File:John Van Aernam Rhoades (1866-1910) obituary in the New-York Tribune of New York City, New York on May 28, 1910.jpg

J. V. A. Rhoades A Suicide. Long Insane, He Cuts His Throat in Flushing Sanatorium. Had Spectacular Career. Believed He Was a Millionaire, and Purchases of Jewels Led to His Incarceration. John V. A Rhoades, a former member of the Union League Club, who after a spectacular career in this city and in London and Paris was adjudged insane and committed to Sanford Hall, a private sanatorium in Flushing, Long Island, committed suicide in that institution Thursday morning by cutting his throat with a safety razor blade. All information concerning the suicide was refused by the sanatorium authorities, and the circumstances surrounding his death did not become known until yesterday, when Coroner Ambler of Flushing gave out come of the facts. The police were not informed of the case until yesterday, and much secrecy and mystery have been thrown around the whole affair. The body. it was said, had been removed from the sanatorium 'during the early morning yesterday. None of the dead man's relatives could be found in this city yesterday, and those who had known him declined to talk about his tragic end. Thursday morning the sanatorium barber was shaving Rhoades, using a safety razor, as was his custom with all the insane patients. He turned for a moment to go to the hot water basin, leaving the razor in the man's lap, when Rhoades in some way extracted the blade and cut a deep gash in his throat. The barber summoned the head of the institution. Dr. W. Stuart Brown, and his assistant. Dr. Russell, but by the time they arrived Rhoades had bled to death. A commission appointed by Justice Greenbaum declared Rhoades insane in January, 1908. For some time before that he had startled his friends by his eccentric actions. He labored under the delusion that h» was a millionaire, when in fact he enjoyed an Income of only $2,500 a year allowed him by his father. Dr. Archibald Craig Rhoades, a retired navy surgeon. In a London music hall he threw a revolver at the leader because the orchestra did not play to his liking. He was arrested on that occasion and later sent to an asylum. His eccentricities in Continental cities got him into trouble with the authorities. When he returned to this country, in 1908, his strange actions became more pronounced, and a creditor's action was brought against him at which a number of firms appeared to recover jewelry valued at several thousand dollars which he had ordered. A large black pearl scarfpin, valued at $1,675, which he got from Tiffany & Co., was an item. Rhoades had been declared an incompetent prior to his trouble with his creditors, and Craig F. R. Drake, a real estate dealer, had been appointed a committee of his person to look after his property. Dr. Gustav Scholer, formerly a coroner, who was a member of the commission that adjudged Rhoades insane, said yesterday that the man had suffered from acute neurasthenia and melancholia of an impulsive sort, which would prompt him to take his life when occasion offered. Rhoades married Miss Pauline Schmid, a daughter of the late August Schmid, a millionaire brewer, in 1895. Two years later they were divorced. He married Miss Alice Ralph, daughter of Julian Ralph, the newspaper writer and novelist, nine years ago. He was forty-six years of age.

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