DOCTOR MURDERED BY A PATIENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 18 November 1907, Page 4

DOCTOR MURDERED BY A PATIENT.

o SHOT DEAD BY MAN WHO COMMUTED SUICIDE. Dr Walter Clapham Hirst, a young medical man, who recently commenced practice in Westfield terrace, in the Chapcltown district of Leeds, and who was married only two months ago, was shot dead at his surgery door on August 31 by one of his patients, a retired sewing machine shop manager, named John William Harrison, living in Valley terrace, Sberwell lane, who immediately afterwards committed suicide by blowing out his brains. For a week Dr Hirst had been in attendance on Harrison, who suffered from various delusions, among which latterly was the fixed belief that the dictor had seriously injured him by striking him on the knees. AVIFE'S TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. At 6.10 a.m. Harrison went to Dr Hirst's surgery door, and after ringing the bell told the doctor through the speaking tube that he was suffering terribly from pains in the legs and wanted to see him at once.

Dr Hirst answered the call in person, and as soon as he opened the door Harrison fired two revolver shots point blank at his heart, killing him on the spot, and then, inserting the revolver in his mouth, the murderer ended his own life with a single shot. Mrs Hirst, upstairs in her bedroom, heard Dr Hirst open the door, and Harrison say, "How are you, Dr Hirst?" Then came the sound of three revolver shots, and running downstairs Mrs Hirst found her husband bleeding from wounds in the chest, while the body of the murderer lay huddled on the doorstep of the surgery. By telephone she summoned the police, but both men were dead. STRANGE LETTER.

How dpep-rooted Harrison's imaginary grievance against the doctor was my be gathered from the following letter which a friend received from Harrison on Thursday:—

"Mr Evatt —Dear Friend. I am! suffering terrific and all through calling in that doctor who struck me on both my knees, which, if you will enquire, brings on terrific epileptic fits. It was to murder me. He has killed me. I was alright before, but now I am lost. The pains and fits arc terrific. "I shall not be able to prosecute, but please make this public property regarding Dr Hirst, of Chapeltown. He his killed me wilfully, * and deserves punishment. He deliberately struck me on both my knee-caps last Monday, and I confronted him with it before my sister, and he did not deny it. Farewell.—J. W. Harrison."

This delusion evidently took possession of Harrison's mind, for he spoke of it to his sister, and to a number of other people with whom he was familiar, always declaring that the doctor had "killed him."

Interviewed on Saturday, Harrison's sister stated that arrangements had been made to remove Harrison to an asylum that day, and she thought he must have got to know this, and that Dr Hirst had ordered his removal. MARRIED ONLY TWO MONTHS.

Dr Hirst, who was the son of Mr Dixon Hirst, of Ross Arden, Roundhay, Leeds, was only twenty-eight years of age. About two months ago he married Miss Oldroyd, daughter of a Leeds manufacturer, and they had returned from their honeymoon little more than a fortnight ago. At the inquest a verdict of "Murder and suicide during insanity" was returned, the jury adding a rider to the effect that it was a matter of regret that Harrison's friend had not takfn more care of him.

"The murderer's complaint that Dr Hirst 'struck him on the knees,' tells its own talc to a medical man," said a West End specialist in an interview. "One of the methods employed in diagnosing general paralysis of the insane is to ask the patient to balance one leg across the other. A slight blow i-ith the side of the open hand near the top of the upper knee-cap gives a certain reflex action or 'knee jerk,' as a result. This is purely involuntary on the part of the patient, but medical men can draw most valuable deductions."