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Thread: Morbid History - A thread for historical murders, unusual deaths, funerary practices etc & any other old creepy stuff

  1. #26
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrBoddy2005 View Post
    A Cousin Of Mine Was Possibly Wrongly Convicted/Executed For Murder: http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/phi.../winnemore.txt
    Wow. That was a wild read. It's a shame it can't be reviewed with modern forensic tools because the entire case depended on witness claims that certain items had definitely belonged to either him or the victim - & if even if they were right about ownership, it doesn't mean he was the one who used or took them.


    & I love the prosecutor's arguments against visions of spirits being a sign of insanity

    "Mr. Mann, referring to the allegation of the defense, that Winnemore was insane, because he saw spirits, said it was no unusual thing to see spirits; that, in his own experience, he had frequently gone home from court after a day's toil, worn out and weary, and while lying in bed dozing, his room was peopled with the persons he had met during the day. So strong was the impression, that it required considerable effort and a thorough command of his faculties before he could remove the illusion."

  2. #27
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Fucking hell



    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna958326

    The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 killed 21 after 2 million gallon tank erupted

    The wave moved at 35 miles per hour and was 25 feet high and 160 feet wide at its outset as it rushed through the city's densely populated North End.



    The devastation after the Great Boston Molasses Flood in 1919.Courtesy of Boston Fire Department Archives

    Jan. 14, 2019, 6:09 PM ET
    By Ben Kesslen



    On Jan. 15, 1919, at around 12:30 p.m., Boston Police patrolman Frank McManus was at a call box reporting back to headquarters when he heard a loud scraping and grinding noise. Pausing to figure out the source, he suddenly found himself overcome with shock.

    McManus managed to make out to the dispatcher: ?Send all available rescue vehicles and personnel immediately ? there?s a wave of molasses coming down Commercial Street," according to Stephen Puleo, historian and author of ?Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.?


    The wave was 2.3 million gallons, moving at 35 miles per hour, 25 feet high and 160 feet wide at its outset, rushing through the city's crowded and densely populated North End.

    A massive, 50-foot-high steel tank holding the molasses had ruptured. People in its direct path were immediately swallowed, drowned and asphyxiated by the notoriously viscous substance.

    Within seconds, two city blocks were flooded. Puleo told NBC News that the tide of molasses ripped the Engine 31 Firehouse from its foundation, almost sweeping the building into the Boston Harbor. The brown wave busted windows, overturned railcars and flooded homes. By sunset, 21 people were dead, 150 were injured and the North End looked like it had been bombed.


    Sailors helping with the rescue after the Great Boston Molasses Flood in 1919.Courtesy of Dark Tide and the Boston Fire Department Archives
    THE STICKY TSUNAMI



    If you're familiar with the phrase ?slow as molasses,? it?s hard to make sense of the 1919 flood. Dr. Nicole Sharp, a science communicator and an expert in fluid dynamics, said that when she heard the 35-mph number, she was surprised. ?One of my first questions was, is that number plausible?? she said.

    Sharp decided to look into the science behind the flood, along with a team of scientists at Harvard. ?I found that the initial wave could have moved at that speed,? she said.

    Sharp said the flood could be broken down into two stages, with the first called ?The Tsunami.?

    ?Molasses is 1.5 times heavier than water. It?s very dense,? Sharp said. The tank, piled so high with molasses, stored a large amount of potential energy. When the tank ruptured, all that potential energy became kinetic energy. ?The fact that the molasses is extremely viscous doesn't matter for the first 60-90 seconds. The inertia is so much more powerful than the forces that can be moved by the viscosity.?

    When the tank broke and the molasses exploded, there was no outrunning it. ?When the initial wave came through, it just pulverized everything,? Sharp said. People?s bones were crushed, their bodies thrown onto buildings and train cars. Many survivors had broken backs and fractured skulls.

    During the second stage of the flood, ?the inertia runs out as the molasses spreads ? that?s when viscosity starts to matter," Sharp said, referring to a liquid's resistance to flow. As molasses flooded the streets, it slowed but became thicker and stickier, and still difficult to escape. People were trapped, with witnesses described trying to breathe while stuck, gasping for their lives and simultaneously trying to avoid inhaling too much.

    Cold weather made things worse. ?As the temperature dropped, the molasses got harder and harder to move, which is a problem when you?re trying to shift rubble," Sharp said.

    It was also a problem for rescuers who were trying to lift people out of the molasses. Firefighters had to spread ladders over it to prevent themselves from falling into sticky vats that were once streets.



    The firehouse after the Great Boston Molasses Flood in 1919.Courtesy of Dark Tide and the Boston Fire Department Archives


    HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

    A U.S. Industrial Alcohol (USIA) subsidiary, Purity Distilling Co., built the tank in 1915 to keep up with increasing demand for military weapons. The tank stored molasses from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the West Indies, which was then brought to a distillery in East Cambridge and turned into industrial alcohol. Companies in the U.S., England, and France bought the alcohol, which they desperately needed to make dynamite, smokeless powder and other explosives used in World War I.

    Puleo explains in his book that the project was rushed from the beginning. He told NBC News that the manager of the project, Arthur Jell, USIA?s treasurer, had ?no technical experience, no architectural experience, no engineering experience.?

    From the beginning, Jell sidestepped safety precautions. Instead of filling the entire tank with water after it was finished to test for leaks, he only put in six inches of water. ?The tank starts leaking on Day 1,? Puleo said.

    Ronald Mayville, a senior principal at the engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger in Massachusetts, has studied the molasses flood in his spare time. Mayville analyzed the flood using today?s engineering tools and suspects the tank might have been designed for water instead of molasses. ?The stress in the tank is directly linked to the fluid inside,? he said. ?It should have been very straightforward." Building the tank, Mayville explained, is "a relatively simple calculation that most engineers could do in that day.?

    Even though workers alerted USIA to the leaks, the company remained unperturbed. Profits from the war were pouring in as steadily as molasses was leaking out of the tank. In 1918, in an effort to shield the leaks and avoid costly fixes, Jell even had the steel-colored tank painted brown, to camouflage the oozing molasses.

    Puleo said that seven days before the flood, on a day with a low of 2 degrees Fahrenheit, a new shipment dumped more than half a million gallons of molasses into the poorly built tank.

    As warm molasses from the ship mixed with cold molasses in the tank, it triggered a fermentation process that produced gas. People reported hearing the tank whining and groaning. A week later, with the almost-full tank weighing 26 million pounds and the gas inside putting extra pressure on the steel walls, it ruptured.



    Damage from the Great Boston Molasses Flood in 1919.Courtesy of Dark Tide and Boston Fire Department Archives


    THE FLOOD?S LEGACY

    Though the flood has been long forgotten in popular memory, its legacy remains. Puleo told NBC News that ?the tank didn?t even require a permit because it was considered a receptacle, not a building," adding, "Every building construction standard that we sort of take for granted today comes about because of the Molasses Flood.?

    In his book, Puleo writes, ?Shortly after the flood, the Boston Building Department began requiring that all calculations of engineers and architects be filed with their plans and that stamped drawings be signed.? This later became standard practice across the country.

    Sharp has a more abstract take. She hopes the flood taught ?people to have some respect for the destructive power of things we usually think of as harmless.?

    USIA did not rebuild the tank, and new war technology made the mass distillation of molasses for industrial alcohol obsolete. Much of the area flooded by molasses is now in Langone Park, where a small plaque hangs to commemorate the tragedy.


    Every man-made disaster like this, right up to the present day, always turns out to be the result of some arsehole's unquenchable greed

  3. #28
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    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...id=mailsignout

    Retired LAPD detective Steve Hodel says he stills loves his father Dr. George Hodel — the same man he believes committed one of the most infamous murders in America.
    On Jan. 28, TNT will be premiering a miniseries titled “I Am the Night” by writer Sam Sheridan and “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins, which tells the story of Fauna Hodel (India Eisley), a teenage girl who teams up with a reporter (Chris Pine) to search for her birth parents. The pair close in on gynecologist Dr. Hodel, a suspect in the Black Dahlia murder.

    Town & Country reported the series is based on the memoir “One Day She’ll Darken,” which was co-written by the real Fauna, Steve’s niece. While Steve himself is not involved in the series, he will be participating in a podcast titled “Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family.” The cable network is partnering with Cadence13 to release that miniseries, which will debut Feb. 14. The Hollywood Reporter shared Fauna’s daughters will host “Root of Evil.”

    Elizabeth Short was a small-town girl who first showed up in Los Angeles during the 1940s with dreams of becoming a movie star. However, she would only receive fame in death. The 22-year-old would be dubbed the Black Dahlia by the press after her gruesome murder.

    Short’s naked corpse was found in a vacant lot on Jan. 15, 1947. She was scrubbed, cut in half and drained of blood. She was viciously mutilated and a joker’s smile was carved on her face.

    Hodel has long insisted his father was Short’s killer. People Magazine reported Hodel believed his father dated Short at one point and was allegedly motivated by jealousy.

    “To this day I love my father,” the 77-year-old told Fox News. “How do you unlove someone who’s created you? That part of him I love, the other monster part, of course, is a whole different matter. To me, it’s been about getting to the truth of it. That’s where I’m coming from. … Right now, it’s a terrible sadness. This man could have done so much good for humanity. … Unfortunately, he had a dark side. He had a monster within. … I’ll never not be able to stop loving the father.”

    Hodel served the LAPD for nearly 24 years from 1963 until his retirement in 1986. The Guardian previously reported that shortly after George’s death in 1999 at age 91, Steve went through his belongings and discovered photographed he believed were of Short. This compelled him to spend decades looking for evidence that proved his father killed the Massachusetts native.

    According to The Guardian, Steve combed through witness interviews and newspaper archives, filed a Freedom of Information Act to retrieve FBI files on the case and other information the bureau had collected on his father. He also tracked down those who were associated with the case.

    While a handwriting expert determined there was “a strong likelihood” his father’s writing matched the script on some of the notes the killer sent to the LAPD, the results were inconclusive.

    It was Tamar Hodel, Fauna’s mother, who told him after George’s death that the patriarch was a suspect in the unsolved murder.

    “I knew dad some problems,” said Hodel. “He was sexually obsessed. He’d been married five times, had 11 children by five different women. I knew that. But a killer? No way. I started looking into it and discovered that a surgeon must have committed the crime. Well, dad was a skilled surgeon. … And I’ve had five various independent surgeons say this had to have been the work of a surgeon, a skilled doctor.”

    Hodel believed crime scene photos showed that Short was given a hemicorporectomy, a procedure that “slices the body beneath the lumbar spine, the only spot where the body can be severed in half without breaking bone.” He argued the procedure was taught in the 1930s, the same time period when his father would have been in medical school.”

    The Guardian added Steve Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, asked the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for more information on the Black Dahlia case to fact-check his column, which focused on Hodel’s 2003 book about his findings at the time.

