WOOLOOMOOLOO TRAGEDY.

Evening Star, Issue 3081, 3 January 1873, Page 3

WOOLOOMOOLOO TRAGEDY.

The following particulars, concerning the shocking murder which took place at Wooloomooloo are from the Sydney Empire : The startling intelligence of a brutal murder having been perpetrated at Wooloomonloo created great consternation in the neighborhood. The unfortunate victim in this horrible affair is the wife of Mr John Ward, a butcher, residing at 251 Crown street ; and the alleged murderer is a butcher by trade, who has, during the last three months, been lodging with Mr Ward. The facts of this terrible affair may be thus briefly summarised. It appears that the husband of the deceased keeps a butcher’s shop at the c rncr of Crown and Stanley streets. Shortly after nine o’clock on Wednesday evening, being tired, Mr Ward went to his bed, in an upstairs apartment,^leaving his wife and a man named William M'Crow downstairs. Upon Ward undressing, ho threw his trousers downstairs for his wife to mend. About ten minutes elapsed, when ho was startled by M'Crow calling upstairs, “Jack, I have cut your wife’s throat.” According to Ward’s version of the affair, he never heard up to this time any conversation between his wife and M'Crow. Immediately on hearing M'Crow’s cry, he rushed down stairs, and saw M'Crow standing against the safe at the foot of the stairs in the front room, with blood profusely flowing from bis throat. Not perceiving his wife in the room, he went into the yard in search of her. Not findmg her there, ho hastened to the adjoining room, f eing Stanley street. lie searched about the room till he came to M‘Crow’s bed, which his wife, apparently, had been in the act of making on the floor, when the terrible deed was effected. He th re saw hj s wife lying sideways on the bed, surrounded by a pool of blood. Actuated by a belief that his wife had been murdered, he rushed into the street, crying aloud for help, as his wife had had her throat cut. Fortuna'ely, Dr M'Kellar happened to be passing at the time, when Ward informed him of what had occurred. Meanwhile M ‘Crow, during War I’s absence, had stumbled against the safe, knocking the light down. Dr M'Kellar, thinking that there was only a row in the house at first hesitated to go inside, but ultimately he was induced to do so, as soon as alight was procured. Upon entering, he found Ward’s wife lying on her back, and proceeded to examine her. He found her in the last agonies of death, with her throat cut from ear to ear. She was not quite dead, but the blood had almost coar.cd spurting from her neck. Only a few minuses had elapsed from the time she was examined to the time she died. Dr Cecil Bccke, who had been sent for, then came into the room with two or three others. Search was then made for the perpetrator of the murder in the adjoining room, and he was discovered lying on the floor, weltering in his own blood. M'Crow was perfectly sensible, and when asked in the presence of Dr Bccke, senior-constable Doyle, and a neighbor named Mason, “Who cut Mrs Ward’s throat, lying in the other room?” He answered quite distinctly, “I did.” A gain he was asked, “ Who cut your throat?” He replied, “ I did it myself.” On being interrogated “ Why ?” he rejoined, “ Because I was jealous of her with a man living in the lane.” On being examined, he was found to be bleeding from two or three wounds in the neck, which the doclors present sewed up. It was manifest that he had, after committing the murder, stabbed himself in a scientific manner- -first on one side of his neck and then on the other side, penetrating the wind-pipe. Within twenty minutes of his discovery M'Crow was, on the recommendation of Dr. M'Kellar, removed by the police to the infirmary, where he now lies in a very precarious condition. The deceased Mrs Ward presented a most sickening spectacle, being covered with blood. Besides the frightful gash in her throat, which reached the vertebras of the back of her neck, there were three mortal wounds in her breast, two above the collar bone, and one below. The instrument with which the fearful deed was committed was a shorthandled butchers’ knife, generally used in catting up meat. It was represented that M'Crow was not, at the time 0? the sad occurrence under the influence of liquor, being an abstemious man. Mr Ward and his deceased wife are said to be very respectable, quiet people, and have five children, four of whom were asleep in the upstairs bedroom when the melancholy event took place.

“The man M‘Crow is about 25 years of ago, and his height is about oft. 10in. It appears that for the last two years M‘Crow has been engaged off and on in the butcher’s shop of Mr Thomas Hart, of Francis street, but being of a very surly and irritable disposition, Mr Hart’s customers had occasion frequently to complain of his conduct, consequently ha left that employment, but subsequently was re-engaged. Seme three months ago, on leaving Mr Hart’s employ, he induced Mr Ward to permit him to board and lodge in his house until he got employment. He was soon afterwards engaged by Messrs Dunrich Brothers, butchers of George street, opposite the markets, where he rnnained about six weeks only, owing to the complaints of the customers, that he was insolent to them. He then went again to Ward’s to live, where he boarded and lodged till he perpetrated the awful deed last night. Whilst at Ward’s he performed a few weeks’ work for Mr Hart, According to the statements of h ; s acquaintances, he was amm of low and immoral habits. Mrs Ward, his unfortunate victim, was 34 years of age, and was the mother of live children, the eldest being a boy 12 years old. At the time the diabolical act was committed, four of the children were asleep upstairs with their father, and on the discovery of the deed their cries were heart-rending to hear. The eldest 1 oy is said to be rather clever for his age, and at the time his father called for help, he was next door receiving a music lesson.”