were in any way striking of peculiar received his special attention.
At Hurlburt he lived with his family, the members of which were his every by and for whose happiness he was willing to make almost every sacrifice.
Mrs. Hankins together with Dr. Blackstone and wife, were seated in a Cottage Grove avenue cable train one their way to his place from a matinee performance at a down-town theatre when a small newsboy clambered up the side steps of the car and shouted: "Papers, all about Al Hankins death!"
The news of the death came with stunning force upon the two women who looked to Mr. Hankins as husband and father. Fainting spells were followed by hysterical attacks, and the women were almost frantic with grief. Finally after much persuasion, they were induced to go to the home of Geo. V. Hankins, where they remained until after the inquest, when the body was turned over to the family for interment at Henry, Ill.
Newspaper: The Westchester Tribune
Date of Publication: September 4, 1897
Volume Number: 14
Issue Number: 21
Page: 1
Column(s): 1
Key to Newspaper Publication Locations:
Newspapers Published in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana
Chesterton Tribune
The Tribune
Westchester Tribune
Newspapers Published in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana
Porter County Vidette
Practical Observer
Valparaiso Practical Observer
Vidette and Republic
Western Ranger
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Obituary/death notice transcribed by Steven R. Shook