Charlotte Carter Flather -- A Peaceful Death

Once touted as the "best dressed girl in New York," Flather, 30, had acted on stage in Turn to the Right under the name "Charlotte Carter" before taking up scenario writing for the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation.  She collaborated on the 1920 film Devil's Garden starring Lionel Barrymore.  When her career as a scenarist fizzled, Flather turned to short story writing, but actually supported herself by working for the Features Syndicate, Inc., interviewing political leaders like Benito Mussolini and Georges Clemenceau.  In 1921, the troubled woman attempted to end her life by drinking veronal laced with opium.  Flather survived for another four years until bankruptcy, ill health, and the failure to find a publisher for a recently completed novel prompted her to try again.  On March 13, 1925, the despondent writer penned eight exit notes, bathed and styled her hair, swallowed a dose of sodium cyanide, and peacefully crossed her hands and died in her New York City hotel room.