A MAN KILLED BY HIS WIFE.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 146, 28 March 1872, Page 3

A MAN KILLED BY HIS WIFE.

Early on Tuesday (yesterday) morning the report was current about town that a man had been killed on tho Black Lead by his wife. On proceeding to the spot, we found the report to he true ; and from the evidence given at the magisterial inquiry, wo gleaned the following particulars : The deceased was named Edward Jacob Young, and carried on the business of a retail butcher, in the street opposite No. N Black Lead. The wife is named Mary Ann Young ; and it appears that a feeling of jealousy has mutually existed between them for some time. On Tuesday morning a quarrel arose between them, which appears to have been of a serious kind, as both were seen fighting, having hold of each other’s hair; While quarreling at the door of the shop the deceased struck the wife a severe blow on tho face with his open hand that—to use tho expression of a witness—knocked her down, and she lay on the ground apparrently silly for two or three minutes. She got up and was going inside, when the deceased addressed some expression to her. Whatever the words were they seemed to have a powerful effect, as the wife snatched up a very large butcher’s knife that was near her, and stabbed her husband near tho navel, the wound being two inches long and six inches deep, penetrating the liver, and causing instant death. The wretched woman appears to have been horrified at the result of her fearful act, as she said to the constable who apprehendod her, ‘ I am the person who did the deed ; I don’t deny it. I did not do it wilfully. I done it in the heat of passion. The knife was beside me, and I took it up and stabbed him.’ The scene in the closing moments of the man’s life is said to have been heartrend: ing, as the wife was kneeling at the side of the dying man, wildly asking forgiveness, and the family of little children grouped around their parents crying bitterly. The woman bears a fair reputation, though quarrelling was very frequent in her home. She was brought up at the Police Court on Tuesday morning, a few hours after the offence was committed, charged with the murder of her husband. Mr Clarke stated that, knowing some of her family, he volunteered to watch the case on her behalf. After the evidence of Constable Stapleton, who apprehended her, and that of a man named Duggan, who was an eye-witness of the fatal quarrel, was taken, the case was adjourned till this morning for further evidence. Tho occurrence lias caused considerable ‘ town talk,’ as being the first of its kind that ever occurred on the goldfield.—Gulgong Argus, Feb. 21.