A HORRIBLE MURDER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1493, 29 June 1905, Page 2

A HORRIBLE MURDER.

MAN BATTERS HIS WIFE TO

DEATH,

FEROCIOUS ATTACK.

Per -Press Association. Invercargill, lust night. I Daniel Swann, a laborer, attacked his 1 wifo to-night in her house, Esk street, with I on iron and killed hor. I The couple had cot got on well for years, and lattoriy tho murderpd woman got a separation from hor husband, and sbo and the children got a homo of their own. Swann was afterwords received as a | boarder, and from what can bo gathered was sitting at the fire to-night when ho suddenly made a savage attack on his wife. , . Tho children tried to intervene, but wore driven from tho house by the infuriated man, who baltored the unfortunate woman’s head with groat ferocity. , The crime has just been reported, and dotails as to wbat, if anything, led up to the murder are as yet unknown. Swann was before the Court some years ago on a ebargo of cruelly to hia family, which excited a good deal of oommeut at the time.

11 55 p.ra. —The tragedy was ghastly in 1 overy detail. . .... I Swan, in an excess of passion, of which 1 tho cause is not yet clear, murdcre! his I wife with a'B&vager}' that almost bu.mQ3 1 description. | Swan, now in custody, is about 50 years I of ago. Ha has been a man of peculiar l and uncertain tempor. A prohibition order 1 against him expired in March, and was I hot renewed as bo bad became temperate. I To-day bo returned from work at 1 p.m., and for the rest of the day romainod indoors. He was quiet and peaceful in demeanor, and after tea sat roadiDg a paper by the fireside. His wife was sewing, and the only other occupant of the room was the daughter, who was ironing. From all particulars the assault was Budden and tbo struggle brief. A flat iron covered with blood seems to show that Swan snatched this up, threw his wife on the floor, knelt on hor, and using the point of tho iron with groat force, almost severed the head from the body. Thore was also a gash across her ohio, and a gapiog wound on the side of the head whioh exposed the brain. There was no sign of a struggle. Tho furniture was orderly, and the woman’s clothes wore not disarranged. Dr Snow was summoned immediately and found life extinct, the immediate cause of death being hemorrhage. Afber committing the deed Swan rushed from the house, but one of the girls had preceded him, calling that her mother was killed. She called on some men standing at hand to hold her father, and he was seized and the polios sent for. At the police station Swan was cnim

and collected. He told the polioe that when ho did tho deed he did not know what ha was doing. Although the affair occurred between 9.30 and 10 p.m., a iarge crowd assembled, and the nows spreading quiokly caused a most painful sensation.