John Webster Sweet
JOHN WEBSTER SWEET, son of MAUDE PAULINE WEBSTER and ALFRED JAY SWEET, was born March 28, 1909 in Lewiston, Androscoggin, Maine,13 and died January 3, 1946 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California.6331
Obituaries
Long Beach Independent, January 4, 19461369
Death Leap Made From Hotel Roof
Leaving a terse note penciled on a telegraph blank, John Webster Sweet, 37, and reported to be wealthy, of 864 Stradella road, Los Angeles, jumped to his death from the roof of a downtown hotel yesterday, police reported.
The note was addressed to Kimpton Ellis, attorney, of 649 South Olive street, Los Angeles.
The body was noticed on the roof of an annex to the hotel in the rear of the building, by a special officer, who called police, and officers L. W. Hyatt and H. L Peterson responded.
They spotted the prostrate form of the man huddled on the roof, and called the fire department, ambulance and the detective bureau. Insps. Ralph Kortz and B. C. Carstonson reached the scene, as the ambulance crew arrived, and found the man was dead.
Lloyd Sutton, ambulance drive, found the note to Ellis in the pocket of the well made coat that was pulled partly over the dead man's head.
An inspection of the scene, the position and condition of the body, and the absence of any eyewitnesses, caused Kortz to conclude the man had jumped from the roof, where Kortz found an empty soft drink crate against the parapet ledge, from which Sweet presumably had leaped.
Examination of the note gave little except the message which the dead man had written. This said: "Please notify Mr. Kimpton Ellis, attorney. I wish to be cremated. No flowers, please. No religious services. No mourning. John Webster Sweet."
Apparently written as an afterthought, and almost illegible he had written at the top of the telegraph blank, "Mr. Ellis may be found in the LA phonebook."
Police called Ellis and were advised that Sweet was a man of considerable wealth, that he owned Bel Air property and had lived on his income from these investments. He explained that Sweet's mother lived at 3936 Irving avenue, Miami Beach, Fla., and gave the officers Sweet's Los Angeles address.
He also told police Sweet recently voluntarily became a patient in the sanitarium at Compton. The sanitarium informed police Sweet had left the institution about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Ellis also tol police Sweet was much depressed and had been in this condition since his brother, a captain in the United States army air corps, had been killed in Europe at the height of the war.
The body was taken to the Patterson & Snively mortuary and the coroner notified.
Long Beach Independent, January 6, 19461370
John W. Sweet
John Webster Sweet, 37, of 864 Stradella road, Los Angeles, died here January 3. He was born in Lewiston, Maine and came to Los Angeles seven years ago from Paris, France. He is survived only by his mother, Mrs. Alfred Jay Sweet of Miami Beach, Fla.
Private funeral services were held at the chapel of the Paterson & Snively mortuary yesterday.
Census Records
| Date | Location | Enumerated Names |
|---|---|---|
| 19101367 | Lewiston, Androscoggin, Maine |
|
| January 10, 1920620 | Lewiston, Androscoggin, Maine |
|
