THE ST, KILDA TRAGEDY.

Evening Star, Issue 9889, 28 December 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ST, KILDA TRAGEDY.

! Drink and jealousyhaße, beeji the cause <jf a shc«king tragedy at St, siida»Melbourne. ' JiitTL&iipold 'ln«s of fro He*pe? Sanitary Company, shot bis son 4nd then pave himself Into tbfe watody 6f? police. Abont haJf-past oilß in tife afternoon the son drove homelcon Mfl# in the little bony eart which he iSif for business errands. Jlis f atfeer jpottced his return, bnfc said nothing. Alpbonße found Mb sister Rose, aged nfcieteenjiad jtsked her to get him some lunch. ' With a playful remark that be' Wotitdf jiave to teke « f pot lnt*> beoMtte tanch* Iras over, . ihe hastened to prepajf him something ■■■ to eat, sad withmrab few momenta placed 'his meal on the table.* While Alphonse ate with heartiness Bats stood beside bun. In the middle o§ thfe meal the father appeared at the dap of the dining room and looked At his ohildnn. 9n, made no remark, and disappeared as quickly and as silently as he had come. Lotting oat after bim, the daughter eaw-faimeitter his bedroom, which rooms of Jthe main building, commanding through its window a view of the dihmg room. She heard hjm moving about in,nig roo^aod u saw him throw- up. his, window. Then' she turned to He b*JT almost fiuUhed hia meal, and sitting sideways, with his' left side towards t£o .door, he was scanning a newspaper, which he held in hia right hand, while he was sipping tea from a cup he held is his left hand. Presently there was a flash a»d a .report, and the young man fell with a groan jat the feet of his sister. She was amaeed, and when she saw blood issuing from his •head almost fainted with horror. Finding he was dead she made an effort tocontrfl herself, and fearing further trouble ran to see whej» her father was. She found him : in his bedroom with a smoking rifle lying on > the bed beside him. He stared at her as she entered and said quietly: "I did it Rose." While drink '-> was probably the principal factor in causing the crime, jealousy appears to have played a part. Two years ago the father went to Western Australia to superintend the introduction there of improved sanitary • appliances. During his absence his son Alphonse was appointed to the management of the Mel. bourne business, aud succeeded so well that he was maintained in the position of manager when the father returned, and showed that he bad become immoderately addicted to drink. The accused is a German by birth, fifty-two years of age, and. has a wife and six children, of whom the deceased Alphonse was the eldest. Alphonse was twenty-three years of age, and a married man, with a wife and one child living at Octavia street, St, Kilda.