Shocking Stabbing Case.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 219, 8 November 1888, Page 2

Shocking Stabbing Case.

THE TERRIBLE RESULTS OF DRINK Sydney, October, 26.

A stabbing cose which may involve a charge of wilful murder occurred in King street, Newtown, between 3 and 4 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. It arose out of_a domestic quarrel in which the actors were Will'am and Mary Thompson, a couple living near the Botany-view Hotel. The details of occurrence show no premeditation such as was evidenced in a case of wife murder in

the same district some little while ago. The husban I, a butcher by trade, and a comparatively young man, had, it seemed, been reduced by intemperate habits to vending tripe. His over indulgence in drink, it is said, often led to disagreements with his wife. On Wednesday afternoon one of these quarrels took place in their yard, where Thompson was engaged in preparing some tripe for sale. From words they went to blows, the first of which was apparently dealt by the husband with his open fist. Enraged by this treatment, Mrs Thompson caught hold of him and either struck him in return or pushed him against a cask. A struggle ensued, in the course of which, whether accidently or maliciously is not quite clear, Mrs Thomp son was stabbed in the abdomen with a large butcher’s knife, and the unhappy women fell to the ground sere uning with pain. Her cries brought some neighbors, who sent the sufferer to Prince Alfred Hospital, where she was admitted by Dr M’Allister and placed in. the accident ward. On examination it was found that a horrible wound had been inflicted, which was rendered the more shocking by the discovery that the worn »n was enciente. The injury was attended to and everything was done to ease the patient’s sufferings. Her condition was not a very hopeful one and serious symptoms soon appeared. At an early hour yesterday morning she had sunk so low that it was deemed advisable to have her dying depositions taken, and Mr Fielder was therefore sent for and on. arriving he took her statement. Though in a weak state she gave a very coherent version of the occurrence. A desire to represent her husband’s action in as favorable a light as she could was manifested in some parts of her statements. Admitting the quarrel and relating in detail all that led up to it, she qualified her story by saying that her husband was not responsible for his ac‘ions when under the influence of drink. .After he had struck her in the face she said she held him for about half a minute against a tub, thinking then he would quieten down. He had a large butcher’s knife, which he had been using to clean th s tripe, in his hand, and as she held him he turned sudden’y round. The same minute she was stabbed, or, as she put it, she felt something on her stomach. At first she thought her stay busks had broken and injured her, but a glance at the knife all red with blood and the pain she sufteued showed that something more serious had happened. She declarer that she did not think her husband stabbed her intentionally, and said it was just as likely that she herself ran against the knife. The last words of her statement were a tribute to her husband, than whom, she said, a better man never stepped in shoe leather when he was sober. All through yesterday her condition remained very critical, and her death was hourly expected. The husband was arrested yesterday, and will be brought up at the Newtown Police Court to-day. His statement was to the effect that the stabbing was purely accidental. Having the knife in his hand, he said, he turned sharply round, and the blade entered his wife’s body. He appeared greatly impressed with the gravity-of his situation. [A later telegram stated that the unfortunate woman had died, and the husbind is now under arrest on a charge of wilful murder.]