    According to the documents, George was indeed one of the main suspects in the Black Dahlia investigation. Lopez also read through seemingly forgotten police transcripts, which revealed Dr. Hodel’s home had been reportedly bugged by the district attorney’s office.

    The Smithsonian Magazine reported the recordings allegedly revealed George bragging, “Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary anymore because she’s dead.” It’s unknown whether George knew he was being heard and decided to taunt police or if he was confessing to his potential involvement.

    People Magazine also reported police didn’t build their case and arrest George at the time because he skipped town without his family in 1950 and ended up in the Philippines, where he lived for the next 40 years.
    If this is true then its crazier than we think.

  4. #29
    Senior Member Jumaki15's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KambingSociety View Post
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...id=mailsignout



    If this is true then its crazier than we think.
    I know way more info on Elizabeth Shorts murder, and Jack The Ripper, than any normal, sane individual should. I've never bought much of what Hodel has said about his father. It seemed like he just wanted to sell his book.

  5. #30
    Here's our English version of the Boston Molasses Flood:

    The London Beer Flood of 1814

    by Ben Johnson

    On Monday 17th October 1814, a terrible disaster claimed the lives of at least 8 people in St Giles, London. A bizarre industrial accident resulted in the release of a beer tsunami onto the streets around Tottenham Court Road.

    The Horse Shoe Brewery stood at the corner of Great Russell Street and Tottenham Court Road. In 1810 the brewery, Meux and Company, had had a 22 foot high wooden fermentation tank installed on the premises. Held together with massive iron rings, this huge vat held the equivalent of over 3,500 barrels of brown porter ale, a beer not unlike stout.

    On the afternoon of October 17th 1814 one of the iron rings around the tank snapped. About an hour later the whole tank ruptured, releasing the hot fermenting ale with such force that the back wall of the brewery collapsed. The force also blasted open several more vats, adding their contents to the flood which now burst forth onto the street. More than 320,000 gallons of beer were released into the area. This was St Giles Rookery, a densely populated London slum of cheap housing and tenements inhabited by the poor, the destitute, prostitutes and criminals.

    The flood reached George Street and New Street within minutes, swamping them with a tide of alcohol. The 15 foot high wave of beer and debris inundated the basements of two houses, causing them to collapse. In one of the houses, Mary Banfield and her daughter Hannah were taking tea when the flood hit; both were killed.

    In the basement of the other house, an Irish wake was being held for a 2 year old boy who had died the previous day. The four mourners were all killed. The wave also took out the wall of the Tavistock Arms pub, trapping the teenage barmaid Eleanor Cooper in the rubble. In all, eight people were killed. Three brewery workers were rescued from the waist-high flood and another was pulled alive from the rubble.
    19th century engraving of the event

    **All this ?free? beer led to hundreds of people scooping up the liquid in whatever containers they could. Some resorted to just drinking it, leading to reports of the death of a ninth victim some days later from alcoholic poisoning.**🤣

    ?The bursting of the brew-house walls, and the fall of heavy timber, materially contributed to aggravate the mischief, by forcing the roofs and walls of the adjoining houses.? The Times, 19th October 1814.

    Some relatives exhibited the corpses of the victims for money. In one house, the macabre exhibition resulted in the collapse of the floor under the weight of all the visitors, plunging everyone waist-high into a beer-flooded cellar.

    The stench of beer in the area persisted for months afterwards.

    The brewery was taken to court over the accident but the disaster was ruled to be an Act of God, leaving no one responsible.

    The flood cost the brewery around ?23000 (approx. ?1.25 million today). However the company were able to reclaim the excise duty paid on the beer, which saved them from bankruptcy. They were also granted ₤7,250 (₤400,000 today) as compensation for the barrels of lost beer.

    This unique disaster was responsible for the gradual phasing out of wooden fermentation casks to be replaced by lined concrete vats. The Horse Shoe Brewery was demolished in 1922; the Dominion Theatre now sits partly on its site.

    https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-London-Beer-Flood-of-1814/

  6. #31
    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    On 21 Jan 1879 Theodore Bushick murdered his wife and her father. Ran away from the scene and slit his own throat from ear to ear and threw himself in the river in a suicide attempt. Bystanders rescued him, he recovered, and he spent 30 years in the Iowa hospital for the criminally insane. He was released and became an "inspirational" speaker.

    Mary Boyce Bushick was 16 days short of her 21st birthday when she was killed by her estranged husband. He had lurked in her home waiting for her. When she arrived he shot her twice killing her.

    As Bushick ran from the home he encountered his father-in-law, William Boyce and shot him. Boyce was initially expected to recover, but his wounds killed him 4 days later.

    William Boyce was my 3rd great grandfather. Mary was a sister of my 2nd great grandmother...

    The more things change eh?
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
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    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

  7. #32
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Nameless View Post
    Here's our English version of the Boston Molasses Flood:

    The London Beer Flood of 1814

    by Ben Johnson

    On Monday 17th October 1814, a terrible disaster claimed the lives of at least 8 people in St Giles, London. A bizarre industrial accident resulted in the release of a beer tsunami onto the streets around Tottenham Court Road.

    The Horse Shoe Brewery stood at the corner of Great Russell Street and Tottenham Court Road. In 1810 the brewery, Meux and Company, had had a 22 foot high wooden fermentation tank installed on the premises. Held together with massive iron rings, this huge vat held the equivalent of over 3,500 barrels of brown porter ale, a beer not unlike stout.

    On the afternoon of October 17th 1814 one of the iron rings around the tank snapped. About an hour later the whole tank ruptured, releasing the hot fermenting ale with such force that the back wall of the brewery collapsed. The force also blasted open several more vats, adding their contents to the flood which now burst forth onto the street. More than 320,000 gallons of beer were released into the area. This was St Giles Rookery, a densely populated London slum of cheap housing and tenements inhabited by the poor, the destitute, prostitutes and criminals.

    The flood reached George Street and New Street within minutes, swamping them with a tide of alcohol. The 15 foot high wave of beer and debris inundated the basements of two houses, causing them to collapse. In one of the houses, Mary Banfield and her daughter Hannah were taking tea when the flood hit; both were killed.

    In the basement of the other house, an Irish wake was being held for a 2 year old boy who had died the previous day. The four mourners were all killed. The wave also took out the wall of the Tavistock Arms pub, trapping the teenage barmaid Eleanor Cooper in the rubble. In all, eight people were killed. Three brewery workers were rescued from the waist-high flood and another was pulled alive from the rubble.
    19th century engraving of the event

    **All this ?free? beer led to hundreds of people scooping up the liquid in whatever containers they could. Some resorted to just drinking it, leading to reports of the death of a ninth victim some days later from alcoholic poisoning.**��

    ?The bursting of the brew-house walls, and the fall of heavy timber, materially contributed to aggravate the mischief, by forcing the roofs and walls of the adjoining houses.? The Times, 19th October 1814.

    Some relatives exhibited the corpses of the victims for money. In one house, the macabre exhibition resulted in the collapse of the floor under the weight of all the visitors, plunging everyone waist-high into a beer-flooded cellar.

    The stench of beer in the area persisted for months afterwards.

    The brewery was taken to court over the accident but the disaster was ruled to be an Act of God, leaving no one responsible.

    The flood cost the brewery around ?23000 (approx. ?1.25 million today). However the company were able to reclaim the excise duty paid on the beer, which saved them from bankruptcy. They were also granted ₤7,250 (₤400,000 today) as compensation for the barrels of lost beer.

    This unique disaster was responsible for the gradual phasing out of wooden fermentation casks to be replaced by lined concrete vats. The Horse Shoe Brewery was demolished in 1922; the Dominion Theatre now sits partly on its site.

    https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryU...Flood-of-1814/
    There has to be folk songs about this Deadly Beer Flood.


    Off to find one ...



    Edit : can't find the full text, only bits & pieces, but what I did see is pretty good



    "THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE PORTER-VAT: WHICH EXPLODED OF THE DRUG-GRIPES, OCTOBER 17TH, 1814 : A POEM" (by Peter Pindar)
    Last edited by blighted star; 07-26-2019 at 04:26 PM.

  8. #33
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Sorry about the terrible formatting, I do go through & fix them but when they post they look completely different to my edit




    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16680220



    Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 - 1871) Sat 9 Mar 1867 Page 10


    SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

    (From the European Times)

    On the morning of the 26th December, a married
    woman, named Gudgeon, living at Edmonton, near London, rose from her bed, and killed two of her children by cutting their throats. She then attempted to take the life of a third, but was prevented, upon which she ran downstairs and cut her own throat. The woman was in very humble circumstances, and occupied part of a house near Edmonton station. The poor woman's straitened circumstances, it is believed, so preyed upon, her mind as to cause her to commit the terrible crime. Her husband is a labouring man.


    The following are further particulars of the fearful
    deed :? It appears that for some years past a coach-
    smith, named William Gudgeon, and his wife, a very
    quiet, hard-working woman, Ann Gudgeon, have
    occupied a six-roomed house opposite the Great Eastern Railway station, at lower Edmonton. They had five children, the eldest of them being a girl of fourteen years of age.


    On Christmas Day the mother of the children complained to her husband of being unwell, and she went to bed at seven o'clock in the evening. At 11 o'clock at night she got up and went down stairs, and
    joined her husband and children. They remained
    together for an hour, and then the whole family retired to rest. The husband states that he and his wife slept in a bed in the front top room of the house, and that in a corner of the same room's bed was made up for three of the children. When the woman was going to bed she looked very wild, and she said to her husband, '' The light of the candle stares in my eyes ; put it out.'' He did so, and he then fell asleep. At that time the youngest child, a baby, aged six months, was alive, and was lying asleep in the father's bed.


    A dreadful narrative of what then occurred is supplied by Selina Gudgeon, a little girl ten years of age.


    She states that at 2 o'clock she was awoke by a quantity of blood being '' spurted '' over her face. When she opened her eyes she was horrified at seeing her mother kneeling upon the dead body of her little brother, Timothy George Gudgeon, who had been lying asleep alongside her sister, Sarah Anne Gudgeon. The little boy's throat was cut in a most fearful manner, and blood was gushing out from the wound. The mother: looked very excited, and she held an open razor covered with blood in her right hand. When she saw that she woke the girl Selina, she leant over towards her and caught hold of her. The girl
    screamed, and a fearful struggle then ensued. Selina, for the purpose of protecting her throat, caught hold of the bedclothes and held them over it. She cried out, '' Oh, mother, why do you not put that razor down? You have killed Timothy, and now you want to murder us. Why do you want to cut our throats?'' The girl then struggled and slid out of the bed, and ran through the doorway, and rushed down the stairs, followed by her mother, who continued to hold the open razor in her hand. When the girl reached the bottom, of the stairs, she ran into the lower front room. Her mother rushed past her, and ran to the fireplace. The little girl felt in the dark, and found a matchbox lying on the table. She struck a light, and then, she saw her mother by the light of the match cutting into her throat, and the blood was flowing from the wound. The girl gave a loud scream, and she says the light then went out, and she heard her mother fall upon the floor.


