PICNIC TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 175, 26 July 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

PICNIC TRAGEDY.

TOSSED OVER CLIFF.

MADMAN'S FAMILY.

WIFE AND FOUR CHILDREN.

Raymond Spang, of A neon ia, Connecticut, took his wife and four children on a ■picnic in beautiful West Rock Park, New Haven, to celebrate his release from a sanitarium. Then, seized by a murderous mania, 'he threw them over a 400 ft •precipice. .Pressed by a posse, of police and firemen, he leaped from a ledge halfway down the abrupt rock face of the cliff to death on the jagged rocks below. Moving swiftly, Spang kicked his wife, Gertrude over the brink as she stood admiring the view, and tossed the screaming children after her. Raymond was alive when he was picked up near the base of the cliff, but he died at St. Raphael's Hospital within an hour of the tragedy. The others died instantly, and their bodies were recovered from various positions on ■the rocky elopes. Scores of persons saw Spang throw the bodies, as the cliff was in full view of the streets of suburban Westvalle. While the excited observers ran toward the park they saw Spang start down the perilous face toward the body of his wife, which had caught on a crag. William Hague fired four shots from a shotgun in an effort to frighten the killer away, in hope that Mrs. Sipang might be alive. One shot whistled past a policeman, who had started for Spang. Spang was unable to reach his wife's body,, which he apparently intended to 'toss further down, and paused on a narrow ledge about 2ooft up the cliff. Parley on Ledge of Precipice. Police and firemen went to the top of the rock, and one fireman was lowered on a rope 'toward Spaug's ledge. Spang shouted to the fireman to halt or 'he would dash himself to death. Barube paused 10ft away, while Spang moved about on the ledge nervously, muttering to himself. He told the fireman, in response to questions, that he was Raymond Spang, of Ansonia. and he had been unemployed. The scene remained thus for about 15 minutes, with Spang cowering on the ledge, the fireman afraid to scare him into suicide, and hundreds of persons, mouth agape, standing in the streets far below." Then Spang carefully took off one shoe and attempted to take off the other, but it stuck. He crossed himself and before Barube could intervene, dived. Police learned in Ansonia t'hat Spang had returned from a sanitarium to which he was taken nine weeks before, after a long period of unemployment appeared to have unsettled his mind. His wne 'and four pretty-tow-headed youngsters had been overjoyed at the return of their "Daddy," neighbours said. Spang planned a picnic at West Rock, one of the beauty spots of Connecticut, in celebration of his return.