A PECULIAR TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 142, 17 June 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

A PECULIAR TRAGEDY.

WOMAN KILLS HER FRIEND AND SELF.

A most extraordinary double tragedy is reported from, Stpckjon^ California, under date of May 2, Mrs Virgine Hassell, a dashing young Englishwoman, murdered /Mrs .William Hickman, and then ended her own llfe- i™. Mrs Hassell- was known as TJie Countess,' and Mrs Hickman is said to have been a victim of her unnatural affection. They were found dead ..in bed, locked in each other's arms. The responsibility of the tragedy, was easily fixed by the circumstances surrounding it. The woman had, a steady hand, and knew where '.to., shoot : to produce instant death. Mrs Hickman was shot through the left temple, and the murderess then ended her own lift* with a bullet through; her right tehiple. ■'• '■'■'.. ' A strange infatuation had sprung up between the two women, . which Mrs Hickman's relatives did their best to overcome. For a week prior to the tragedy they were congratulating themselves oh evidence that the- attachment was waning. Then on the afternoon prior to the tragedy the two met, and Mrs Hassell said ahe h&d just received a remittance from England, and intended to start back home in the morning. She wanted Mrs Hiokman to spend her last night in Stockton with her. She also Went to the Smith home and made the same statement, with the result that the -two started for the private lodging house. The Englishwoman was seen to mail some letters at about 11 o'clock, and also purchased some bananas at a stand at the same time. I

Only one person in the boardinghouse heard, the fatal shots, and he was of opinion that they came from without the building, and were a belated echo of a Dewey celebration of the previous day. "The father of Mrs Hickman, uneasy at his daughter not returning home early in the morning, visited the Hassell lodgings, and was the first to discover the horrible crime. Knocking, and . receiving no answer, the father broke opeh tba door, when the sight of the dead women in each others embrace met his horrified gaze. , "'-.!'.- Mrs Hasseli's head was thrown back and her mouth was open. • She was lying on sher back,: thfet; right • arpa thrown across, near the face of Her companion, and the pistol with which, the double tragedy had been committed had apparently slipped from her lifeless fingers. The hair of;the two women was matted with Clotted blood, and the pillows on which they lay. were saturated. The doors and windows were all securely looked, shewing that no one had entered the apartment - ' :. . . The inquest brought out very little to add to the story of the tragedy 4 save in the testimony of Mr Hassell,v the estranged husband of the \ murderess. He testified that iv London when his wife was Miss Virginie Eieke, she formed the same sort of an- attachment for a young woman as she did in Stockton for Mrs Hickman. Then it required all of their inflnence to break off the mad infatuation the woman had for one of her own sex. When she first met Mrs Hiek'man she showed the infatuation that was. so marked in. the Old Country, and the husband tried to check it, butcould not. ■"■,■' <

The jury found that Mrs Hassell shot and killed Mrs Hickman as she slept, and then sent a bullet into her own brain. •'.'•'