    The girl then ran upstairs, and went into her father's
    room, which is rather lightsome in consequence of the light of a street gas-lamp shining into it. Her father was in a sound sleep, and by his side lay the dead body of the little baby, six months old. The child's throat was cut from ear to ear. Selina caught hold of her father, and shook him violently. She had nearly to pull him out of bed before she could awake him. The girl then quickly told him that her mother had murdered two of her brothers. The father became most excited, and, hurriedly dressing, ran out of the house, and called in a Mrs. Robinson, the wife of a railway employee that lived near.

    While he was away the girl ran to another room, the place where two of her uncles slept, and awoke them up. One of them, Thomas Gudgeon, went to the police station. Sergeant Hewlett, who was on duty there, accompanied him to the scene of the tragedy. When they entered the front parlour they found the dead body of the wretched mother lying near the fireplace. Her head rested on the fender, and there was an open black-handled razor lying on her breast. Dr. O'Brien, of Church-street, Edmonton, who was called in at the time, said that the wound was self-inflicted, and that it must have caused almost instantaneous death. The police and the doctor then went upstairs, and, in the front bedroom, they found the dead bodies of the two children.


    It is stated that the family have very respectable con-
    nections in the locality. The wife was a very sober
    person, but the husband was not, and on the day of
    the murder, it is said, he was drunk. His wife had been for some weeks past under the care of Dr. Morris, of Edmonton ; she was suffering from great nervous-ness, and from the effects of cold. There seems to be no reason to entertain any doubt that her mind gave way from the effects of illness and anxiety consequent on family misfortunes.

  9. #34
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/111143061

    The Newcastle Chronicle (NSW : 1866 - 1876)
    Sat 10 Dec 1870 Page 1

    Shocking Tragedy at Bath.


    One of the most horrible tragedies which have occurred in the West of England for many years past was perpetrated in Bath about the beginning of September. At a quarter-past three o'clock in the afternoon, information was conveyed to the central
    police-station, to the effect that it was feared that a murder had been committed at 1, Spencer's Bellevue, the residence of Mr. J. Prankard. Spencer's Bellevue is about twenty yards below Lansdowne-crescent. Mr. Prankard kept a preparatory school for young gentlemen. He was about fifty years of age. The other occupants of the house were his children ; Minnie, aged twenty-one ; Kate, between eighteen and nineteen; and the youngest daughter, who is a dwarf, and very much deformed; about thirteen years of age.


    Mr. Prankard buried his wife about twelve months since, and it is said that he has been very strange in his conduct since that time. He was latterly of very singular habits, and in corroboration of his alleged eccentricity it is stated that he would frequently ill-treat his daughters, and then go into the city and purchase a present for them. The injured young lady, Kate, now bears marks on her face caused by her father throwing a vase at her about a week since.

    About a fortnight ago the unfortunate man took away from the house the third daughter thirteen years of age. He stated he was going to take her to Bristol, but at the present time nothing is known of her whereabouts. It is not impossible that this
    daughter has met with foul play, but nothing has as yet transpired, to justify the supposition, except the fact that it is not known where she was taken. However, on Monday morning Mr. Prankard left his house with some clean underclothes, which he said he was going to take to his absent daughter.


    The two daughters, Minnie and Kate, did not expect him back until about two o'clock, and they accordingly went out for a walk. During their absence about twelve o'clock Mr. Prankard returned. He went to the kitchen and asked the servant girl (by name Emma Davies), where Minnie and Kate were. The girl replied that they had gone out. He then walked once across the room, and said to the girl, 'Wouldn't you like to go out for a trip this afternoon? She replied, 'To where?' He said, 'Oh, anywhere; just for a trip.' She said, 'No, I have nowhere to go unless I go to my home, and that is too far.' He said, 'I should like to serve them a trick.' The girl thought he meant he should like to keep them out in the rain, as it was raining at the time. She said that she would rather
    get dinner than go out. He replied, 'Oh, never mind the dinner.' She, however, went about her work, and busied herself in getting dinner.


    The young ladies subsequently returned, and dinner was placed on the table. During dinner he remarked that there was no onion sauce, and she made some. At this time he appeared as usual. When sitting down to dinner (which was served in an underground room adjoining the kitchen), the parties exchanged a few hot words. After a little time the servant asked if she could bring in the pudding, and he replied, ' No, there's no need of pudding after meat.'

    On this the three persons ? that is Mr. Prankard and his two daughters, Minnie and Katie, went up stairs into the schoolroom. They had only been there a few minutes when the servant heard Mr. Prankard lock the three doors, and take the keys out of the locks. Some loud talking was heard, and a few minutes later Mr. Prankard came out of the school-room and locked the door after him. He went up three flights of stairs and into his bedroom. Almost immediately he came down stairs and returned to the school-room, again locking the door after him. Some loud talking again ensued, and a few minutes had only elapsed when the servant heard the discharge of a pistol. She stated that the sound was that of ' bang, bang' as if there were two double shots. She was alarmed and ran to the bottom of the stairs.


    When in the passage she saw Miss Kate (the youngest of the two eldest daughters) going from the schoolroom window over the garden wall into the next house, which belongs to Mr. Way. Miss Kate, says the girl, was streaming all down her face with blood. The servant rushed to the front door and gave the alarm. Police constable Finnell and two men (who happened to be standing at the corner of Morford-street) burst open the back door that leads into the area. From the stains of blood in the room, it is evident that Miss Kate was sitting at a desk when she was shot. She then went out through the window.

    Inspector Hutchings burst open the school room door, and found the body of Miss Minnie lying behind the door in a pool of blood quite dead. Two bullet holes were seen in her head, from one of which the brain was protruding. A large quantity of blood was
    seen on a table in another part of the room, also a handkerchief and a pair of gloves, saturated with gore, and a hat and silk jacketbmuch stained. Blood was also found on the window sash, which had evidently been forced up, and a large quantity was also seen on the sill beneath.

    The house was then searched upwards, and in the front attic the body of Mr. J. Prankard was found lying on its back on a bed quite dead, a strong smell of almond pervading the room. On searching the pockets ofthe deceased gentleman, the following articles were found : ? A flash, containing a quantity of gunpowder; a paper, with ten bullets, a handkerchief with fine perforated holes, cash amounting to ?5 19 s. 9 d. ; a cheque for ?25 2s. 6d., and other articles. A paper containing a number of percussion caps was subsequently found on the stairs, near the drawing-room door.

    The deceased daughter, Minnie, was evidently what would be designated a very pretty young woman, and does not seem older than she is said to be ? twenty-one years. She was of dark complexion, with black hair. She was neatly dressed. A gold brooch is attached to her dress, and around her neck is a piece of black ribbon, from which is suspended a small gold locket.

    On Tuesday morning Miss Kate, who was lying in the adjoining house, was visited by Drs. Mason, Stockwell, and Fowler. They pronounced her in a precarious state. On Tuesday night the coroner held two inquests at the Weytnouth Arms, Bath? the first on the body of Minnie Methuen Prankard, aged twenty-four, who was shot by her father on the preceding day ; and the second on the body of the murderer, who afterwards poisoned himself. The evidence showed that the father had for some time manifested symptoms of insanity, and that on Friday he smashed a water bottle in the face of his second daughter, Kate, whom he also shot. The jury returned a verdict of ' wilful murder' against the father in the case of the daughter, and 'temporary insanity' in his
    own case.

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    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/148533007

    Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 - 1947)

    Sat 30 Sep 1871 Page 4

    SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN OHIO.

    SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN OHIO.

    Cleveland (Ohio) header - May 29.


    The most horrible murder which has been perpetrated in Northern Ohio, an appropriate crowning horror, was perpetrated, Saturday
    afternoon, in Richfield, Summit County, about
    twenty-two miles from this city. A young man came quietly into the village and destroyed its peace by a bloody tragedy. By, an inexplicable paradox, he came to take the life of one to whom he seemed to be attached by every tender tie. The circumstances are as follows :


    A young man, named Hunter, while living at his home in Michigan, became acquainted with and enamored of Chloe Gargett, of Richfield, Summit County. She was about twenty-two years of age, he twenty-eight. She returned to this State something over a year ago, and last fall he paid her a visit, being well received
    by the family. His visit in the family was prolonged, the attachment between him and Miss Gargett strengthened and intensified. When he returned home to Michigan he kept up a correspondence with her, and endeavored to obtain the consent of her parents to his marriage with the daughter. The winter passed, and in the spring he was informed that the marriage was impossible, peremptorily ordered to desist from all further correspondence, and to give up whatever pretensions he had to Miss Gargett's hand. He swore that he would have her or slay her, and used every means in his power to execute his threat.


    Last week he concluded that all endeavors to
    obtain her in marriage would be useless, and he set about to take her life. He came to this city and stopped at the City Hotel, where he took the stage for Richfield, Saturday. Arriving at hisndestination in the afternoon, he repaired immediately to the house of Mr. Robert Gargett and asked where the daughter was. 'It makes no difference where she is,' answered the father ; 'you cannot see her.' 'I will see her,' he said, 'or I'll kill ail of you.' The father here upon ordered him to leave his premises, and Hunter drew a revolver
    and fired, hitting the old man in the head. The old man fell, rendered insensible by the wound, and the mother who was standing near by, cried out to her daughter, 'He has killed your father ; fly, fly!'

    The daughter ran upstairs, and the murderer aimed at the mother, shooting her in the head, and causing instant death. As the report of the pistol mingled with the moan of the dying mother, the fiend shrieked that he would kill all of them, and rushed forward toward the staircase where the daughter had disappeared. The lady's brother, Rodney, here grappled him, and a violent struggle ensued. The blood-thirsty man triumphed. He leaped from the clutches of the brother, and raising his revolver, fired at him a shot that put him beyond the power of interfering. Rodney rushed into the street, frantic from his wound, and filling the air with shrieks and screams, the life-blood trickling from his wound. In an instant he was a good distance from the scene of the tragedy.

    A large crowd gathered about him, totally unable to comprehend the meaning of his cries, and soon moved toward his house, where the bloody truth became but too apparent.


    In the meantime the daughter, hearing the second report of the pistol, and seeing her maniac brother stagger through the streets, leaped from a second story window into the street, and sought refuge in a neighbouring house. An old lady, in whose house she entered, secreted her in her cellar, and then returned to her front door in time ~ to meet the bloody murderer on the threshold. He demanded admission and was refused. The brave woman stood before her door, barring the passage-way and stoutly refusing him admittance. He here again declared his purpose to kill the young woman, mingling his threats with oaths, and saying that she should either wed him or die. The crowd gathered around, and he said he would shoot himself, and raised the revolver to his head to let it fall harmless to his side. He aimed
    the weapon at a young man in the crowd; uttering a threat, but did not fire. He reeled about for a moment or two, pointing his revolver at every one who came
    near, and finally moved away from the house.


