DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 135, 10 June 1933, Page 14

DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

HUSBAND AND WIFE.

EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST.

RECONCILED TO SEPARATION

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WANGANUI, Friday. ■"Thero is -no evidence to show that Mrs. Gordon was a consenting party,"' said the coroner, Mr. S. M. Dixon, in delivering his verdict at Wanganui to-day in. respect of .the deaths 'of Nellie' Gordon and her husband, Joseph Nathaniel Gordon, which joecurred at the Metropolitan Hotel just, after one- o'clock on the afternoon of June 3. He found that Mrs. Gordon met \her. death .as a result of wounds in"her throat inflicted by her husband, and that the man died from wounds in his throat self-inflicted. notebook was produced in -which appeared passages written in indelible pencil purporting to have been signed by both the deceased as having agreed to die together. The evidence went to show, however, that the writing was that of the husband. Detective J. Walsh, who appeared for the police, was definitely of the opinion that the writing wae that of Gordon, and none of it that of his wife. The coroner said he was satisfied that the writing was all that of one person. Evidence was given to the effect that tho woman had left her husband. She came to Wanganui on May 30 to stay with a marrietl woman who had previously resided in Patea and with whom she had been very friendly. Mrs. Gordon had made it clear to her friend that she was leaving her husband for another man, who was to take her to Australia. Her husband visited her at Wanganui and, according to the witness, with whom Mrs. Gordon was staying, he had been reconciled to a separation. It was ehown that on June 3 the husband and the other man concerned both came to Wanganui with the intention of going to the Wanganui-Taranaki Rugby match. They met on tho Patea station, travelled in the eainc carriage and were met by Mrs. Gordon at Wanganui. The three went to the commercial room of the Metropolitan Hotel, where they had drinks. Gordon, after getting drinks from the bar, told the other man that the licensee wanted to see him. The man went out, leaving Gordon and his wife together. When he went back five or seven minutes later he found both Gordon and his wife on the floor. In reply to the father of Mrs. Gordon a witness said that on two occasions the husband had expressed himself as reconciled to his wife leaving him.