TRAGEDY AT ELTHAM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4908, 27 November 1925, Page 3

TRAGEDY AT ELTHAM.

- FATHER KILLS HIS SON. DEMENTED MAN’S STATEMENT. K . I—MEANT TO KILL WHOLE FAMILY. ELTHAM, Nov. 26 , a terrible tragedy occurred here this morning, when a local health inspector, Archibald Gray, was seized with a fit of homicidal mania and . killed his fourteen-year-old son zby . first striking him on the head with a hammer and then cutting his throat with a razor. This, the unfortunate - man declared-in a statement to neigh-bours-who were attracted by '.he dying boy’s screams., was. a preliminary to killing his whole family and then himself. The boy, William. Gray, was cleaning boots in -the wash house about a quarter to seven this morning when the father, who is, a man of 47 years, and has been ilving in the Eltham '■ district for the: past fourteen years, entered the shed and picked up & hammer. Before the unhappy victim was able to sense his'father’s murderous attempt he was struck violently on the head, and the man then drew a razor and slashed his son’s throat with it. The screams of the dying S- -boy attracted the attention of some neighbours, who rushed to the scene of .the outcry -to find Gray standing looking at the boy and holding the razor in his hand. . They took the razor from him, and —-in reply to thefr horrified inquiies ‘ Gray said, “I have been feeling nervy . and have not been sleeping well lately. I intended to kill the whole family and then myself.” - Gray’s wife said that her husband had apparently been quite normal ? - lately; 'and she could not understand the sudden seizure. Gray, who is health inspector for .the Eltham district-, was under notice i>f transfer to Dannevirke in January. He has been 14 years in Eltham, and * :is well known in the district. ' CHARGED WITH MURDER. REMANDED TO NEW PLYMOUTH. . ELTHAM, Nov. 26. ’ Gray was charged this morning -with the murder of hisj son, and was “remanded to appear at New Plymouth on December- 4. ’ Bail was not asked ' -for.