    It became evident now that Hunter's plan was
    to assume insanity. With the seven-shooter in his hand, four barrels loaded, he mingled with the excited throng calling himself a murderer, and extending his blood-stained hand to all he met. 'Shake hands with me,' said he, 'see how it seems to shake the hand of a murderer. I was determined to kill or marry her. If you don't shake hands with me I'll shoot you. Hurrah for the murderer.' With these and other cries he staggered about the streets, compelling everyone to shake hands with him, and finally wandered back to the house where lay the dead, mother and the wounded father. Several attempts were made to
    arrest him, but to all who approached he presented the deadly barrel, and they shrank back.


    Here in front of Mr. Gargett's house, a man from the crowd slipped behind the murderer and threw him to the ground. An instant later he was bound, the revolver wrenched from his hand, and all power of doing harm taken from him. ' In this position the murderer asserted that he had drunk a great deal, and was then under the influence of liquor. He said he had taken poison from remorse, and wanted to kill himself.

    Neither assertion was listened to, nor was it clear that he was not under the influence of liquor, and if he had determined on self destruction it could easily have been obtained by the loaded revolver. The excitement existing among the crowd was intense, and a strong disposition was manifested to hang the murderer at once without any trial. The friends of law and order, however, prevailed, and Hunter was placed in confinement. The wounded son, on beholding him and understanding the terrible crime that agitated the bosoms of those around him, attempted to grasp the murderer of his mother and destroyer of the peace of his family. He was restrained, and the thoughts of the crowd turned to the wounded and the dead.


    At 4 o'clock yesterday morning a messenger arrived at the Central Police Station with the tidings of the murder, and inquired for Dr. Proctor Thayer, whom citizens of Richfield had sent for. The doctor arrived yesterday during the forenoon, and proceeded at once to administer all the care of surgical and
    medical skill could suggest. He has but little hope of the recovery of the father, and the fate of the son depends more upon his own conduct than anything else. If he can be kept quiet and calm he will probably recover. The father has a bullet in his brain.


    Hunter was taken to Akron, to be confined In gaol. On the way he conversed freely, stating that he did wrong
    to shoot the father and mother, and only intended to kill the daughter. He intimated that he was unconscious of what he was doing when the father refused him admission, and seemed to be preparing the way for ' emotional insanity.'

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    Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld. : 1861 - 1908)
    Thu 14 Nov 1872 Page 3

    SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN NEW ZEALAND.

    (From Southland Times, October 22.)


    On Saturday afternoon last a terrible tragedy
    was enacted within a few miles of Invercargill. A woman named Caroline Vitting, the wife of Carl Vitting, residing at Chalmers's old saw-mill on the Bay-road, left her home, taking with her the four youngest children, a girl aged nine years, and three boys, aged respectively eight and five years and eleven months, saying that they would go and look whether the cow had calved. There does not appear to have been anything in the woman's manner as she left the house to excite a suspicion that she meditated a crime. After they had been away for some considerable time, the girl returned, and told her eldest sister, who was at home, that her mother had thrown baby and the two boys into the Waikivi Creek; that she had thrown the little girl herself into the creek also, but that she managed to get out while the mother was chasing Fred (the eldest of the three boys), and she then ran home.


    The eldest girl and the child who had escaped death so narrowly immediately went together to the scene of the occurrence, but saw nothing of their mother, although they observed footmarks and other traces of the struggle which took place on the bank of the creek, and found some clothing belonging to the drowned children. They then returned to their home, and told three woodcutters, named Sinclair, Cashel, and Trainer, who were working close by, what had happened. These men lost no time in proceeding to the place, and near the brink of the creek, which was high in flood, running over its banks, found the bodies of the two oldest boys lying at the bottom.


    They recovered them and placed them on the bank, and some yards further down discovered the body of the baby lying almost on the surface of the water, in the centre of the stream, where it had been caught, after floating down some yards, by some rails which were lying across the creek. The children were quite dead, although the baby was warm. The men left the bodies on the bank, and proceeded to Invercargill, where they informed the police of what had occurred. Sub-inspector Fox and Sergeant Fleming immediately proceeded to Vitting's, arriving there about 9 o'clock in the evening. Thence they started on foot, accompanied by the father and eldest son, and reached the locality of the tragic event about 10 o'clock. The bodies were carried back to the father's house, through thie bush, by Vitting, Sub-inspector Fox, and Sergeant Fleming.


    There could be no search made for the
    wretched woman that night, but at daylight next morning a party of about twelve started to scour the bush. Tracks were found leading eastwards from the spot where the bodies were discovered, but owing to the severity of the hail-showers and rain they soon became obliterated. About 3 o'clock in the
    afternoon Mr. Samuel Morton, who had his dogs with him, came upon the object of their search, crouching down among the scrub in the bush at the back of Mr. Russell's house. He took the woman to Mr. Russell's, where she was arrested by Sub-inspector Fox.


    When arrested she appeared to be totally indifferent to all that was taking place around her. She sometimes exclaimed "Albert," the name of her eldest son, and inquired anxiously for a bag containing eels. She also asked for her Bible, saying that she thought she had left it on the mantelpiece. The unhappy woman was conveyed to the gaol at Invercargill, and she has since remained in the same depressed and indifferent condition, making no intelligible statement. Various rumours as to the cause of the sad event are in circulation. It appears certain that the couple had lived unhappily together, and that the woman had been very unkindly treated by her husband, whose conduct seems to have preyed upon her mind.

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    Newspapers: Browse Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette (Qld. : 1868 - 1919) Sat 15 Jul 1871 Page 4

    SYSTEMATIC CHILD MURDER.

    A strange sensational rumour was current in London a fortnight ago to the effect that a nursemaid had been detected, whose mania was the destruction of the children committed to her charge. An inquest was then opened, at Nowington Butts, on the body of an infant, one year and two months old, who had unquestionably come to its death under very extraordinary and even startling circumstances. It was the child of Mr. Boer, a respectable tradesman in that neighbourhood. The facts, so far as they related to the case actually under investigation, were, in brief, these : ? Mr. Boer, with his wife, went from home to dine with some friends. The infant, with two other children, was consigned to the care of a young girl, sixteen years old, who had only been employed in that household three days.


    Upon the return of the master and mistress, about midnight, they heard a violent screaming upstairs, and naturally hurried to learn the cause. What, the cause of the screaming was the coroner's inquiry has not told us ; but a mysterious state of things was revealed. On the floor of the bedroom lay one of the children naked, but alive ; between the bedstead and the wall was found another - the youngest ? cold and perfectly dead, with water running from its mouth. Whereupon, of course, a public investigation took place, and was adjourned to allow of a post-mortem examination. The result, completely bore out the testimony of the father and mother, that when they last saw their baby living it was in absolute good health. The surgeon reported it to have been a fine and sound child, free from the slightest taint of disease ; but, he added, the face even in death was very red ; there were two marks as of compression on the lips, and he thought the poor little creature, had been suffocated. How? asked the coroner. Dr Lee could not surmise.

    It is not stated whether anyone else was in the sleeping chamber when the tragic discovery was made, and we are most anxious not to give the mystery? for that there is a mystery will soon be seen? any prejudicial colouring whatever. It may be as well, therefore, to quote, without comment, a short colloquy which, at this point, took place between the representative of the law and the parent of the dead infant :? The father of the deceased here said he had witnesses present who would give a history of the girl Norman.

    The Coroner : 'Have you witnesses who can say that this girl has murdered your child, Mr. Boer: 'I am unable to say that, but I should like those persons to be examined.' The Coroner: 'I do not think I should be doing justice to this girl if I examined them.' Mr. Boer : ' If a verdict is given without, I shall think it very unfair.' Whereupon a statement was made of so singular a character that the inexplicable verdict subsequently given, 'that the deceased died of suffocation accidentally caused,' does not dispose of it at all. There was no more proof of accident than, there was of violence, and of violence there was none, unless we attach more importance to the marks on the lips, and even with respect to them it was not sought to be shown that any particular individual was implicated.


    The evidence given by Sergeant Mullard, after completing his researches, claims not less on the girl's behalf than on that of the public, that the horrible doubts suggested must be set at rest in one way or another. Detective Mullard found on inquiry, that several children had expired under circumstances similar to those of the case before the Court. Twelve months ago, the nursemaid ? then no more than fifteen years old-- was engaged in a family at Grosvenor Villa, Stockwell Road. Two months afterwards a Iady visited at the house,
    bringing a yearling baby ? wholesome and robust ? with her. It was found lying on a
    bed, a corpse, in the course of the day. What-ever the secret may have been, death appeared wherever this unfortunate nursemaid went. Three dogs, a cat, a parrot, nearly a dozen other fancy birds, and a number of goldfish were about the same time found dead at the Grosvenor Villa ; she was sent away, and we hear of no such mortality as having happened since.

    Next she procured a situation in Park Road, Grosvenor Road, to take care of an infant. She brought it home insensible one day declaring it had fallen out of her arms. Three weeks later she took it out again, and this time brought it home dead. Her next situation was in Temple-street, St. George's Road, and on one occasion a child aged seven years was awakened by a choking sensation, and stated to its father that the girl had placed her hand over its mouth, and that she had given him money not to say anything about it. At this place, also, several domestic animals died suddenly. At another situation where she was engaged a child was found insensible in bed. When it recovered it evinced great terror at the sight of the girl. In her next situation she locked up a child in a ward, and then took it out and put
    it to bed, where it was found dead shortly afterwards. It may be presumed, of course,
    that detective Mullard was upon oath when he gave the result of the information he had
    collected. Every one must be anxious that part of this mystery should be dispelled, not only in the interest of society, but for the sake of the girl implicated. The girl, Agnes Norman, was taken into custody by the police on April 29th, and chargec before the magistrate at Lambeth Police Court, on suspicion of having caused the death of Jesse Jane Beer, and three other children. After sufficient evidence had been adduced, the prisoner was remanded. On may 12th the prisoner was again examined, and still further remanded.

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    This wouldn't have been too far from the scene of the stabbing in Sydney CBD this week



    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82659891


    NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA


    TERRIBLE TRAGEDY,
    GIRL SHOT DEAD
    OTHERS INJURED.

    Sydney, August 30.


    A terrible tragedy was enacted this morning in a tobacconist's shop in George-street, near the railway station. A tobacconist named Napoleon Jean Lisson, 32 years of age, practically ran amok. He killed his sister-in-law, and attempted to murder several others, including his wife and two children. 'Lisson owns considerable property in the city and country, and conducts a hairdressing saloon and tobacconist's shop.

    This morning Henry Montague Mordaunt, a traveller employed by Lisson, went to the shop to make some business arrangements. Lisson and he went upstairs, passing through the hairdressing saloon, there three employes were at work. After discussing business matters, Mordaunt proceeded to write out an agreement, when he suddenly received a blow on the head which knocked him down. Looking up he saw Lisson standing over him with a claw-hammer in his hand, with which he struck the blow. In the other hand was a big knife. Lisson rushed at Mordaunt, saying 'We got you now, you b_____ ? , I'll kill you.'


