VILLAGE BLACKSMITH

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1935, Page 5

VILLAGE BLACKSMITH

TRIPLE MURDER & SUICIDE —” SHOTS AT BUS PASSENGERS ..-•.' . , . .. . [BY CABLE—PBESS ASSN;—COPYRIGHT.] '■ L (Rec, August 12, 10 a.m.) LONDON, ; August 11. Four people are dead as the'result of an amazing shooting drama near the village green of Shutford, Oxfordshire. . A bus from Banbury drew up as the villagers dispersed after the annual fete. Wilfred Gibbs, twenty-nine, blacksmith, allegedly fired a gun at the oc<' cupants, and turned the weapon upon himself, and fell dead. - - His. wife,. Ellen, twenty-five; her sister, Ivy Goode, twenty-one;. Joseph Messenger, forty, and William Messenger, forty-six, were wounded and sent to the hospital. All died except William Messenger. " . ‘ ■ The tragedy was due to domestic differences between the Gibbs couple. The Messenger brothers were not concerned, and were wounded by shots intended for Mrs. Gibbs, and possibly also her sister! ’ ‘ v “* The Gibbs’ had been married for three years, but separated recently. —LATER The closeness o£ range accounted for the deadliness of Gibbs’’shooting. Mrs. Gibbs and the Messenger brothers were line of the first bullet, which crashed - through the wife’s chest, and .passed through Joseph’s abdomen, and lodged in William’s knee. ‘» Mrs. Gibbs stood gasping: **My husband’s shot me,” thefl. collapsed as the husband fired again, but missed hen, the bullet striking Miss Goode, piercing the side of the bus, then passing through a cottage window. It ; was dark when Gibbs ambushed himself in the cowshed, and fired a service rifle at the dimly lit omnibus. Later, a constable found Gibbs shot in the head. Gibbs had won prizes for clay pigeon shooting earlier in the day? WESTRALIAN TRAGEDY (Recd. Aug. 12, 11 a.m.). I PERTH, August 12. A shocking tragedy occurred at Norseman, when Frank Gedden fatally stabbed his wife, Violet, then placed a detonator in his mouth, and blew his head off.