TRIPLE MURDER

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 33, 2 November 1928, Page 11

TRIPLE MURDER

SUICIDE OF ASSAILANT SHOCKING AFFAIR IN SYDNEY RELIGIOUS MANIAC WITH A GUN (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Rec. November 1, 8.50 p.m.) Sydney, November 1. A sensational shooting affray occurred this afternoon in Harrow Road, in the Rockdale suburb, when a man entered a house and blazed away with a revolver. He shot three women and a man and is believed to have turned the weapon on himself. Two of the women were killed, the others being in a serious condition. (Rec. November 1, 11.50 p.m.) Sydney, November 1. Later details of the Rockdale tragedy disclose that four are dead. 'They are Alexander Robb, 40 years of age, a returned soldier: Mrs. Claude Palmer, 30 years; Mrs. Edith Palmer, Junr., 42 years; Mrs. Elizabeth Ashley, housekeeper. Still another man, Joseph Palmer, 80 years of age, is critically injured. Hitherto an invalid and blind, Palmer was just able to utter something about a murder in the house. The crime was apparently committed by Robb, a nephew of Mrs. Palmer. He is described as a religious maniac and a spiritualist, and the Palmer family were known to be trying to get him out of the house. He recently came from his farm at Nimbin, Northern Rivers.

The tragedy was discovered by a woman friend of Mrs. Palmer, who found the house in great disorder, with a corpse here and there. Mrs. Edith Palmer was lying on a sofa not dead, and was just able to give most brief details. 1

The police were immediately summoned. They found Robb dead upstairs on the bed with a bullet wound in the chest. There were two rifles with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, also a long knife sharpened to a fine point. The police ascertained that the family was sitting at lunch when Robb entered and shot one after another. He then went upstairs and shot himself, manipulating the trigger with tlie toe of his boot.

The survivor, Joseph Palmer, was formerly a railway employee. There are two bullets in his abdomen. Mrs. Edith Palmer died about half an hour after admission to the hospital. There were two bullet wounds in her chest. She was well known in musical circles, and a member of the “Cheer Oh. Girls,” who raised a considerable sum for charitable purposes. Mrs| Ashley had been with the Palmer family for many years.