    Lisson appeared to be actuated by demoniacal fury. Gripping Mordaunt, he attempted to cut his throat, but the knife was blunt. The energy of despair came to Mordaunt, who fought hard for his life. Lisson frequently slashed at him with his knife, and the point at last entered the lobe of his ear. Mordaunt thought that his end had come, but at that moment Lisson slipped. Mordaunt, who was half blinded by the blood which was flowing from his wounds, contrived to throw his would-be murderer off, and dart downstairs. As far as can be gathered Lisson then discarded the knife, and picked up a five chambered revolver. He attempted to follow his victim, when Mrs. Lisson entered, and, throwing herself before her husband, besought him to give up the weapon. He refused, and threatened to kill everybody who interfered with him.


    Pointing the revolver at his wife, he fired at her, the bullet passing through a part of her hand, close to the wrist. Mrs. Lisson, with a scream, fell to the floor, and her husband, apparently under the impression that she was dead, rushed from the apartment. After fur-
    ther mischief he seized a doublebarrelled shot-gun, and rushed downstairs. The three hairdressers, hearing the shot, fled into the street, Lisson then rushed into the room, where he met his sister in-law, Miss Lily Gorrick, 16 years of age. Seeing that his hand was covered with blood, she fled, but Lisson levelled the gun at her, and fired. The poor girl fell dead on the floor. Mrs. Lisson, in the meantime, had recovered consciousness, and ran to an adjoining shop. There were still in the house the two children, Victor Lisson, eight years of age, and Rowley Lisson, seven. The madman sought these, and they tried to get away. Their screams could be heard in the street,
    but no one dared to enter. The father caught hold of the oldest boy, who screamed for mercy, and he struck him furiously with a hammer. Some fearful
    wounds were inflicted on the head, and the boy fell senseless on the floor. The other boy was then sought, and though he fought furiously, he was quickly treated in a similar fashion to his brother. He was left bleeding and unconscious.


    A police sergeant, who was made acquainted with the tragic work which was proceeding, entered the premises, and seized the murderer. Lisson made no
    resistance, and was quickly conveyed to the lock-up. He admitted his share in the bloody work, and remarked 'I am sorry that I did not kill that d___ Jew,'
    adding that he should have killed the whole lot. The boys, he said, fought like tigers, and were too game to live. Lisson is described as a very shrewd man of business, but he was reticent, and almost of a morose disposition. His father is said to have come from New Caledonia, where he amassed a consider
    able sum of money.


    Mrs. Lisson and the two boys are in the hospital. Victor Lisson regained consciousness during the day. He will probably recover, but the condition of his brother, Rowley, is much more serious.


    An inquest was opened this morning
    concerning the death of Lily Gorrick.
    When he was taken to view the body,
    and asked whether it was that of the
    deceased girl, Lisson replied 'I'm
    d__d if I know.' A hairdresser named
    Joseph Smythe, who worked for Lisson,
    gave some evidence, and the inquest was
    adjourned.
    Last edited by blighted star; 08-16-2019 at 09:40 PM.

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    TERRIBLE SCENES. (1871, April 1). The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), p. 9.

    FRIGHTFUL AND FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.


    Lately a shocking and fatal gun accident occurred to a young man named George Holt; 24 years of age, the son of a grazier living at Lutterworth, about 14 miles from Leicester.

    It appears that the unfortunate young man had recently taken a gun license for the purpose of shooting small birds in his father's fields, and that on Monday morning, about 9 o'clock he went with a companion, named Samuel Loomes, down the Leicester-road, for the purpose of shooting. He had with him a double-barreled gun, and had not proceeded far along the road when he took aim at a " fieldfare " in the hedgerow, but he missed his mark.

    Deceased then proceeded to re-load the empty barrel, while the other barrel was loaded and at " full cock." While he was in the act of ramming the charge, the gun being held perpendicularly in front of him, the charge which had been left in the undischarged barrel suddenly went off, killing him instantaneously. The front part of the face, extending from ear to ear, was blown clean off and has not yet been found, the back part of the skull being all that was left. His brains were also strewn about the greensward on the roadside.

    Loomes, who was standing about three yards off at the time, being unable to render any assistance, ran off in fright to Superintendent Deakins, of the county police, who at once had the body removed home in a cart, where it awaits the inquest.

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    The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW : 1856 - 1861; 1863 - 1889; 1891 - 1954) Fri 24 May 1907 Page 3

    Girl's Terrible Death.

    The quiet Warwickshire village of Whitacre has just been the scene of a remarkable tragedy. Miss Harriet Webster, a strikingly pretty young woman, visited Whitacre last week from her home at Bott's Green to spend a few days with her aunt, Mrs. Papsworth.

    She went to bed on Friday night, February 1st, in cheerful spirits, but about four o'clock on Saturday morning she seems to have got out of bed, slipped on a pair of stockings, and, opening the window, jumped out on to the road below. She apparently escaped from her daring leap with only a few cuts and bruises, and started running along the road.

    The members of the household, roused by the noise, ran into her bedroom and found the bed empty and the window open. On the frosted ground were the blood-stains caused by her fall from the window, while her footprints showed clearly along the road.

    The terrified relatives started off in pursuit and outside the station met a cousin, a young collier, who followed the young woman's traces for several miles across the open country. In her benumbed condition she was apparently unable to cross a stile, and accordingly turned hack in another direction. She seems to have passed within a few yards of a signal-box, but the signalman did not observe her as her whiterobed form mast have been quite undistinguishable against the frozen snow.

    Her body, practically decapitated, was afterwards found on the Nuneaton branch of the Midland Railway, about a hundred yards from Whitacre Station. The thick stockings she was wearing were torn almost to ribbons, and her scanty covering was frozen hard upon her body. She must have been running or walking at full speed for fully three hours.

    On several occasions she had been strange in her manner.

    ?" Daily Mail."

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    Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, Fri 31 Jan 1890 Pg 26

    TERRIBLE TRAGEDY NEAR GRETA.

    A horrible tragedy was enacted at Lurg, a settlement about five miles from Greta, in the direction of Benalla, on Wednesday, 22nd inst., about half-past 4 o'clock.

    A farmer named Lloyd, a relative of the notorious Kelly ging, has a larrn at Lurg, and is in the habit of sending his children to the Lurg State-school. Two of the children were returning home from school on Wednesday, and when about three-quarters of a mile from their father's residence, the elder one, a girl of 10 years, named Ellen Grace Lloyd, was accosted by a man named George Lionel Lambert, who had been employed by her father for 12 months previously as a handy man on the farm. He began to pull her off the roadside towards a clump of bushes, when her companion, a younger brother, left them and ran home to inform his mother of what was taking place.


    Mrs. Lloyd (who is a sister to Mrs. Kelly) accompanied by another son, 14 years of age, set off to where the little fellow had left his sister. When about 40 yards from the roadside, a horrible sight met their gaze. Lying beside the fence was the dead body of the girl, her throat cut from ear to ear. The schoolbag which she had been carrying was caught in a splice knot in the wire of the fence further off, beside a clump of bushes. Blood traces were found, and the signs of a terrible life struggle was apparent, showing that the little victim was determined to protect herself. Her hat was also found drenched in blood.

    Further away, behind another clump of bushes, the body of the murderer was found, his throat also being cut lrom ear to ear, traces of blood being discernible from where the struggle took place. On a search being instituted a razor-case was found in the shirt next the body of deceased, and a handle and razor-blade, partly broken, were found near the scene of the tragedy. Lambert, who was a newly-arrived Englishman, was an amiable young fellow, a sailor by calling, and he is said to be well connected at home, having sisters married to officers in the English navy. He was never known to have any criminal attributes before, though he was fond of drink when he could get it. He was fine-looking, with a fair moustache, while the victim was a tall, prepossessing girl, well built for her size.


    Sergeant Steele and Constable Blade visited the scene of the tragedy the same night, returning to Wangaratta on Thursday. Mrs. Lloyd states that Lambert asked her if she had anything for him to do. She said no, and he then employed himself stropping a razor, Mrs. Lloyd thinking he was going to have a shave. Lambert, after sharpening the razor, "I will go and fetch the cows," and went down to the paddock, where he in all probability awaited the coming of the unfortunate girl.


    A medical examination showed that there was no trace of violation on the girl. An inquest was held at Lurg on Thursday, before Mr. Dobbin, P.M., when the following evidence was taken : - Thomas Lloyd deposed : I am a farmer residing at Lurg. Grace, the deceased, is my daughter. She will be 11 years of age on the 11th July. I saw her body removed to-day, and then saw that she was dead, with her throat cut. I know the deceased, Lambert. He was in my employ as a generally useful man. He has been with me about 12 months. Last December I heard him say that he was 25 years old. During the time he was with me he was very well conducted, steady, and agreeable. He had been a sailor. He was quite steady as long as he kept away from drink. I saw him yesterday morning after milking the cows, and have not seen him since until now, when I saw him lying dead in the shed. I don't know how he came by his death, nor can I offer any opinion as to the state of his mind, but I always looked upon him as a man of sound mind.


    Jane Lloyd deposed : Am the wife of the last witness, and the deceased, Ellen Grace Lloyd, was my daughter. I last saw her alive yesterday morning, and in the evening saw her lying on the road dead, with her throat cut. She was dressed as she left home, with the exception that her hat was off. I know the deceased, Lambert, and have nothing to add to what my husband has said about him. I last saw htm alive about 4 o'clock yesterday evening. He was then in the house. He asked me if I had anything for him to do, and I said " No." He said he had nothing to read, and he was going over to Mr. Henry's for a book. It would be in the direction my children went to school. They went to the school on the Benalla-road. I removed the body of my daughter to the house. When I found her she was lying on her face, and appeared to have got through the fence and then fallen.


    John James L'.oyd deposed : I live with my father and mother at Lurg, and shall be eight years old on the 26th January. I know the girl who is lying dead. She is my sister. I saw her yesterday morning, and I went to school with her. I returned with her in the evening, and when returning she was ahead of me. When I next saw her she was running with blood on her. Before this, I saw her dodging George Lambert behind a bush. I can't say if her throat was cut then. It would be about four minutes afterwards that I saw her throat cut. She was alive, and looked up at me but did not speak. I then saw Lambert walking towards me. He had blood all down his chest, and then he fell down in front of the fence.


