A MELBOURNE TRAGEDY. SHOCKING MURDER AND SUICIDE.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 26, 30 July 1881, Page 4

A MELBOURNE TRAGEDY. SHOCKING MURDER AND SUICIDE.

A Bhooking case of murder has occurred at Cubitt-streefc, .Richmond, near Melbourne, the victim being a woman named Catherine Bullock, aged about 45 years, who wa3 brutally killed by her husband, Jamea Bullock. The circumstances under which the deed was committed, says the Age, can never be known, as the murder was perpetrated without anybody witnessing it. The murderer, who was a painter and glazier by trade, had lived for the past few weeks with Mrs. Enpor, in Cubitt-street, North Richmond, having been separated from bis wife. He had been out of employment for some time, and despondent on account of hiß ill-fortune. His wife visited him occasionally at his lodgings, but Mrs. Ensor did not know the relations which Misted between them. On the night in question Mrs. Enser, with her brother, went to a temperance meeting, and informed their lodger (Bullock) that Bhe would return at •bout 11 o'clock, and told him if he went to bed before their arrival to leave the back door open. He promised to stay up for her, as the time would not be late. Nothing was aeen of him again till 10 p.m., when he visited the Village Belle Hotel, situated in the same Btreet, and purchased some beer. An hour afterwards Mrß. Ensor returned, and found the back gate left open. On entering the hous«, and passing the door of the room which Bullock occupied, she found the oandlo just going out and noticed him kneeling at his bedside. Thinking that he was engaged in his devotions, she passed m, and waited a little while for him to come into the parlor. As he did not come out she went again to the door, and still observed Bullock in the attitude of prayer. She then touched him on the shoulder, and, receiving no reply, shook him, w>-en she found he was dead. Mrs Ensor then observed by the dying flicker of the candle a woman lying in the bed Bullock was kneeling at, with her throat cut in a most horrible manner. Uhe sight nearly made the old lady faint, and she called loudly to her brother, who was in an adjoining room. He then came in, and found the deceased kneeling with a pruning knife clasped in his right hand, reeking with blood, and his left closed in the agony of doaih. Near by he found a knife also covered with blood. The man was quite dead, but still warm, and the woman was stiff and cold. Constable Doherty, who was on duty near by, came to the house, and found there the bodies in the position already stated. The man'B throat was cut and the windpipe severed, and there were also three ugly stabs in the throat, which he had evidently inflicted with the pruning knife, finding the table knife too blunt to effect his object. The" woman's throat was cut from ear to ear, and presented the appearance of having been slashed in a ruthless manner. Her body was covered with blood, and the bedclothes were also stained. Her head was bandaged up with a piece of white calico, and on removing it Constable Doherty found that the unfortunate woman's head was battered in a frightful manner. On looking on the floor he found a small hammer, which was bespattered with blood, and was evidently used by the murderer in hitting the woman prior to cutting her throat. The following incoherent statement waß found in the room, written in pencil on a paper bag by deceased : — " This is what comes of reading prayera over you at the police Btation three times in the forced hearing of your husband then in the look-up without change from your words. The same occurred when 1 was in the hospital, and the same in your house with your nephew andyonr daughter's intended husband.— .T. Bullock— with his last breath on earth. From what I Aan learn from her this dark-eyed villain ifolerk in the office of the station." What tile deceased meant by his statement it is hard to say He was, however, once in the look-up at Bichmond, and also in the hospital. The most singular part of the affair ia that no one heard any quarrel, and the only theory that can be adduced is that in Borne sudden fit he Btruok his wife with the hammer, which had the effect of stunning her. Finding that she was wounded, he evidently placed her on the bed and tried to heal her wounds by bandaging them, but observing that his efforts were of no avail, and that she appeared to be dying, cut her throat, and then committed suicide. The eight of the murderer and his victim in the room was a ghastly one. On the floor where deoeaßed wob kneeling was a pool of blood. Bullock is a man about 60 years of age, amd his wife about 45 or 50 years old. He has been married to her a few years, but separated for some unknown reason. Latterly he has been eccentric in his manner, and manifested a jealous disposition. She had grown-up children, with whom Bullock was constantly quarrelling. Little is known of the man's previous history, but it is atated that he had a violent temper, which he would show in the most unmistakeable mam er when occasion offered.