AXED IN BED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 19, 23 September 1913, Page 5

AXED IN BED.

TRAGEDY AT CROW'S NEST.

WIFE AND SON ATTACKED

[Bv Electric Telegraph—Copyright [United Press Association.]

Sydney, September 22

A tragedy occurred at Crow's Nest. The son of Mr Maekay Woodruff, a well-known city fire insurance adjuster, was awakened by a stunning blow on the head. He found his father standing over the bed with an axe in his hand. Alter a desperate struggle he secured the axe and pushed his father into an adjoining room, and locked the door. Staggering into his mother's room, he found her in bed unconscious, with a large wound on her head. As a last effort he telephoned for a doctor. On arrival the police discovered Woodruff's room empty and splashed with blood. He was lying outside the window in a nu'de state, with hi? throat cut and his wrists and leg.' terribly gashed: raving wildly. All the victims were removed to the hospital in a serious condition.

The Woodruffs spent a week-end in the mountains, returning yesterday night. The crime is unaccountable. It is supposed that he was seized with a sudden fit of madness. His wife and son wove struck on the back with an axe and their skulls fractured.