A GHASTLY DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.

Southland Times, Issue 12105, 9 April 1908, Page 2

A GHASTLY DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.

FATHER AND THREE CHILDREN DEAD.

MOTHER, DAUGHTER and BABY UNCONSCIOUS.

J. Reid Baxter Attacks his Sleeping Family and then Blows his Head Off.-A House of Horror.

Some time during the night—Tuesday night—Unheard, unsuspected, there happened In quiet Crlnan street, almost directly oposite the South School, one of the completes! and most ghastly dies that have ever occurred In New Zealand. No motive cart he reasonably suggested, no explanation may be Justly given. Men do these things sometimes, and those who hear arid see can only shudder and wonder and then try to forget. The facts known In this case are, tersely put, that James Held Baxter, florist, who recently has been doing business in Deo street, his wife and his five children were found yesterday morning In his house in Crlnan street, some dead, some still clinging to life.

the other side of the passage—the parents’ room. As they did so there started up In the bed a woman Who gasped out the question already recorded and then fell back on to a pillow on which remained hardly a hand breadth of while. In a cot beside the bed lay the baby, conscious but dazed. Apparently It had received a slight blow, for the wound on its head was more of a deni. When it was thus found that timely aid might save life an ambulance was quickly brought, and the three wounded ones were sent to the hospital. Then the Sergeant and the missionary searched further. Thfey found the door loading from kitchen to scullery and bathroom locked. They hurried outside and through the bathroom window saw the horrible thing within. They went back with an axe and broke open the locked door. Baxter was lying in the bath with his legs sticking up over the end and the gun clutched in ills hand. He had on his pyjamas, socks, and a coat and vest. In the bath was also found an ordinary Iron stove scraper about 30 inches long and hooked after the customary pattern. It is assumed (and the doctor supports the assumption) that this was the weapon with which the murders were done. Those are the ascertained facts. Incidentally, it is cruelly apparent that the killing was done with devilish skill and carefulness. Except in the case of one boy two blows seem to have been needed, and each was a terrible blow, cleaving skull and tissue. The weapon was light and it is supposed that though it inflicted such terrible injuries on the children it was not heavy enough to penetrate so effectively the harder skulls of the elder ones. Wo learned last night that the gun with which Baxter shot himself was purchased on Monday from Messrs Smith and Laing. A few days before Baxter had purchased a .22 bore Remington rifle, but brought it back on Monday, saying that it was too small to shoot rabbits with, and exchanged it for the 12 gauge fowling piece that did Us work with such sickening thoroughness. This is the only evidence so far that may be in any way assumed to indicate premeditation. Condition of patients at the hospital Is critical. It is believed that Mrs Baxter may pull through, and that the baby will probably recover, but the state of Phyllis seems beyond all hope. It cannot yet be ascertained (and may lever be) when the tragedy happened ; but It may be mentioned that the Watch in Baxter’s vest was Hound to have stopped at 2.50. On the edge of the batli was a candle stick in which the candle had burned itself out, and seemingly it was by the aid of this dim light that Baxter went his round and did his deadly work.

