A MURDERED CRIPPLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 43, 19 February 1909, Page 5

A MURDERED CRIPPLE.

MOTHER ON TRIAL. LONDON, February 18. The-jury has disagreed'in the case of Mrs. Haskell, who is charged with the murder of her son, a crippled lad of 12 years of age, at Fisherton, Salisbury, on October 31. The murder occurred at 10.30 on the night of October 31. A cousin of the victim called at the house at that hour, and had just entered the back door when he heard his aunt cry out, "Stop that man; he has murdered my Teddy." The woman rushed into the road and raised an alarm. There was some suggestion that the murderer was bent upon a robbery of a particularly mean character. The crippled boy had for some years been saving up all his odd pence to purchase a cork leg to take the place of the limb he lost some years ago. , The neighbours, out of their small, earnings, had been extremely generous to the boy, and he had saved about £8, which, he kept in a box in a bedroom. Mrs. Haskell stated that directly after her nephew knocked at the door she heard a noise in her son's bedroom and saw a man come downstairs and escape by the street-door, throwing down a blood-stained knife as he ran.