SHOCKING TRAGEDY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1751, 27 September 1905, Page 18

SHOCKING TRAGEDY

CONSTABLE KILLS WIFE AND CHILDREN. THEIR HEADS BATTERED. MURDERER COMMITS SUICIDE. TWO SONS ESCAPE. MELBOURNE Sept. 11. A singularly horrible domestic tragedy wa© discovered at Sandringham this morning. Some time during Sunday night Charles Scammell, constable in charge of the police station at Sandringham, murdered in their beds his wife, his infant ©on, and his two little daughters. Scammell, who was noted for reticence and a reserve that amounted almost to morosenees, seems) to have been suffering from melancholia for some time, and the dreadful work of Sunday night was the outcome or a savage fit of homicidal mania. There were two little hoys sleeping in the house, and in his insane rage Scammell must have forgotten their presence, for they were undisturbed, and wer© the first discoverers of the tragedy. Scammell wa© a man of most methodical habits. He used to rise every morning about 7 o’clock and light the fire. Then Mrs Scammell rose and dressed the children. This morning the two boye, Charles, aged 10, and David, aged 7, who slept together, wakened about 8 o’clock, and Avere surprised to find the house quiet, and their mother and father ©till in bed. They lay and listened for a while. Then Charles got up and went to the front bedroom. He pushed the door open with som© childish speech about the lateness of the hour on his lips. One glance into the room showed him his father ©trenched on the floor Avith blood all round his head, and his mother lying in bed, her head and face covered Avith blood. He gave a ©cream of terror, which brought David to th© door to witness the awful spectacle. They rushed to the bedroom occupied by Blanche and Hannah, the two little girls, and saw that they also were dead. Then th© two boys, screaming, rushed from the house, and dashed up the street towards the railway station. They ran up to the fir©t person they met, a lady, and with so'bs and cries strove to tell her what had happened. Mr Barnett Robbins, a carpenter, who knew the family, was passing, and guessing from the terror of the boys that something dreadful had happened he called out, “What’s the matter, David ?’’ “Father and mother are both dead,” Availed the little fellow; “they have been killed.” DISCOVERY OF THE BODIES. Mr Robbins, followed by the boy©, rushed into the house. The boys directed him to the front bedroom. Near the windoAV, a few feet from the bed, lay Scammell, dressed in a shirt, trousers, and socks: His head rested on a pilloAV, Avhich was saturated Avith blood. Between hie right arm and hi© side was a service revolver. On the bed lay the body of Mrs Scammell. The bedclothes and three pillows under her head Avere all crimson with blood. Her head Avas crushed and battered. In a cot beside the bed, his little hands clenched outside th© coverlet, lay the nine months old son. dead, with his skull fractured in half a dozen places. “Where are your sisters?” Mr Robbins asked the . boys. Charles pointed across the, hall to the girls’ bedroom. Mr Robbins hurried across, and another pathetic spectacle presented itself. The two sister© lay locked in each others’ arms- One, the elder, was smiling faintly, and her eyes half opened, as though ©he had partially aAvalcened, probably Avhen her sister was killed. The heads of both Avere battered and broken, the younger one having a deep, horrible gash just above the right