The dead dte : James Retd Baxter, aged 43. Basil Baxter, aged 9. Roy Baxter, aged 4. Ronald Baxter, aged 2. Those who were found to be ■till alive and were taken to the hospital are : Mrs Elizabeth Baxter, aged 37. Phyllis Baxter, aged 11. Baby, aged six weeks. If Kipling, with all his wonderful gift of Imagination and his marvellous powers of pourtrayal, were to set himself to describe the gruesome in concrete form, he could make no picture more horrible and sickening than that which gripped the vision of those who entered Baxter's house yesterday. Mercifully, the faces of the children were not bruised into hideousness, though -the gaping wounds in the heads turned the watcher sick in body and In mind. The small bodies lay there us they had lain in sleep, eyes closed, mouths sightly and winning as the mouths of sleeping children are. Very clear and waxy were ihe faces, save where the blotches were that told their own story. But the pillow's and the beds—they need not be lescrlbed. The pen falters again when ;t comes to picturing the father, the man who. by all circumstantial evidence, must bo deemed to have done this slaughter, as he was found, lying head down where he had toppled Into a bathful of water. There lay with him a single-barrel 12 gauge shotgun, and seemingly he had killed himself by putting the muzzle In his mouth and pulling the trigger. The bathroom was at the back of the house off the scullery, and very small. Seemingly, Baxter, after having finished his murders, went into the bathroom, filled the bath, locked the door, and then shot himself so that Ills body fell Into the water. It was grizzly caution, but It was unnecessary ; the shot did its work too terribly well. Even the doctor, for whom mutilated bodies have no horror, exclaimed when lie first saw' the gruesome, shattered remnant that was all that remained of the head of J. R. Baxter. The lower jaw and the moustache remain—above that there is nothing. The state of the bathroom itself Is loathsome beyond words. The rending, scattering pellets of No. 4 shot had driven out and around and had distributed about the walls, the floor, the ceiling, even into the bolt-catch of the door, that which made the place very much more repulsive than any slaughterhouse. So rnuqh by way of a general sketch of the house as it appeared to a pressman who went through it yesterday afternoon. For the beginning of the story of tills awful tragedy we must go back to earlier happenings. J. R. Baxter was, relatively, a newcomer to Invercargill. He arrived, here about 12 months ago, and set up In business as florist and nurseryman. His business, so far, was necessarily small, but so far as Is known it was promising well, and there is no reason to suppose that his mental date had been excited by business worries or financial tightness. On the contrary it is known that the family was comfortably well off. There are hose who say now (after the event) that Baxter's manner as observed by customers in his shop was frequently lueer and suggestive of a mind distracted ; but there is no evidence of my indications of insanity, and statements made now may probably be fairly discounted. What is known is that recently Baxter had an attack of influenza on which supervened British cholera, but just what effect these complaints may have bad on his mental balance It Is impossible to say. Of his manner during the day and the earlier oart of the night preceding the tragedy only Mrs Baxter (so far as Is known) might speak with certainty, and her Ups are sealed for the present, if not for ever. Little tilings noticed about the house, however, conveyed an impression that may be stated for what it is worth, viz., that to all appearances the family had spent the evening In their usual way and had gone to bed after their regular habit. Hanging in the kitchen were clothes that looked as though they had been recently ironed ; In the scullery, piled up neatly as a good housewife would leave them, were cups and saucers that spoke of supper before bed-time. And last, and most pitiful of all, In the bedroom in which Mrs Baxter and her baby were found. There lay neatly folded upon a chair a little pile of children’s clothes. There was a clean white bib, newly pressed, there was a little suit of blue-striped overalls, and there were little socks and stockings. That little pile told as plainly as inanimate things can tell of a mother and her "mending.” Then the children were all in their beds, and there was every indication that they had been tucked in and " happed up" just as usual. Furthermore there is reason to believe that when the father was going his stealthy round every member of the family was asleep and unsuspecting. When Sergt. Matheson entered Mrs Baxter’s bedroom yesterday morning she sat up In bed and exclaimed ” What lias happened ?” and then sank back unconscious, and the supposition is that she knew nothing till the blow was tsruck, and perhaps nothing then. Probably she bad lain unconscious through the rest of the night and therein is mercy ; for the possibility of her having spent those dark hours In clear realisation is too awful to contemplate. But however these things may have been the facts remain. Mr McLean, the city missionary, who lives next door, and had heard nothing during the night, noticed this morning an unusual stillness about the house, and going to the front bedroom window looked In and saw the bodies of the children lying in the bed. He called up the police, and Sergeant Matheson dashed off in a cab. These two went through the window and stood aghast at what they saw. The two little boys, Basil and Roy, lay In the bed, with heads gashed and gaping, each on the left side, their pillows rod and drenched with blood. It was such a sight as turns men sick ; but these men had work to do and do quickly. For all they knew the house still held a live madman, lurking somewhere, and still athirst for blood. They took the risk ; it was their business. In the room immediately behind the one first entered they found more blood, more death, more horror. Ronald, the two-year-old, lay In the bed dead. There was a cut over his left eye, and by a second blow the top of hjs skull had been laid back so that his brains protruded. On the floor, to the left of the bed, beside a chest of drawers, lay Phyllis, the oldest girl, allva but unconscious, a gash in her head also. Hastily th« searchers entered the room op

