MURDERED IN BED

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 January 1914, Page 5

MURDERED IN BED

DEMENTED HUSBAND'S AWFUL DEED. [PER PBESS ASSOCIATION —COPrBIGHT.'j SYDNEY, January 28. A tragedy occurred at Wavprley. A boy named Mullan. entering his parents' room, discovered his mother in bed with her head frightfully battered and her nose and ear cut off. She was still alive, but died at the hospital. The father, James Mullan, was missing. Some hours later the proprietor of Oylie's baths, Coogee, saw Mullan, fully clothed, jump from the rocks into the sea. He plunged in to the rescue. Mullan was raving about killing his wife. After a desperate struggle of twenty minutes he managed to rescue Mullan, who was taken to the police station in a bad way, hut lie recovered. The cause of the murder is a mystery. Mullan. his wife, and five children lived happily. Mullan suffered from heart trouble and was under medical treatment. It is presumed that in a "fit of dementia he attacked his sleeping wife. Mullan was brought before the court and remanded on a charge of murdering his wife. Though the family were sleeping in the loom adjoining the tragedy they heard nothing.