THE SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN SYDNEY.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4258, 24 August 1882, Page 2

THE SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN SYDNEY.

By the arrival of the s.s. Eingarooma last night we have particulars of tlr-. murder and suicide by a wife in Sydnef which was briefly recorded in our cabll " grams a few days ago. The murder* i man's name was Smith, and on the night of the murder he and his wife quarrelled, and Smith was heard to say, "Well/I will sleep on the sofa." The next 'morning, about 10 o'clock, the woman Smith went to a shop close by and stated that' ~ - her husband, whom . she called " poor . v Billy," was lying under the table in poolsr of blood. The lady of the shop, whose , name is not given, knowing .the women had been very queer for some time in her manner, took no notice of Jhe -' statement. But shortly afterwards .the neighbors missed the woman Smith, whom they were in the habit of see-' ' ing almost continually; and observing the doors of the house closed, and hearing no one within, their curiosity was roused '. to know what had become of them so suddenly. Subsequently,' the door was forced, aud a scene of the most <r«*»Uiog . nature presented,itself to their view. The "

man Smith was lying on the floor with his head battered in. Though he was not dead, he was quite unconscious, weltering in his own blocd, and groaning heavily. The woman was hanging to a batten in the ceiling, being suspended by a clothes-line, and was quite dead. Her body was at once cut down by the police, who were soon on the spot, and, of course, medical aid was procured as soon as possible for the ,man who seemed to be dying. He was in such a Horribly mutilated condition that,his recovery was hopeless. His wounds were dressed by Dr Ward, but, after lingering, apparently in intense pain, till four o'clock in the

afternoon, he expired without having regained consciousness. Ey repute, it would appear that the family bore-any-thing but a good character, and it is

stated that the only other inmates of the house were a grownup daughter and her infant. A searcli was instituted on the premises by Sergean^Abereroaibie, who fouid a tomahawk partly concealed in an outhouse. Upon the head of the weapoa (not the blade) there were-stains of blood and some human hair, which pointed to the fact that the blows received by the man upon the head were administered with the back of the axe. There was a

couch in the room, near which he was

lying on the floor, and the fact of the

neighbors hearing him say the night before that he would seep on the sofa

su-rgeS'S the; idea that the unfortunate man was brutally murdered while he slept. The affair, is, perhaps, the most horrible tragedy that has happejed in Sydney, or the colony, for many years.