A RECORD OF CRIME.

Evening Star, Issue 3262, 4 August 1873, Page 3

A RECORD OF CRIME.

The Victorian papers by the Alhambra contain about as terrible a record of crime as it is possible to conceive. Passing over some of the minor cases, we notice in one issue of the Australasian three shocking cases. The first of these is that of a young woman named Bridget M ‘Cartney, aged 26 years, who was at service at Eaglehawk, One morning a lad in the employ of a firm whose premises adjoined those in which the girl lived, was horrified to find in a pig’s pen a human skull, attached to which was the backbone. Both of these were perfect, and they were, apparently, the remaining fragments of the body of an infant which had been devoured by the swine. There were no traces of any other human bones. The face was still clean and untouched by the pigs, but they had not finished their meal when the discovery was made, otherwise they might have consumed the whole of the body, bones and all, and thus annihilated all traces of the foul deed. The girl was arrested, and facts have subsequently come to light which justify the presumption that the child found mangled in the pigstye belonged to her, and that she had given birth to it during the night, and afterwards placed it with the pigs, in order, if possible, to get it out of the way. This is the second illegitimate child the same girl has had; she had one three years ago, which is still living. The Bendigo Independent : —“ M‘Garthy admitted having placed the body where the remains were subsequently found, and stated that the child when born did not make any noise, and consequently she had taken that mode of disposing of it. She ascribes her shame to a publican at Sailor’s Gully, with whom she had been living after the death of his wife ; and it was stated that he was willing to marry her, but that she had been the dissenting party.” The Mount Beech worth outrage is the second case. On July 4th a negro, named James Wallace, covering himself with two bags, one of which he placed over his body to his waist, and the other over his head and hands, went to the hut of a herdsman named Cook, and, threatening to kill the latter’s wife or her little daughter, who were the sole inmates of the place, if they made the slightest noise, ravished the woman, who had only been confined three weeks before. Wallace, who was a tickat-of-leave man, told the arresting detective that the Government wronged him at Pentridge. by not giving him his liberty when it was due, and that wus the reason he took to the roads for revenge. He was found guilty of the outrage, and has been sentenced to death. The Hotham murder is the third case, A woman named Shannon gave poison to her four children, and then cut her own throat. It appeared that the woman had contemplated the crime of killing the four children as well as herself, and had bought the laudanum from two chemists for the expresson rpose of carrying out her design It should here be stated, as giving a key to th* woman’s motive, that her husband (John Shannon), a laborer, had been parted from i her many years» and was uj) the country

somewhere between Wangaratta and Benalla; that her eldest child, John, th“ oy of ten, was her legitimate son, out that the other three children-—Wil-iam, aged five years, Elizabeth, _ aged ,hree years, and Ruth, aged sixteen months —were her illegitimate children by me Wm. Henry Hopkins, a widower with a family, who had cohabited with her for several years past; and, further, that she was within about two months of being confined of another child. Hopkins was formerly a grocer, and provided Mrs Shannon with the means of setting up a grocery. On Saturday, the 20tb, Mrs Shannon informed her customers that she would not open the shop on Sunday morning as she usually did, as she intended to take the children out for the day. On Saturday night, according to the eldest boy, John, she gave him some laudanum, telling him that it would do him good, but it only made him feel sick. She kept him in bed all Sunday, and would not ave him any food, but gave him some more laudanum. She must have overdosed him, however, as he became very sick and vomited, throwing up all the poison, and thus unconsciously saving his life. She gave all the other children a spoonful, and they went to bed very early, but he knew nothing of the death of the infant or of the mother cutting her own throat till he was awakened in the morning, the laudanum probably having had the effect of inducing a very sound sleep. She gave the children silver to make them take the poison, giving the boy John 2s. In the boy’s pockets next morning a sum of about L 3 9s was found. Jbe woman, apparently having no idea of the effect of a small quantity of the poison, finding that the first dose, which was too large, did not cause death, thought it was necessary i o increase the quantity in order to effect her horrible intention, and thus unwittingly prevented the death of all the children except the baby, whose strength probably, was not sufficient to enable it to throw the poison off its stomach. The children Willie and Elizabeth suffered considerably from the effects of the laudanum, and were very drowsy when the tragedy was discovered, and it was thought that one would die. They were therefore taken to the hospital, where, however, they were pronounced out of danger, and the father Hopkins then took them home. She gave to the baby a teaspoonful of laudanum —enough to kill a score of infants. The hospital doctors considered sKe was mad. SllG was about thirty-five years of age, and Hopkins is considerably older. The moat tenable supposition as to the woman’s motive is that she had heard her husband was about to return, and that this vividly recalled to her mind the fact that she had been living so long in adultery with Hopkins, that the thought had preyed upon her mind till it as suraed a morbid form, which it was the more likely to do on account of her being far gone in pregnancy ; and that in a fit of temporary insanity she resolved to destroy herself and the offspring of the adulterous intimacy.