eye. Their hair was glued to the pillow, and sodden with bloodMr Robbins hurried to the local grocery store, and telephoned to the Brighton police. A message was also sent from, the store to Mr Robertson, M.R.C.S., wh* examined the bodies, and found they all had b&en dead some hours. KILLED IN THEIR SLEEP. There was nowhere any sign of a struggle. The mothex* and children had) evidently been murdered while asleep, tUe heads of all having been battefd by some blunt instrument; but the mother and daughters had aleo been ©bot through' the mouth, and on the bed hangings above the mother’s head were spatterings of blood. Scammell had evidently attacked his wife Avith a bitterer frenzy than the others. Out in a scullery at the back, Mr Robertson, M.R.C.S.. found the head of a navvy’s pick. Th© chisel end of it had new rust marks on it, as though it had been recently in the water, and a few faint bloodstain©. In the sink close by was blood, and a scrubbing brush, which lay on a shelf at the side of the sink was stained with blood. Scammell had come out to the scullery after battering in the heads of Ms wife and children, and in a methodical fashion, characteristic of lunatics, had scrubbed the pick head and put it aAvay in its place. By the time Mr Robertson had made these investigations Constable Kane had arrived from Brighton. Scammell’© body Avas examined. He had fired hia revolver, which lay beside him, into his mouth, and the builett had passed out at the back of hie head. A dint in the skirting board, about a foot from tbe comer of the room, showed" where it had ©truck. The revolver lying at the dead man’s side had tAvo chambers still loaded, the other four having been recently discharged. THE) SON’S STATEMENT. The boye were questioned about the movements of their father on Sunday night. “David and I and the girls ail went to bed at about half-past 8,” Charles, the elder boy, said. “1 heard mother go to bed, and just a little while after the clock struck 10. After a little while longer father Avent into the bedroom, too. I thought he went to bed, too. I heard nothing unusual all night, and slept soundly till tMs morning. It must have been done about midnight. Yesterday father was in his usual state. He was very quiet, but he >vas always pretty quiet. The girls and David and I went to Sunday School, and all of us had tea together. After tea father took baby out for a walk. Then he sat in the kitchen smoking, and he Avas there when we went to bed.” NO APPARENT MOTIVE.

There seems to liave been an utter absence of any motive prompting Scammell. Hannah Scammell, his wife, was about forty years of age, and an excellent housewife. She was a religions woman, and the bedroom in which she was murdered was hung with text©. Mrs Scammell was fond of her children, and they were always well dressed and well tended. She was just as fond of her husband as of her children; an-d, as far a© is knoAvn, he was equally fond of her. They were in good circumstances. Scammell’© bankbook showed his account was <£l39 in credit, and in a drawer in his office was a substantial sum of money in gold. Mr Robertson, M.R.C.S., who attended Mrs Scammell during her illness som© time ago, stated that Scammell attended to his Avife Avith all the skill and assiduity of a trained nurse. He was, however, a silent, gloomy man. “Be was ©o silent as to set me wondering,” said Sergeant Skehan to-day. “If. he could answer you with one word, he’d never use two. I saw him some days ago, and remarked I thought he was brooding over something. He’s had three drowning cases doAvn here lately, and he disliked. handling the bodies.” Mr Robertson had a conversation with Scammell during last week. Scammell said: “I got a jacketing from th© coroner over the Shanahan inquest. I was late at the morgue, and the coroner asked me for an explanation. X told him I had been attending an interpleader case at the Brighton Court. He said to me 'Don’t yon know an inquest comes before any court, whether Brighton Court or the Supreme. Court?’ I replied that I did not, and he said, ‘Well you know ft now.’ ” Mr Robertson thought Scammell Avas worrying over that. Then on Saturday last he had to come into Melbourne to attend the morgue again over an inquest on a child’© body which had been found >at Sandringham. Oh Saturday afternoon Constable Healy, of Brighton Beach, saw him moodily pacing up and down the sea front alone and glaring at the ground in front of him. Mr Robbins, the carpenter, who first looked at the bodies, saAV Scammell oil Sunday afternoon. He was passing np and down angry and perturbed. “He looked "very savage,” ©aid Robbins, “and there was an expression -in his eyes i have never seen there before, and I have known him for years.” About half-past 8 on Sunday night Scammell posted ai letter at Sandringham station, and said, “Good night,” in answer to the salutation of a cabman outside the station. Nothing peculiar was. noticed in his demeanour. He spoke to no one, but that xvas his usual custom. An examination of the house and the office by. Sergeant Skehan and Constable Kane revealed no documents or papers that could throw any light on the affair. It is supposed Scammell brooded or worried over imaginary grievances, such as the coroner a rebuke, and the handling of " dead bodies until he developed melanchollia and homicidal mania.