SHOCKING MURDER IN A LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 333, 12 January 1889, Page 6

SHOCKING MURDER IN A LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Archibald Hunter, aged about 44, a married man, who had been employed ab the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum for about 6 years m charge of a cottage,' was found about 4.30 on Saturday afternoon by another attendant, lying in a room of the cottage with his head and faco battered in, the injuries -.having evidently been inflicted by a large potato masher, which was lying on the floor covered with blood. Hunter had also six deep stabs in the right side, one penetrating the lung, and another the livei". The wounds had been done with a^large carving knife, which was also found on the floor covered with blood. He was unconscious when" tound,and is supposed to have been hoard to say,' ''kill," or "killing." He did nob recover consciousness, bub lingered till , about six o'clock, when he ex'piretl. Ono of the patients in the cotb-age was named Joseph Howard, who had been about 10 months in the asylum. He was generally rogarded as quiet, though he once attempted to commib suicide. ? He is suspected aa the murderer of Huntetyand 'has been replaced in the refractory ward. Howard has since confessed ito the murder, He says : "-When' I'firsl came in here I was accused of a mpst abominable crime, of which I was entirely innocent. Every night, when I would get into bed, five or six of them used to sit down in the cottage and talk of the crim-o which I was chai'god with, saying the wrefceh ought to have "been hanged^ and buvnod. They", carried on in this way every nighb, and never missed a nighb. It sapreyed on my mind that I was almost in a' stabe of madness. " The confession con'tihucs in a similar strain ; and Howard then declares himself

guilty o£ this, murder, but innocent of the diabolical crime* livst mentioned. After locking the door, he threw the key over the fence as fat- as he could. Very little ■ importance was attached fco fche confession at first, till Howard offered to show where the hidden key of the room was. He took Constable Marks to a {lower bed in front of the cottage and pointed to a cypress tree, where he buried the key. On the ground being burned over, the key was found. None of the authorities know what abominable oilen.ee Howard refers to.