HORRIBLE AFFAIR IN BALI MORE.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 136, 16 June 1870, Page 2

HORRIBLE AFFAIR IN BALI MORE.

A WOMAN MURDERS HER FOUR

CHILDREN AND HER OWN MOTHER. Abottt 4 o'clock last Thursday afternoon, Mrs Catherine Marsh, -who, with her four children, lived with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dwyer, at No. 99, Canal-street, a few doors from Belair Market, brutally murdered her children, and then assaulted her mother. Mrs. Dwyer, the mother of Mrs. Marsh, in her antemortem examination, stated that at about 4 o'clock that afternoon herself and her daughter, Catherine Marsh, and three children of the latter, were in the house. Mrs. Marsh asked her if she had ten cents, and on her answering " No," she (Mrs. Marsh) said she had ten cents. She then put on her bonnet and left the house. She went a few doors and borrowed a butcher's knife. She then proceeded to District School No. 13, and calling out her son James, aged 8 years, cut his throat from ear to ear, nearly Severing his head from his body. A little boy named Burnett came out of school with James and witnessed the murder. Mrs. Marsh also attempted to murder the boy Burnett, but he ran and escaped. She then returned to her home and went in the back yard, where another son, William, aged 7 years, was swinging his little sister, Mary Jane, aged 4 years, being at play near by. Shs instantly seized William, and cut his throat, causing instant death, and immediately grasped her little girl, and applying her weapon, cut off her head. She then went into the house and cut the throat of her youngest child, Q-eorge, aged 2 years and five months. The head was nearly severed from the body. She next assaulted her mother, aged about 54, and Tery feeble, cutting her throat so terribly that she soon died. Mrs. Marsh, the murderess, is aged about 27, was born in the County Kerry, Ireland, and has been in the United States about 20 years. She was married some nine years ago in this city to William Marsh, a barber, who left her about 18 months since to find employment elsewhere. He is now said to be in New York City. The reputation and character of Mrs. Marsh is said to have been very good. She was undoubtedly temporarily insane when committing the murders. The faces of the murdered children, as they lie side by side, are as placid and calm as if they were composed in sleep. They were dressed tteatly in the same clothes they wore when';telJed. At 9 o'clock on Thursday night, the mother, who is confined at the Eastern Police Station, was conscious of her terrible deeds.

Mrs. Marsh, the woman who.cut the throats of her four children, in v last Thursday, seems now to be;|ljgnorant of her terrible acts. She sits quietflin Her prison cell, imagining it a room i|f» hospital. A. reporter of T/ie Baltimore Afimjican, describing a visit to her, says: G«e&t caution is used in speaking toiler; the realities of her situation may not be brought to her mind at once, as the effect would certainly be to make a maniac of her. When the slight cuts upon her hand, made by the knife which she used, were spoken of, she looked at them, and remarked that she did not know how : they came there, but they troubled her. She added: " When I was sick before, mother took care of me 5 but now the is too old; she can't get up and down stairs, and they had to bring me to the hospital." A few moments afterwards she said, suddenly: " Father has been to see me; I don't care so much about the others, but I want to see my baby." In answer to questions of her past life, she spoke kindly of her husband and father. She complained of a pain in the back of her head, and said that she had had it ever since she came to the hospital (jail). The conversation on her part was carried on in a low but perfectly distinct • and even voice, much in the way that any person suffering from low sprits might speak; The impression produced was that she had an undefined idea of being in trouble which she does not entirely comprehend or understand. Although perfectly sane and reasonable upon all other points, remembering persons and names connected with her fife, the fact cannot be doubted that she retains not the faintest remembrance of the horrible scene of Thursday afternoon and her part in it. When speaking of former efforts to separate her children from her and place them in an orphan asylum, her voice became quickened, and had an earnest pathetic ring, when she said: "Oh, Sir; I love my children." It is quite probable that she comnntted the murders under the hallucination that her house was attacked by burglars ; she says—l did shoot a burglar. I have good reason to believe lie was a white man : possibly a light-colored negro. I believe a man was seen lying dead in the bushes. He was hurried out of sight by some confederate early in the morning. I believe he belonged to a gang which that shot was the means of hurrying out of town; whether black or white I know not; but I know that I have no compunction for his death."— New York Herald,,