    Patrick Blade said : I am a police-constable at Wangaratta. At 4 a.m. to-day I arrived at the house of Thos. L'oyd, and was shown the bodies. About on hour later I visited the scene of the alleged murder and suicide, which was about three-quarters of a mile from this. I found in the immediate vicinity the hat produced, blood-marked, and near by saw great quantities of blood on the grass. I also found the bottle produced, which contained violet ink. From the place where I found the hat I saw traces of blood on the road. About four yards from that I found the razor blade produced, and subsequently Sergeant Steele handed me the handle produced.Margaret Lloyd said : I am a daughter of the first witness, and sister of the deceased girl. I know her signature , and also that of George Lionel Lambert. The signature on exhibit IV. was Lamberts, as was also the writing in the body. That is not the signature of my sister. I found a razor handle about four yards from where my sister was lying.

    T. S. Davies said : I am a legally qualified medical practitioner, practicising at Benalla. I have seen the bodies ot Ellen Lloyd and George Lambert. I made an examination of the body of Ellen Lloyd. I found a wound in the throat extending from about half an inch behind the angle of the jaw on the left side, and about three-quarters of an inch below. It extended horizontally to a corresponding period on the right side. There had been two cuts. The first one divided the bone, and was not necessarily fatal. The second divided the trachea below the cartilage. It also divided on both sides the arteries, veins, and muscles which must have caused death within a very few moments. The only other mark of violence was a slight abrasion on the point of the left shoulder. There was nothing to indicate that deceased had been tampered with. There was nothing to suggest any handling. I was informed that the body had been washed after death and previous to my examining her. It was the body of a well-grown and wellnourished child. The wounds were not in all probability self-inflicted, and were probably caused with great violence by the razor produced.


    With regard to the deceased man, Lambert, I found his throat cut from left to right. He had evidently commenced tentatively. He then cut slightly higher up. The first incision was about three inches below the angle of the left jaw, directed slightly upwards, and was through the skin only. The second began in about the same line above, but about half an inch above. It was directed forward, dividing the skin only to the anterior margin of the left muscle, which it wounded, then going through the thyroid cartilage, leaving a large wound in the larynx. The wound then sank deeply and suddenly through the sterno-mastoid muscle, making a slight puncture, but not dividing the internal carotid artery, and also the superior tyroid and lingeal arteries. The jugular vein and external carotid artery were not wounded. The wounds were sufficient to cause death in a short time. Such a weapon as that produced would have inflicted the wound? The wounds terminated below the right angle of the jaw, being from lelt to right directed slightly upwards. The wounds were probably self-inflicted. He was well developed, with the exception of his chest, which was remarkably flat and hollow.


    The jury returned a verdict that Lambert committed the murder when suffering from temporary insanity.


    The following letter was found upon the murderer :? " Dec, 5th,?I give and bequeath unto Thomas Lloyd, senior, everything I possess, on condition that he buries me. Thos. Lloyd, senior, to get my letters from the General Post Office and have the money contained therein to bury me according to the rites of the Catholic Church. God in his infinite mercy has decreed me to act thus. Great God is our father, and unto Him we go, my darling Ellen Grace and I We shall have no more earthly troubles aod trials. God have mercy on our souls, God be merciful unto us sinners. God has called us to Himself. We shall both meet in Heaven. It is God's will that we both go together.?GEORGE LIONEL LAMBERT. Signed ELLEN GRACE LLOYD."


    The name of the unfortunate girl is written in a hand quite dissimilar to Lambert's. As will be seen by the depositions taken at the inquest, the relatives of the girl deny that it is her signature. Such is probably the case ; but the handwriting is undoubtedly that of a juvenile.

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    Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW : 1856 - 1950) Thu 11 Dec 1890 Page 3



    TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT BALLARAT
    (From, the Herald.)


    Ballarat, on Tuesday morning, was shocked by an appalling domestic tragedy. James Johnson, a prominent business man in the city, apparently in good circumstance, with a young wife, and four beautiful children, for whom his fondness was noted, in a sudden fit of insanity crept stealthily from bed during the night and smothered the children in their bed, and then shot his wife, ultimately poisoning himself. When discovered the children were all dead. Mrs. Johnson still lives, but though at times sufficiently conscious to murmur "James did it ? poor James!" her recovery cannot be hoped for. With regard to Johnson, there is some expectatation that he may live.

    On Monday Johnson, feeling unwell, stayed away from business, and consulted Dr. Morrison, complaining of a recurrence of pains in the head from which he had formerly suffered. The doctor did not attach any particular significance to his complaint, as he did not notice anything in Johnson's manner or appearance to indicate the slightest mental derangement. Johnson remained in bed during the day. He got up about 6 and sat at the window overlooking a little grass plot where the children were at play. The little ones were put to bed early in the evening, and at 10 the household retired.


    There were two female servants in the house, one named Kate Hicks occupying a bed in the same room as the children. Of those, Mary and Ruby, twin girls, aged 8, slept in a bed behind the door of the room. Gordon, 4 years of age, his father's special pet, occupied a cot on one side of the room. In a corner opposite the door were the servant's bed and a cot of a two-year-old baby named Pearl. The parents' room was separated from the children's room by a passage, and on the same side of the house as the children's room, but nearer the front, is a spare bedroom.


    During the night the nurse-girl, Kate Hicks, found herself awake without any knowledge of what aroused her. Almost immediately she heard the report of a pistol-shot apparently tn the house, and directly after she heard the door close. Then all was still. The explanation that occurred to her mind was that there were burglars in the house, and she lay in a terrified state, not daring to move or utter a sound. Whether she dropped off in a doze she does not know, but at daylight she got up and dressed. She cannot give any definite idea as to what time had intervened. The children lay quiet, with the bedclothes around, and so far as she could see were quite undisturbed. She left the room and commenced her domestic duties.


    The other servant, sleeping in another part of the house, arose about the same time, and Hicks told her about the pistol shot. The other ridiculed the idea, and Hicks was reassured by daylight, though still nervous and shaken, and was almost ready to believe that she had been dreaming. After they had talked some time they began to feel surprised that the children slept so long, it being past the usual time of waking them. The servant, who slept in another part of the house, entered the room to wake them, but as they made no response to the calls she proceeded to shake them. A moment later she ran screaming from the room in abject terror and grief, telling the dreadful news to the other girl that the children were dead.


    Johnson, who is about 35 years old, was reared and educated in Buninyong, and was very popular with everybody. On attaining his majority he took a position on one of Mr. Chirnside's stations, only leaving it a few years ago to enter into a stock and station agency business at Ballarat with Mr. Chirnside's assistance. It is stated that about eight years ago Johnson received a sunstroke, and his life
    was almost despaired of, he has since been subject to occasional attacks of headache. His business was always looked upon as most flourishing, and he was regarded as a steady capable businessman, free from all financial pressure. Since the tragedy, however, various rumors have been floating about. Mrs. Johnson, who lies at the point of death, is the eldest daughter of Mr. R. M. Harvey, the well-known town clerk of Buninyong, and is about 30 years of age. She was regarded as a good wife and fond mother. The couple apparently lived most happilly.


    After the discovery of the death of the children the servant girls were afraid to make further investigation, and rushed to the house of the nextdoor neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Oldham, who accompanied them back to the house. They entered Mrs. Johnson's room, and found her lying on the bed, with blood streaming from a wound in the head. The blanket, counterpane, and sheets were saturated. She was conscious, and apparently whispered, "Jim did it." Mrs. Oldham sent her daughter to the police station, and she also sent for Dr. Hardy, who found signs of a struggle in the bed occupied by the twins, but the little boy and the baby had evidently died with little suffering, the baby still having the teat of a milk-bottle between its lips. No doubt the children were smothered in their sleep with a pillow. The doctor soon found that Mrs. Johnson's wound was fatal. It had been caused by a pistol fired so close that the skin was singed and powder marked. The bullet entered the head below the ear, taking an upward direction, and had lodged in the brain.


    In the meantime a constable arrived and was told that Johnson had a revolver in his possession. He had locked himself in the spare room. The constable, however, went to the room and found the door not locked. Johnson was lying in bed, shivering as if with ague, and in a half-unconscious condition. He was dressed and taken to the hospital. A number of bottles labelled poison were found, and it is concluded that he had poisoned himself.
    The stomach pump was used, but there were no traces of poison. A six-chambered revolver was found, one chamber of which was empty, but there were no signs of it having been recently exploded. The others were loaded. A magistrate was called in, but Mrs. Johnson was too low for her depositions to be taken.


    From later particulars it appears that the tragedy was premeditated, and that the children were smothered before the family retired. Johnson sent his wife and the servant away for medicine, and the other girl remembers Johnson locking the door after they had gone out. He then committed the crime. A post-mortem examination shows that the two eldest children made a severe struggle, one having her nose broken and the other the wrist fractured, and the throat showing finger marks as though they had been strangled. Johnson had apparently arranged the bedclothes to make the children appear as though they were sleeping. Mrs. Johnson's wrists and arms were torn and lacerated, seeming to indicate that he attempted to suffocate her.


    The rumors regarding Johnson and his financial position have taken a definite shape. It is now stated that he has been in difficulties for some time. Other allegations of a much more serious character have been made, and will probably come out in evidence at the inquest.

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    Crookwell Gazette (NSW : 1885 - 1954) Tue 23 Jul 1895 Page 4




    TERRIBLE MURDERS.


    The people of San Francisco have been aroused to a pitch of excitement that savours of lynch law by the committal of two murders in that city during the month under circumstances of unparalleled ferocity. Both the victims were girls in their minority, and circumstantial evidence points very directly to a young medical student named Theodore Durrant as their murderer at least he has been arrested on suspicion of having committed the crimes. One of the girls (Blanche Laurent) disappeared on Wednesday, April 3rd, and when the body was found 11 days after it was lying in the belfry of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Bartlett's street. The body was entirely nude, and decomposition had already set in, but still the evidences of the ferocious manner in which the unfortunate girl had been treated were only too marked.


    The second sacrifice to the lustful fiend and murderer was Miss Minnie Williams, who had not attained her sixteenth year. Like Miss Lamont, she had been lured to church, and her outrage and death consummated in the library on Good Friday. The body had been hacked and scored by a common table knife, and the murderer prevented the girl's outcries by forcing a portion of her underclothing down her throat. When some of the Iadies assembled in the library on Saturday to make arrangements for the decoration on
    Easter Day, they found there the body of the murdered girl lying in pools of her own blood. The murder of Miss Williams put the police on the qui vive, and they commenced a vigorous search of the building, which led to the finding of Miss Laurent's body as already stated. Further investigations will no doubt disclose some peculiar facts in regard to this affair.


    It has already been proved that many of the young men of the church which the murderer and his victims were members of, had a key to the side door of the library, and were in the habit of making the building an assignation house in a degree. The pastor of the church (the Rev. J. G. Gibson) has made a statement to the chief of the police as he also was suspected of being mixed up in Durrant's blood-stained gallantries, and the organist, George L. King, is likewise under a cloud for the same cause.


    Durrant denies roundly that he knows anything of the murders.


    Edit :


    Here's a more recent link for this one


    https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/artic...photo-11655211
    Last edited by blighted star; 08-17-2019 at 03:58 PM.

