The Demise of Henry Samuel Augustus Von Unna
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| The Old Spot Hotel circa 1910. SLSA: B14954 |
In 1859, Henry Samuel Augustus Von Unna was a German immigrant
living in Angas Park with his wife and six children. He had earned a government
position to look for water in the area between Port Lincoln and Port Augusta
and had stopped at the Old Spot Hotel in Salisbury hotel a rest on his
travels back to Angas Park.
The
government department which had hired him had done a background check on Von
Unna, and cancelled his contract due to a previous crime he had not disclosed. H
was now without a job and very depressed. He had planned to move his wife and
children from Angas Park to Kensington but was so upset that his past was now
affecting his future, that he decided on a different outcome.
That night, before retiring to his room,
Von Unna requested paper, pen and ink, and a nightcap of brandy and water.
He went to his room and locked the door and began writing.
A few hours later, other residents in the hotel were woken by a man shrieking
“God Have Mercy!” and “Christ have mercy upon me!”. The noise was coming from
Von Unna’s room, his door was locked, and the other residents smashed a window to gain
entry. Inside they found Von Unna laying on the bed with only his shirt on,
convulsing and writhing in pain.
Despite his condition, Von Unna was
coherent enough that when asked what was wrong he replied that he had
accidentally taken strychnine instead of calomel (a mercury-based solution used
as a laxative), but shortly after, between gasping breathes, he admitted he had
taken a large dose of strychnine to kill himself.
A doctor was sent for, as was a Wesleyan
Reverend requested by Von Unna.
Remarkably, Von Unna, who had swallowed a very large dose of
the poison managed to cling to life long enough to talk to the priest and tell
him there were two letters that explained his predicament.
In one letter Von Unna offered a prayer
for himself and his family, one for his persecutors, which he blamed for
his act of suicide, and another prayer for his people, the Jewish.
The second letter contained a long-winded
denunciation of society and all the injustices of crimes following, and ruining
a man, long after he has paid for his crimes. Von Unna’s letters were held in
police evidence after his death.
During an inquest
into the suicide of Von Unna, the jury declared at the conclusion: “the said
Von Unna died from the effects of strychnine, administered by his own hand
while labouring under extreme disappointments of a worldly nature.”
It is believed that Von Unna is one of the many spirits haunting the Old Spot Hotel at Salisbury.
Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019
Bibliography
'EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF
SUICIDE.', South Australian Weekly Chronicle, (19 November 1859), p. 2.
