Dossier concerning Xu Qinzhang (徐欽璋), a 29-year-old man from Zhejiang, recorded as a paper-crafts worker (紙紮工人) and resident at No. 606, Xianyang Road (咸陽路六○六號), whose death in Shanghai on 21 June 1945 was investigated as suicide by hanging. The police non-natural death report places the incident in the upper storage or lodging area of the Tongtai Paper Shop (同泰紙行棧樓) at the same address.
Witness testimony reconstructs the discovery of the body. On the morning of 21 June, at approximately 8 a.m., Xu Yuanlin (徐元林) found Xu Qinzhang hanging inside the shop premises from a wooden beam with a coarse hemp rope (木樑粗麻繩); the body was already stiff. The police were then informed and began questioning persons associated with the deceased and the paper shop.
The interrogations provide substantial information concerning Xu's circumstances before his death. Witnesses described him as capable in his work but repeatedly characterized him as fond of gambling and visiting prostitutes (嫖賭). The investigation also discusses debts accumulated outside the workplace and indicates that the management of the paper shop had ceased to trust him and had dismissed him because of his conduct, although he continued to be allowed to lodge on the premises. The dossier subsequently passed to the prosecutorial authorities for a formal judicial examination. The corpse examination records a characteristic ligature mark around the neck consistent with hanging, and the final medico-legal conclusion identifies the death as 自縊身死—death by hanging.
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