HOUSE OF DEATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23326, 19 October 1937, Page 10

HOUSE OF DEATH

MAN SHOOTS WIFEORDEAL FOR CHILDREN BOY SENT TO SUMMON POLICE Huddled together in a bedroom at their Leeds home, three terrified children heard revolver shots which left them and another boy orphans. It is alleged that their father, known to the racing fraternity in the North of England as “ Lightning,” shot dead his wife in a basemerit kitchen, and then placed a revolver in his mouth and ended his own life. Prior to the double tragedy, “Lightning" called on “ Big Bluey,” a bookmaker, and wounded him with a bullet.

Dashing to Coburg street in response to a summons by a 13-year-old boy, police officers arrived in time to hear a man with dishevelled hair yell out ,of an open window, "I have killed her.” They found the door of the house locked, and while crowbars were being used to force an entry a shot rang out. Rushing upstairs from where the sound of the shot came, the officers saw Harry Hurlstone, aged 58, lying dead on a bed with a revolver in each hand. Downstairs they discovered the body of the man’s wife, Annie Frances Hurlstone, aged 32. ' Shot Rang Out

The man who nearly shared the couple’s fate is Michael Joseph M'Cann, aged 44, lodging at St. George’s terrace, Camp road, Leeds, about 100 yards from the home of the Hurlstones. The drama started when Hurlstone, stated to be obsessed with the idea that certain of his racing acquaintances were paying too much attention to his wife, called at the house in St. George’s terrace and asked to see M'Cann. He was shown into the room occupied by M'Cann. While the two men were in conversation a shot rang out, but before anyone in the house could investigate Hurlstone had left.

Subsequently, M'Cann was found in a dazed condition, suffering from a slight bullet wound on the side of the head. “ When Hurlstone called to see me,” M'Cann said after he had recovered, “we were quite friendly. I was amazed when suddenly he took out a gun and without warning fired at me.

“Instinctively, I ducked, and the bullet just grazed my head and took a piece out of my left ear. I was dazed, and by the time I had recovered my senses Hurlstone had disappeared.” It appears that Hurlstone returned to his home, and re-entered a bedroom which he had locked after giving his four sons breakfast. Then he told his eldest son, 13-year-old Leslie, to go for the police as his mother was ill. From Australia

A week before the tragedy Hurlstone is stated to have shown a revolver to a friend and remarked; '• Bluey will get this, and so will one or two more of them. It will do them good.” Hurlstone went to Leeds from Australia, and had lived in Coburg street for about 25 years. At one time he followed the occupation of a hairdresser, but in later years he had turned his attention to racing In February, at Wakefield. Hurlstone was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on a charge of larceny at the Rugby League cup tie between Leeds and Wakefield, and had only recently left gaol. When he was before the magistrate it was stated that there were convictions against him in Australia as v/ell as in England. Until some permanent provision can be made for them, the orphaned children, Leslie, aged 13, William aged 10, Ronald, aged 7, and Dennis, aged 4, have been handed over to the care of the Public Assistance Committee.