When fellow lodgers heard rats moving around inside George Goodman’s locked room, they knew something was wrong.
The 54-year-old Washington, D.C., painter had only recently been discharged from the hospital and returned to his rented room on H Street.
By the time police forced their way inside, Goodman was dead on the bed.
The scene they found was gruesome. Rats had badly gnawed his body before anyone realized he had died.
A 1923 newspaper report stated that Goodman was believed to have died from diabetes, leaving the rodents to discover him before his neighbors did.
Body of Painter Is Gnawed By Rats
WASHINGTON, D.C. — George Goodman, 54, painter, discharged from the emergency hospital Thursday, returned to his room at 305 H Street NW and locked the door.
Yesterday, fellow lodgers heard rats scampering about in his room. They could not open the door.
Police were called and found Goodman’s body had been badly gnawed by rodents and stretched across the bed.
He had died from an attack of diabetes, they say. Coroner Nevitt will hold an autopsy today before issuing a certificate of death.
Source: The Washington Daily News. Washington, D.C. April 16, 1923.