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    The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954) Fri 21 Aug 1868 Page 4


    SHOCKING ACCIDENT.

    A most shocking occurrence happened at the Leamside station of the North-Eastern Railway on Sunday, 31st May. About noon an engine and tender entered the station from York, and at that time the porter left in charge of the station said he looked about and all was clear; but on rounding the curve at the south end of the platform the driver and fireman observed four children on the line nearly at the other end of the platform. They at once put on the brakes, shut off steam, reversed the engine, and sounded both whistles loudly. The noise of the whistles appears to have been the first intimation the children had of the approach of the engine. One little fellow of four years old was seen to take to his heels and make towards the end of the platform, where he could escape from danger. He was followed by an older girl of nine years, who also appeared to have a fair prospect of escaping.


    Two little ones, however, a boy and a girl, were between the metals, and making with feeble steps towards the 3ft. space between the rails and the platform, which was too high at that place for them to mount. As the elder girl neared the end of the platform she looked back and saw the danger of the two little ones behind, and with a sudden impulse she turned back and ran to them. She got to them and huddled them in between herself and the platform, when the engine reached the group, the connecting-rod striking her and throwing the three children onto the ground. Meanwhile the little fellow who had dashed off at the first alarm had almost reached the end of that portion of the platform sloped low enough for him to step up. Before he could reach it, however, the engine overtook him, the connecting-rod struck him a fearful blow on the head and knocked him on his back.


    The engine was brought up a few feet from the bridge. It immediately returned to the spot, where a most sickening sight was presented to those who ran down from the bridge. First the body of the boy was reached. He had received a blow on his head which brought him backwardsover ? a deep gash, as if the head had been completely cut in two, showing where the rod had struck the poor child. He was quite dead, having been apparently killed on the spot. About ten yards further along the platform lay the other three children. The elder child, a little girl, had received a blow on the head similar to that of the little boy, the blood, gushing from the wound inflicted, and the brain being exposed. She had also received a wound on the arm.


    Notwithstanding the fearful injuries she had received, she still lived when taken up. On being picked up it was found that the two other children, for whom the girl so nobly risked her own life, were not only alive, but almost uninjured one having sustained a slight injury, to the foot, while the other had a small bruise on the hand. The little boy who was killed, and the elder girl, were recognised as John Wilson, aged four years, and Margaret Wilson, aged nine years, brother and sister, the children of a miner named Wllson, residing at Rainton Gate. The other, two children were stated to be Isabella Gilroy, aged five years, and Joiner Smith, aged four years. The escape of the two latter children was most remarkable, for although clear of the connecting-rod they stood in great danger
    of being struck by the engine step. This was prevented by the unfortunate girl, when she was struck, pulling the other two down with her.



    A stretcher was hastily procured, on which the body of the little boy (John Wilson) was placed, together with his sister, and they were conveyed to the home of their parents at Rainton Gate. Dr. Southern, of Rainton, and Dr. Allen, of Carville, were soon In attendance on the child Margaret Wilson, but she only survived two hours after the accident.

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    TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE. (1875, July 17). Mackay Mercury and South Kennedy Advertiser (Qld. : 1867 - 1887), p. 3.


    A Terrible Accident happened the other day to a party of three aeronauts, MM. Tissandier, Croce-Spinelli, and Sivel, who had ascended in the balloon the 'Zenith,' from La Villette. It was a beautiful day, and crowds were watching the balloon, which being of a light colour, glanced in the sun like a ball of crystal. At noon the latitude seemed great; but few people could have supposed it to be 8,000 metres or that the Zenith was rising at the extraordinary rate of 320 metres a minute. Such however, was the case, and before 1o'clock two of the aeronauts, MM, Croce Spinelli and Sivel, had died of asphyxia, caused, it is supposed, by the rarefaction of the atmosphere.


    The third, M. Tissandier, was in a very precarious state, but when the balloon fell at Ciron, he was able to send the following telegram to his brother ;?'Blanc, near Ciron. We had passed an elevation of 8,000 metres at 1 o'clock, and then we fell into a state of complete stupefaction. Sun very hot I aroused myself for a moment, and then I saw that the balloon was descending and that Croce was throwing out the aspirateur. Then I fainted again. At 3 o'clock opened my eyes at a height of 6,000 metres; Sivel and Croce were black in the face. Their mouths were full of blood. They were dead. The descent occurred at 4 o'clock at Ciron (Indre). I suppose that at the second ascent we must have reached considerable height.- "Gaston Tissandier."


    The aspirateur was an instrument weighing nearly 80 lbs., which. M. Tissandier had taken with him for making observations with carbonic acid. It is supposed that M, Croce-Spinelli wished to throw out ballast, and in the confused state of his senses threw out the aspirateur instead. M. Gaston Tissanndier, the survivor of that horrible catastrophe, has written a detailed account of the occurrence, from which it appears that he was insensible for about two hours. He recovered consciousness for a short time, and was able to make an entry in his register, but had scarcely done so when he again fainted. In about an hour, he opened his eyes and gradually recovered his senses.


    The balloon then was decending with frightful rapidity. He crawled on his knees to his two companions, and called out their names, but they made no sign. He tried to raise them but in vain ? they were already dead. Soon afterwards the balloon neared the earth. M. Tissandier succeeded in throwing out the anchor just at the right time; but the shock on touching the ground was terrible. The balloon was hurried along by the wind and it seemed as though the dead bodies would be jerked out of the car. Ultimately M. Tissandier got out, but in an exhausted state. He is now reported to have entirely recovered, but to be in great grief at the death of his unfortunate companions. M. Croce-Spinelli was an engineer, aged 30; M. Sivel, a naval officer, and a few years older. Both the deceased aeronauts had made successful ascents before, as well as M. Tissandier, who was formerly editor of the scientific journal Nature.


    The Aeronautical Society of Paris has opened a subscription for the benefit of the families of the deceased. M, Sivel has left a widow and a little girl, both entirely dependent on him. M. Spinelli was not married, but he was the sole support of his parents. The scientific world will, doubtless, respond liberally to this appeal, for MM. Spinelli and Sivell lost their lives, not in gratifying foolhardy curiosity, but inendeavouring to penetrate the secrets of the atmosphere for the benefit of science. Poor Sivel seemed to have had a presentiment of his fate, for the last words he said as the '"Zenith" started were, "He of us three will be fortunate who returns." Less than five hours afterwards only one did return.

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    Newspapers: Browse Avoca Mail (Vic. : 1863 - 1900; 1915 - 1918) Tue 10 Feb 1880 Page 3

    SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

    From the Herald of Monday evening.)


    An occurrence of an unparalleled nature took place at Emerald Hill this morning. About a quarter past six the Emerald Hill police were informed that a woman, named M'Mahon, had killed her child, an infant about eight months old. On proceeding to 99 Raglan-street, the place, where the occurrence happened, it was found that the child was quite dead, its head having been almost entirely severed from the body. The mother was at once taken into custody.


    On inquiries being made it was learned that the name of the child was Edmund Collingwood-M'Mahon, and that the mother, Mary Cordelia M'Mahon, was the wife of Joseph M'Mahon, a grocer residing at 46 Smith street, Collingwood. Years ago she was afflicted with religious mania, and owing to her conduct she was twice confined in the Yarra Bend. The second time she was discharged was about six years ago. After, that she was married to her present husband, and up to a recent date did not exhibit any symptoms of mania. Lately, however, her conduct had been extremely erratic, and she visited several churches, and contradicted the ministers in the midst of their sermons. The Baptist Church, Albert street, and the Congregational Church in Collingwood, were amongst those visited.


    Yesterday, together with her husband and two children (the deceased and another), she visited the house of a Mrs Tawton, 99 Raglan street, who is stepmother to the prisoner. As the prisoner was in ill health her stepmother asked her and her two children to remain in Emerald Hill for a week or two which she agreed to do. Last night the prisoner slept with her stepmother, and nothing unusual was heard during the night, but between five and six this morning the prisoner awoke her stepbrother, who was sleeping in an adjoining room, and told him that baby was gone to God. The stepbrother, alarmed, got up and went to the yard, where he found the baby lying in a pool of blood. The child had been laid on a plank on its left side, and the maniac then took an axe and dealt it three blows on the neck.


    No one witnessed the deed, but the marks on the neck showed that three blows had been inflicted. Two of the blows had not been delivered with much force, but the third blow had severed the neck. The wound was a dreadful one, the neck being laid open in one deep and wide gash. The axe had struck the child just under the jaw, and cut through the windpipe and vetebra of the neck in an oblique manner. Of the other blows one was on the neck near to the shoulder then the fatal wound and the other was under the chin.

    When arrested the unfortunate woman presented a totally unconcious and unconcerned appearance, and remarked while in the cab which conveyed her to the
    watchhouse that she was frightened that they were going to put her away, and that she did not wish to leave the child to the mercies of the world. She also said that Abraham had been commanded to kill his child, and that she had received a similar order. When brought before the bench she turned to some of the spectators and admonished them to return to God.


    The bench remanded her till an inquest had first been held. M'Mahon is a native of Plymouth and a member of the Wesleyan denomination, and is 32 years of age. An inquest will be held on the remains of the
    child at noon to-morrow.

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    SHOCKING DOMESTIC TRAGEDY IN SYDNEY (1948, June 25). Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill, NSW : 1908; 1941 - 1954), p. 1.


    Mother And Daughter Dead And Second Child Critical



    Sydney, June 24. ? A 37-year-old mother attacked Her two daughters with a tomahawk late today, killing one before taking her own life with rat poison at their home in Redmyre Street, Burwood. They are Mrs. Phyllis Patterson and her six year-old daughter Carolyn. Barbara Genevieve Patterson, aged 13, is in hospital suffering from a fractured skull. She is not expected to live.


    The tragedy was discovered by the children's father, John Langham Patterson, 40, company secretary, on his return home from work tonight. A third daughter, Stephanie, aged nine, has been convalescing at Parramatta for a few weeks. Patterson found his wife and eldest daughter lying in a pool of blood in the dining room. His daughter bore shocking injuries to the head. Mrs. Patterson's mouth and face were smeared wlth rat poison. Two ambulances rushed the children to Western Suburbs Hospital and then to the Children's Hospital.


    During the trip, ambulance officers administered oxygen. Carolyn died shortly after being admitted. Late tonight Barbara's condition was still critical.


    Neighbors said that they had last seen Mrs. Patterson at 3.30 this afternoon.

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    The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946) Sat 15 Jul 1876 Page 14 COUNTRY NEWS.

    SHOCKING ACCIDENT.


    The dead body of a man, shockingly mutilated, was found a short distance from the east end of the south platform at the Malmsbury Railway Station, on Monday night, about 10 'clock. His skull was smashed in and the brains scattered about, and the bones of the left arm were broken in several places. A ticket for Castlemaine was found in the man's waist coat and the office stamp on this showed that it had been issued for the half-past 6 mixed train from Melbourne.


