A MELBOURNE TRAUEDY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2157, 31 January 1891, Page 3

A MELBOURNE TRAUEDY.

Melbotjene. Jan 20. A case of murder and attempted suicide occurred at South Yarra, a populous suburb, last Thursday evening. The cottage in which the tragedy was enacted hid only been occupied by the present tenants for a few "weeks, and no one seemed to know whence they came. A man named John Monteith, a plumber by trade, is said to be the recognised tenant of ths cottage, and with him resided a woman about twenty-five years of age named Ada Hatton, another woman named Catherine Davies, and a man whose name is unknown to the police. It would appear that Ada Hatton had lived for about two years with her assailant, Thomas Phelan, a man of about thirty years of age, engaged as engine-driver on the railway. Knowing that his paramour was living with another man, the passion of jealousy was aroused in Phelan, and, stimulated to his rash determinatisn by the aid of alcohol, he found his way into the street, inquired next door as to where Monteith lived, and gaining entrance apparently by the back door, picked up a white-handled table knife and cut Hatton's throat, ihe neighbours heard some screaming, but the ghastly operation was performed with such desperation that there was no chance of rendering assistance to the unfortunate woman. She was discovered lying in the passage on her back, and presented a horrible sight, having not only her throat cut but a deep gash in her right cheek. Phelan was lying in the passage about a yard from his victim with his throat cut, but not sufficiently deep enough to cause his death, the knife not being sharp enough for that purpose, according to his own statement. Medical assistance being obtained, the woman was pronounced dead, and the man in a precarious condition. He was taken to the Alfred Hospital, and is now likely to recover. At the Hospital he stated that he was an eDgine driver on the railways, and that he lived with his mother, sisters, and brothers at Caroline street, South Yarra. He said, " I was drinking, and I got the knife and stabbed her, and had the knife been sharp enough I would not have been living now."