THE SYDNEY MURDERS

Temuka Leader, Issue 2426, 17 November 1892, Page 4

THE SYDNEY MURDERS

Sydney, Nov. 15. Mra Mackin is completely broken down and has been removed to the gaol hospital in a low condition. A quantity of clothing, in which the infants were wrapped, has been identified by the mothers who gave the children to the Mackina to nurse.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes : —“ The police made a very extraordinary discovery on Thursday last at a house situated at 25 Burren street, Macdonald Town. The house, which is a roomy two-storey building, was occcupied from June until August by a family named Mackin. Applicants for the house complained that the drains appeared to be in a bad state, and the landlord put on some men to remedy the supposed complaint. While at work these men discovered the bodies of two newly-born children buried about a foot underground. The matter was reported to the police, who, after a diligent enquiry, applied for a warrant for the arrest of all the Mackin family on a charge of being concerned in the murder of a child, name unknown. This warrant was put into execution, and when the family were taken into custody it was found that the baby which had been noticed by the neighbours was missing. It was then decided to dig up the back yard of the house in Burren street, and no fewer than five other bodies of infants were found. They were all buried in lime, and none of them were covered by more than a foot of earth. The Mackin family only occupied the house for seven and a half weeks, and if they are responsible for the burial of the children they must have concealed at least one a week. The bodies, though decomposed to a considerable extent, do not seem to have been interred more than a few weeks. Further inquiries have been made by the police, but they have not, so far, revealed anything of a startling nature, and the Mackins seem only to have pursued the business of baby farming very recently. After leaving the house in Mackonald Town, where the bodies were found, they took up their residence in Wells street, Redfern, and in the back yard of this house the police discovered a hole similar to the graves which contained the corpses at Macdonald Town. No body was found, but the Mackin family could not give a satisfactory explanation as to why the ground in the back yard had been disturbed. Shortly after the time of their arrival at this place the body of an infant in an advanced state of decomposition was found in Azalea street, Redfern, and it is supposed that this was another of the Mackins’ victims, as when they came to Wells street, Redfern, they had an infant, which has since mysteriously disappeared. In the house at Burren street a number of cards were found announcing that Mrs Mackin was a ladies’ nurse, aud professional midwife. The inquest has been opened, and the whole family charged with having caused the death of the illegitimate child of Horace Bottomley and Minnie Davis about the end of July or the beginning of August.