A FEARFUL TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3776, 26 October 1907, Page 3

A FEARFUL TRAGEDY.

Children Murdered by their Father. A pretty child of 12 years, with long golden locks, described to the Nottingham coroner recently a ghastly crime. She was Alice Maud Ross, whose father on August 20th cut the throats of four of his children, three of whom died, the other being saved by the remarkable pluck of the girl Alice. She was the only witness of the crime.

She said her brother Stephen (aged eight), Archie (seven), Bertie (three), and Freddie (fourteen months), had gone to bed before hall-past eight. She slept in a room by herself. Her mother had gone out, and she heard her father come in and tap his razor on its box. She heard him come upstairs on tiptoe and go into the baby’s room. There was a sharp cry; then silence. He then went to the boys’ room and said, “ Archie, Stephen, hold your heads up.” He kissed them;then she heard screaming, and thought he was frightening them. She ran into the room, and the sight was horrible, blood being everywhere. Archie was breathing his last in a corner of the room, and her father was trying to cut Steven’s throat. Bertie was screaming in bed, and although in a terrible state of mind she lifted him out, his throat being cut right across. He died in her arms.

Stephen, with a bleeding throat, struggled free from his father, who without speaking, then seized Alice herself, pulled her on the floor by the hair, and got the razor under her throat. She struggled free, and ran downstairs screaming. Stephen, who was still in the room, shouted, ‘‘Oh! Alice,” and the girl bravely rushed back, dragged him downstairs, unlocked the door, and escaped into the street. The father then tried to cut his throat, but is still alive. Stephen is also recovering. A verdict of wilful murder was returned.