INQUEST COMMENCED. MR MCLEAN'S EVIDENCE. A GRUESOME DISCOVERY. An inquest was commenced at the house of the tragedy’ at 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon before Mr W. A. Stout, J.P., and the following Jury’:—E, Webber (foreman), Andrew Bain jr., Albert E. King, Alfred Holmes, Charles Sloan, and Robert McNeil. Mr Stout having explained that the Jury yvas summoned to enquire into (lie deaths of Jas. R. Baxter and his three children, Basil, Roy and Ronald, the jury viewed the bodies, which were lying exactly in the positions in which they were discovered. This gruesome duty accomplished, Sergeant Malhieson, who conducted the enquiry for the police, said that the only evidence ho proposed to call at this stage was that of Mr McLean, who yvould Identify the bodies. He would then ask for an adjournment to see whether Mrs Baxter would be able to give any evidence. Archibald McLean. City Missionary In Invercargill, said: I reside next door on the right to the house occupied by’ the deceased, and I yvas Intimately acquainted with him and his family. The two boys lying dead in the front room are Basil and Roy, and the one in the back bedroom is Ronald. I heard no noise or disturbance last night. My bedroom faces this house, and until 10.45 last night I yvas in a room precisely’ opposite the yvindoyv of Mrs Baxter’s bedroom. I noticed nothing unusual in Mr Baxter’s manner lately. 1

know he has been ill of late and heard that he had British cholera. 1 believe Baxter was down at the Bluff one day during his illnes’s, and fell off a rock. I made a discovery between 10.45 afid 11 this morning. 1 came to the front window, raised the blind, and saw the bodies of Basil and Roy. Prior to that I had noticed that there was no life or movement about the place. I saw that the blinds were down when 1 went outside in the morning, and hearing someone calling out I went to the window as stated. I ran straight across to the South Invercargill Police Station and telephoned for the police, who arrived in ten minutes, followed immediately by Dr Ewart and the ambulance. The police took possession of the house and 1 saw Mrs Baxter, the baby, and Phyllis removed to the hospital. 1 then accompanied Sergeant Malheson into the house, entering by the front window we made a hurried examination of (he two bodies in the front room and found life extinct. In the room immediately behind it Roy was dead in the bed, and Phyllis was on the floor alive, but unconscious. She was lying on one elbow and one hand, with the other hand stretched out in front of her. We next entered Mrs Baxter’s bedroom. As we went in she raised herself, turned towards the door, and said: “What is the matter?” She sank back unconscious. The baby was in a cot alongside, also unconscious. Having found that three of the inmates were alive 1 hurried back to the telephone and hurried up the ambulance and doctor. We then continued our search. The door into the scullery, through which he bathroom was reached, was locked. We went outside and looked through the bathroom window, seeing a body in the bath. We burst open the door and found Baxter lying in the bath, which was full of water. His legs, from thejtnees, were sticking over the end of the bath, as though deceased had been sitting on the end of the bath and had fallen backwards. Baxter was dead, and was ! holding the gun (produced) in one hand, the muzzle pointing towards his feet. The gun contained a discharged cartridge In the breech. The stove scraper (produced) was also found here. Inspector Mitchell had -arrived by this time with Constable Lennon, and the four of us lifted the body onto the kitchen tabic where it now lies. Everything was done by the police with the utmost despatch. The injured ones were in the ambulance within 30 minutes after my terrible discovery. The Inquest was then adjourned till next Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Courthouse, but if Mrs Baxter is not then in a condition to give evidence the inquest will be further adjourned. ADDITIONAL DETAILS. Details of the search of the house during Mr McLean’s absence at the telephone are filled in by Sergeant Matheson. .After Mrs Baxter’s exclamation and relapse into unconsciousness, the Sergeant went outside and summoned assistance. Mrs Mcßobie came to his aid with brandy, and the stimulant was given to Mrs Baxter and Phyllis. While

the Sergeant continued his search Mrs Mcßobie, who is a nurse, washed the wounds of mother and daughter, and prepared them for the arrival of the ambulance, The police were at first at a loss to discover the implement with which the family were attacked. They expected to find some heavy weapon, horrible with the traces of the assault, but the closest search failed to bring to lijfiit any implement of the nature .expected, The stove scraper Was found in the - hath. Beyond a doubt this seemingly inefficient weapon was chosen for lire deed. It exactly fits the wounds, and its lightness no doubt accounts for the fact that the older victims, Mrs Baxter- and Phyllis, are still alive. When found the scraper was perfectly clean, the water having purged from it the stains of the most hideous tragedy ever enacted in the dominion. ETJT-.li UKCOWSCJOUS. An enquiry at the Hospital at three o’clock this morning elicited the information that the condition of the wounded members of the family was then unchanged. The bodies will be coffined this morning and burled in the Eastern Cemetery at 10 a.m. to-morrow.