The Windsor Tragedy

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 114, 24 March 1892, Page 2

The Windsor Tragedy

The Melbourne Ar/?u« says :— " Further examination of the body by Dr Mullen and Dr Moliison has led them to the belief that the skull was first frac lured by blows frem some heavy blunt instrument, and that then, almost as life was extinct, the throat war cut. This of course, is mere supposition, but it is reasonable, and in face of the failure to find any traces of blood about the house, seems most probable. It would, seem therefore, that after the two had retired to sleep— they had no bed and must therefore have improvised a ' shakedown ' upon the floor with a quantity of cloth* ing — the skull of the woman was broken in, and to ensure death beyond all doubt the throat was cut. The fractures to the skull would not necessarily cause much, splashing of blood, certainly not beyond the clothes upon which the woman lay, neither would the catting of the throat if it were not done until life was nearly gone. If she was not killed in her sleep then she must have been drugged, and after her death must have been stripped of her clothing. The murderer having accomplished her death, tied her arms to her'breast. her thighs to her body, and her ankles to her thighs, with a silken cord, and having thus compressed her into the smallest possible space, buried her in the fireplace.

I.PBH PBKSS ASSOCIATION.] Lojsdon, March 21. Deeming and Emily (Miss Mather) stayed at Hastings in October, where he was in the habit of flaunting a hundred guinea chronometer. Crowds of sight-seers are still at Bain* hill. On September 14th Deeming wrote to the father of his first wife, stating that he would bring his wife to see him shortly, and urged Mr James to send him his gold watch to get it repaired. This, however, Mr James fortunately for himself, did not do. Deeming left church in the middle of the service on Sunday, after he had murdered his wife and children. While posing as Lawson, an Australian millionaire, he was the guest of several merchants in West Hartlepool for some weeks. Bloodstained bedding nnd shirts hare been discorered in an hotel at Eainhill, i» here they are supposed to have been left by the murderer. The Mathers identify articles found m the possession of Williams when arrested as answering to the description of some their daughter's husband took away with him. March 22. A spado bearing marks of being used in cement work and with, blood stains on it, has been found among Deemmg's effects at Bainhill. The soil taken from the graye had been ÜBed to raise the pantry floor on a level with, the passage in the house, after which the boards were nailed down. A barmaid engaged at the (Jommeroial Hotel at the time the murders are alleged to have been committed, states Deeming was usually abstemious, but indulged in liquor on the night succeeding the murder, giving as a pretext that he was cold. Deeming purchased a considerable quantity of scent shortly before the murder of his wife and four children. A neighbour who called in at Denham Villa, found Deeming on his knees cementing the floor and quietly smoking a cigar, with a glass of port wine beside him. The Liverpool Courier asserts that the details published regarding the criminal Deeming do not disclose his location at the time the Jack the Eipper outrages were being perpetrated, March 23. Deeming has been proved to have a continuous record of crime in England, Canada, and Antwerp. The press con» tains columns about him every day, Melboubne, March 23. t The body of the murdered womap has been interred in the Melbourne general cemetery. The coffin plate has placed on it the name " Emily Williams," and a lady has obtained permission to send a wreath of flowers to mark the grave. It turns out to have been a very simple matter. Williams, after the murder at Windsor, was in Spdney courting Miss HoundsviHe, as has been published already. Having won her consent to marry him, he went off to Western Australia, aDd kept up a correspondence with her, by telegraph as well as by post. Someone who had recognised him, before he went, as he was speaking to the lady, told the police, and the police, finding the lady's relatives, got from them the man's address. They had nothing to do but send straight to the spot, wnich they did with the result we already know. Sydney, March 23. The inquest on the body of Emily Mather, victim of the Windsor tragedy, has been adjourned for a fortnight. Pbeth, March 23. Swanson (Deeming) appears to be breaking down. He has now been conclusively identified as Deeming (alias Williams). A sinking deficiency occurred in the returns of the gold mine Southern Cross during Swanson's engagement there. Swanson, when arrested, had just re' ceived a paper containing a report of the discovery of the Windsor murder.