MADMAN KILLED BY HOUSEHOLDER

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 256, 26 July 1935, Page 11

MADMAN KILLED BY HOUSEHOLDER

Smashing Way In With

WARNING SHOT PROVES

OF NO AVAIL

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.— Copyright.

(Received July 25, 7.5 p.m.)

New York, July 24

That invariably effective element in a thriller, a madman on the rampage, found a counterpart in real life to-day when Burnett Ward, aged 42, in the small town of Montrose, found a naked maniac with an axe hacking Ids front door down in the middle of the night and was compelled to kill the intruder before the police could arrive. The slain man was Maurice Fitzgerald, aged 34. an ex-convict witli a record of treatment in an insane asylum.

He appeared before Ward’s home at 2 a.m. and wakened Mrs. Ward with wild cries of “Water, water.” She was terribly frightened and screamed for help. Her husband tried to get the man to leave by telling him to go to a well nearby, and then telephoned the police. By this time the maniac had found an axe and was literally battering his way into the house. Ward secured a shotgun and fired one shot through a window in an effort to frighten the intruder. He was then compelled to shoot him dead, just as State troopers arrived.