Shocking Murder in Melbourne.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 149, 17 September 1872, Page 7

Shocking Murder in Melbourne.

At about 5 o’clock on Tuesday morning, August 20, in a house in Punch’s-lane, off Little Bourke-street east, a woman named Margaret O’Donoghue, aged 23 years, killed another woman named Mary O’Rourke, alias Hewston, under circumstances which, as far as can be ascertained, seem to leave no doubt that the deed was a wilful and brutal murder. The crime was not discovered till about midnight on Tuesday, when O’Donoghue met a constable in the street, and told him that she had committed a murder. The officer, C instable E. Flannagan, was proceeding down Bourke-street a few minutes before midnight, and when near the Garrick’s Head Hotel, between Russell and Stepben-streets, was met by the woman, who said, “ Constable, I’ve murdered a woman.” She took him to a two-storey brick house in Punch’s-lane, off Little Bourke-street, and between Stephen and Spring-streets. She took a key from her pocket, opened the front door, struck a match, lit a candle, and took the constable into a room at the back, and showed him the corpse of the woman 0 Rourke, which was lying on the left side, stretched out, and covered with clothes. A man’s shirt was wrapped round the head and mouth of the body, but the articles were covered with blood. There was blood on the floor, and there were marks of blood having been splashed upon the walls. The dead woman was dressed, but her clothes barely covered the knees, and she had no Loots on. The constable found that her head had been smashed in several places, and the woman O’Donoghue said that she had smashed her head with an axe. Flannagan found in a cupboard under the stairs in the front room an old tomahawk, the blade of the old English make, and the handle straight and about a foot and a half in length. It had been washed, but there was a red stain of blood on the butt of the handle which projected through the eye of the blade, and there was human hair, long, and like that of a woman, adhering to the blade, though efforts had evidently been made to remove signs of violence by washing. Flannagan noticed that O’Donoghue was slightly under the influence of drink and very much excited. She made a statement to the constable to the effect that on Monday at about midnight she went home with a bottle of rum and asked O’Rourke to have a drink, that O’Rourke said she would not drink with a (adjective) and that she (0 Donoghue) then called down a young wroman named Ann Crozier, wdio was in the room upstairs ; that this woman had some rum and returned up-stairs to bed, and that she remained below' drinking. The two were below', and then O’Rourke began to abuse her, calling her filthy names. O’Donoghue remained in the house all day till 8 o’clock in the evening, when, as she said, “she could.stand it no longer,” and she went to Collingwood. She came back between 9 and 10 o’clock, with a woman who lived in Collingwood. This woman took a chemise and a dish from the house, and left with Crozier and O’Dunoghue. All three went to Collingj "’ood, and O’Donoghue came away alone, Crozier deciding to stay there, as she felt ill. Crozier asked O’Donoghue to leave her the key of the house, in order that when she rej turned to Melbourne she might let herself in, jbut O’Donoghue said, “No, I’m if I j shall, and took the key wuth her.” She pro- ! bably then went to the house where the mur- | dered woman lay, and being afraid to remain i in the dark, went into the street, where she met the constable, and, acting on a sudden impulse, told him what she had done. After she had been locked up, the other woman, Crozier, w r as searched for and found. Her statement tallied with that o* O’Donoghne, though she knew nothing of the actual murO’Donoghue is 23 years of age, a native of County Cork, Ireland, and came out about three years ago in the ship Lightning. The deceased was 32 years old, and a native of Ireland also.