TRAGEDY AT AUCKLAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 1, 4 December 1915, Page 2

TRAGEDY AT AUCKLAND.

WOMAN AND CHILD KILLED. C -. :• I ■ ■!' -.f‘, MURDERER ATTEMPTS. SUICIDE. • i !_i—tlA.: ' : . Auckland, December 3.1 A ghastly tragedy : occurred tonight, when a half-caste named George Gordo*, a laborer by occupation, murdered a single woman named Martha McKee, with whom he had been living for eighteen months, and also their child, aged eight months. It appears that,. Gordon attacked the oliild with the.butt end of a, hatche', smashing its head practically to pulp, Ho then . attacked Mt-Kpe ,a ith hatchet, inflicting, terrible injuries, apt) JmtlyAb'Umk died .ii.i the, hosp’tal shortly after admission. afterwards, cut hjs ow’ii throat from ear bp .par with a razor, and slushed his abdomen, indicting a great wound, and ho lies in the hospital, in"a dying condition.

There is every indication of a de!liberate and sudden attack. Gordon nul the woman lived in a room in Hobson Street, on the first floor, the room overlooking the street. Nothing was known of the tragedy until a pister of McKee called and found the doors and windows locked. There was another child, aged about two and a-liall years in the'room, apparently the child of Gordon’s marriage, the whereabouts of his wife being unknown. Gordon did not attack this child, and McKee’s sister succeeded in getting her to push the key under the door, and she thus gained admission. Very little is known of Gordon’s antecedents. He came to Auckland from Kihikihi some weeks ago, and a letter addressed to his mother at Kihikihi refers to his intention to do something violent in a definite way to the children, who w r ere left alone in the room this morning. Shortly after 11 o’clock Gordon entered the house and went upstairs.

Tbo landlord states that he did not see him again. The woman McKee returned about three o’clock, and the landlord states that during the next couple of hours the only sound from Gordon’s room was as if a lied was being moved. There was no scream nor sound of a struggle. Gordon is sinking rapidly.