A Strange Tragedy.

Manawatu Herald, 8 April 1899, Page 2

A Strange Tragedy.

A home paper gives the following particulars of a tragedy at Biddenden, one of the moat curious villages in he soir.h east of England, which wa.< ivferred to in the cablegrams soua*week3 ago. A singular charily i-a3-iociated with the village church, la bygona ume* 20 acres, known a . • Tbe Bcead and Cheese Innd,'' were Ret apart and trie rents distribute J every Ea-iter Sunday amongst he p>irof thrf parish in the foim of 600 cakes, each impressed, wiih the figure of two wom>n supposed to re* present the Biddt-nden Sisters, ali'Zed to havo been j >ined in birth in Siamese-twin fashion. T-feis quie;, out- f th» way little spot was th urn* of v ternb'e murder, committed >n a Sunday by Mis-< Bertha. 'Piiterson, thei daughter of the aged reotoi of Biddtioden All Saint-?'. She is a worn n of 40, und according to loca report has long exhibited eccentricities ways wbiuh may explain th crime she h*-< e<mirauie.d. After thdeath of her m ith*-r, who was burned to a cinder by falling on a fire, MisB rtha took cht.ge of the rpctoty, and looked after her father ; but en r-porr g- <,in u nb •■n 1 . f har. sht. '\a «i-arvi«i{ h»- old tn^o. «-i ■no- frteu;.insuued bira aod plac ■ c\ him in

borne where he still lives, a curate

remaining in charge of the parifih. Miss Bertha and a friend mounted their bicycles and pursued the reecuers, but punctured their tyres and had to abandon the chase. Miae Bertha then became a nurse in an inebriates' home at Reigate, but re* uently returntd, Ap Bijdenden and put up at an inn. She sent a letter to a Sunday School teacher named John Whibley, a shoemaker, reporter,

n<l in»nroncf ngtnt, him to nuet her in the All Saint*' Sunday* sch iol, aftnr church the following day and make up a quarrel she bad had with him, confessing she was herself in fault. They met as arranged in the presenoe of the Bey. M. Kemp, the curate, and Mi« Peterson directed Whibley'g attention to a picture of the Good Shepherd, and while he was looking she placed ft revolver to his ear and blew his brains out. Her composure was remaTkable> -Sho.had eaten her ..bjosfc' i M^i^iypb; atteocfe^Me sacrament, and even after ibe murder was quite quiet. She handed the curate tha- "revolver, declared that she had shot Whibley to protect little children from his assaults — apparently a groundless change — and made no tffort-to oscape— in fact as the coroner said, she had cod vinced herself that Whibtey. was guilty, and deserved to d^e, -atiS she constituted herself the Divine Avenger. A verdict of wilful murder-was returned.