    The position of the body and the surrounding circumstances, the Kyneton Guardian says "told the tale of the melancholy accident with sufficient plainness. The left hand trousers pocket was turned out and some silver was found lying about the line. After procuring his ticket the unfortunate man had evidently gone on to the line for the purpose of crossing to the opposite side platform, and proceeding by the train for which he had taken his ticket. Standing upon or close to the inner rail of the upper line with his left hand in his pocket he was probably watching for the train from Melbourne, when the goods train from Sandhurst approached unnoticed, striking him on the left arm, and pitched him with such violence against the fence of the shunting line as to cut through a heavy felt hat
    and fracture the skull to such an extent that death must have been instantaneous."


    The Bendigo Advertiser mentions that the deceased's name was George Pope, and that he was a miner who had obtained work at the Ironstone-hill Company's mine.

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    Truth (Perth, WA : 1903 - 1931) Sat 30 Aug 1924 Page 5


    A Ghastly Crime.

    Boy Mutilated and Murdered.

    Frantic Mother's Awful Discovery,

    HORROR STALKS ON HORROR'S HEELS.

    FROM OUR MELBOURNE REPRESENTATIVE.


    Close following on the heels of the awful crime which robbed the innocent Irene Tuckerman of life, and on the assault atempted on the other little Caulfield girl, 19 days later, came the stark horror of a further frightful outrage last Sunday, when the foully mutilated body of Archie Mouat, of Spring Value, was found, stripped and bruised, in the water of the Dandenong Creek.

    Day by day, the menace which hangs over Melbourne and its suburbs is growing, The dark shadow of a Sartyr-like death apparently hovers over the children of the southern State, and it seems that there is no knowing in what locality its darkness may next fall.


    First Irene Tuckerman, a case analogous to the notorious Gun Alley case in Melbourne for which that sex pervert Colin Floss was judged responsible and ultimately hanged. Then a similar, but unsuccessful attack on another Caulfleid girl, and now, Archie Mouatt, bruised and mutilated in a manner which leaves no doubt as to the mania which possessed, his slayer.


    THE LAST RAMBLE

    Early on Saturday afternoon the little boy, with his 14 year old brother, left their home at Buckingham-place, Springfield, for a customary ramble in the bush. Springfield is a little place about 15 miles from Melbourne and about seven miles from Caulfield, on
    the Dandenong electric line. It is a place of quiet and rest, for its function is to mark and guard the great necropolis of Melbourne. Around it range the natural gum forests of Victoria and Victorian people with a
    full appreciation of their beauty, have the custom of using gum leaves, more than any other foliage, for the decoration of their homes. It had long been the custom of Ivan and Archie Mouatt to walk along the
    Dandenong-road and pick leaves where they were freshest for their widowed mother and last Saturday afternoon they set forth as usual. This afternoon however, for some strange reason, or in answer to some unknown impulse, Ivan told his brother they would go to the cemertary and pick the leaves.

    WAS IT PRESENTIMENT OF ILL?

    It may have been just a childish repugnance to the idea of death and ghostly thoughts, which the necropolis presented but little Archie objected, and expressd a wish to go along the Dandenong-road as was the usual custom. Who is to say that some subconcious presentiment was not at work in his mind, voicing a hardly understood warning of the evil fate even then hovering over him, and waiting to strike? Children have such instinctive presentiments. What made the elder boy choose the cemetery on this afternoon and insist upon his choice will never be known. Chance? Or some mystic propulsion of a foul fate? But whatever it may have been, the shadow
    of Melbourne's satyr-like spirit of death was already settled upon the younger boy. Happily enough except for the wistful reluctance of the younger boy, they made their way through the railway gates along the Dandenong-road till they reached the cemetery. They had not thought to tell their mother where they were going, as their ramblings were a matter of course. But casually they told their 11-year-old sister of their intentions as they left home, Ivan swinging his tomahawk and Archie restlessly moving on ahead.

    RESTED, AND DOOM CAME.

    Near the cemetery, where the overhead railway bridge crosses the Dandenong-road Archie said to his brother, "I feel--tired; I'll wait here till you get the leaves and come back" Ivan tried to persuade him to go oh, but fate had the younger boy already in its web.

    A SINISTER CAR AGAIN.

    Even as they spoke, it slid out of the distance?a long, grey, silent-running car?and stood beside them. In his statement to the police, Ivan Mouatt has described it as a grey double seated car, with disc wheels. He did not notice the number. Seated in it was a man alone, middle-aged, and wearing a moustache. He was above five feet nine in height; and wore a light grey felt hat, with a black band. Almost as the car stopped he stepped out and faced them, saying, "Good-day, lads." "The boys replied "Good-day," and Ivan moved on towards the cemetary, a few short hundred yards away.

    WHO WAS THE STRANGER?

    He did not know it, but he was leaving his younger brother in the presence of a sinister death, a nine a half year old kiddie, to face all its stark horror and paralysing terror ?alone. Looking back after he had gone about 100 yards, he saw, Archie where he had
    left him- sitting on a stone in conversation with the strange man. It was the last time he saw him alive. While he gathered the leaves that were to deck a house, which up to that time, had been marred only
    by the sad but proud memories of a father who died in battle, such a horror was decending on it, as not
    all the years will wipe out.

    THE LITTLE CHAP DISAPPEARS

    He was back within ten minutes at the spot where he had left his brother talking to the stranger. In that short space of time fate had taken its way and the curtain of death had sescended. The younger boy, the man, and the car were gone. In what direction, how
    far, it did not enter Ivan's head to surmise. He did not then connect his brother's dissappearance with the man in the car. He thought Archie had probably gone home and set off to follow him, only to find that his supposition was not correct. Even then he thought nothing amiss for it was on the cards that Archie had
    wandered along Dandenong-road as he had expressed a wish to do, and it was not till some hours later that he became sufficiently alarmed to tell his
    mother. She thought that perhaps the boy had gone to visit some relatives, and not until she inquired and found that this was not so did she find the boy's
    absence had serious aspects. She reported the boys disappearance to the Spring Vale police, who communicated with the Dandenong Police.

    LOOKING FOR THE MISSING ONE

    And so the search began. Far into the night, police and civilians beat the bush in a vain endeavour to locate the missing boy. They made a thorough search of the whole district but were finally beaten by the darkness and had to give up. The mother now thoroughly distracted, was among the first to recommence the search next morning. All through the day she searched, calling, calling. But Archie's ears were deaf to all earthly calls and the death which enshrouded him made his little heart cold and unresponsive to even a mother's despairing cries.

    MOTHER'S AWFUL DISCOVERY

    A little after two o'clock on Sunday afternoon she came upon him, stripped and stark, lying dead in the
    water of the Dandenong Creek, near Sandown Racecourse. Frantically she called round her other of the Searchers and they laid the little body on the bank of the creek. Then it was that, added horror was heaped upon, the grief of the mother, for it was found the boy had been vilely mutilated, and his legs were
    bruised and blackened. Smirching the little white face was a bruise which may have been caused by a man's boot. Nowhere could be found the missing clothes, and it is possible that the fiend who did the foul thing, if it was the man in the car, has taken them and destroyed them miles away from the scene by the creek
    .
    WHERE DID IT HAPPEN

    That the body was placed where it was was found, is evident from the fact that there is insufficient water in the creek to have floated it from any other spot. Detectives Ashton and Lambell were sent from Melbourne to make investigations and it is not unlikely that if the Satyr who did. this thing is discovered, the person who so foully dealt
    with Irene Tuckerman will be in their hands. Several men in the neighbourhood have been questioned concerning the occurrence by the police, but so far as
    can be seen without further result than that derived from questioning the dozen or so citizens who were questioned about the Caulfield affair.

    THE SHADOW OF FEAR

    All that can be said at present is that the chain of three crimes looks like the work of some sexually perverted maniac who has suddenly broken out in an orgy of lustful violence. People along the Dandenong line and indeed in all Victoria, have a perpetual shadow hanging over their homes while such a devil is at large and the efforts of every civilian and police officer should be strained to the utmost to apprehend him.





    Here's a few more articles


    This is more accurate than the first one

    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4159267


    & the twist ...


    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3367602


    Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT : 1873 - 1927) Fri 29 Aug 1924 Page 6

    Boy Murderer

    Adelaide, Thursday

    A sensational development has occurred in the Springvale murder mystery. Ivan Mouat, aged 11,
    confessed to the murder of his nine year old brother Archie and the subsequent mutilation of the body.
    He has been charged with murder. The nude and mutilated body of the murdered boy was found in a
    creek at the rear of Sandown Park racecourse. The story told the police by Ivan Mouat, was to the effect that his brother went to bathe in the creek and he hit him on the head with a stick. When he rose again he struck him again. The mutilations were caused with a table knife which he brought from home to cut gum leaves. He waded into the water and brought the body to the bank.

    After making the wounds he pushed the body back into the water. He said he had no grudge against his brother and they did not quarrel. He was at the pictures on Friday night and a boy stuck a pin in him. He suffered so much agony since that he was not responsible for what he did. He was too frightened to tell his mother.
    Last edited by blighted star; 08-18-2019 at 12:23 AM.

  25. #50
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    I don't usually do a deep dive on these but I did this time


    Wish it wasn't so long ago because it's impossible to work out the truth now. The kid uses the classic "a random "dark-skinned man" did it", but at the same time I can't help but wonder if a kid born in the 1900s would've had the knowledge to fabricate a "sadistic paedophile with chloroform" scenario. There were no juvenile interrogation protections in those days & no-one knew about false confessions yet.

    After his brother was found murdered Ivan was taken away by detectives & interrogated in isolated buildings (including Russell St police station & later a railway station office "because it was quieter"). He wasn't ever allowed to go back to his family, the cops put him in a reformatory for neglected children.


    After a few days of this treatment he gave a confession saying that while his brother was swimming in a creek, he beat him over the head with a stick, knocking him unconscious & causing him to drown - but one of the newspapers makes a point of saying his brother had no injuries to his head & a medical officer said his brother had been involved in a struggle causing him to inhale mud.

    Ivan's statement went on to say he pulled his brother's body out of the creek & "mutilated" him, then put his body back in the creek. "Mutilated" sounds more like police language than barely educated kid language.

    I kind of feel like this boy got verballed. NSW & VIC police were notorious for it back then


    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/195382914

    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/137637660

    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4155778


    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16181068

    Just 2 months after his brother's murder police had it all neatly wrapped up.

    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118589806

    Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld. : 1909 - 1954) Thu 16 Oct 1924 Page 5

    IVAN MOUATT DECLARED INSANE.

    MELBOURNE, October 15.

    The Crown Prosecutor, to-day, informed Mr. Justice Cussen that there would be no presentement filed, this month against Ivan Mouatt, aged 14, committed for trial on a charge of the murder of his brother, Archibald Mouatt, aged 9. Ivan Mouatt has been declared insane, and has been placed in a mental hospitaL

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