Murder and Suicide in 1897

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 3, 1898

Murder and Suicide in 1897.

—According to the Chicago Tribune, which has made a specialty of such statistics, the number of murders in the United States in 1897 aggregated 9,520, a falling off from last year, owing doubtless to better social conditions. But think of a city of 9,520 inhabitants being blotted out in one year in a land of plenty. The murders of 1896 numbered 10,652. The suicides of 1897 number 6,600 against 6,552 in 1896, an increase of 48. There were 128 legal executions, an increase of 6 over 1896. Lynchings increased from 131 in 1896 to 166 in 1897. The victims were 122 negroes, 39 whites, and 5 Indians.