FATHER THE SLAYER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 88, 5 July 1927, Page 1

FATHER THE SLAYER

Suicide Follows Murder of Wife, Son and Daughter SECRET BEHIND GRIM TRAGEDY A GRIM deathpact, it is suspected, lies behind a tragic discovery at Mount Albert last night, when four people, a, mother and father and their two adult children, were found, all shot dead, in a house in West Street. Guarding its dreadful secret, the house had not been entered for nearly a fortnight. It was a light, left burningin a bedroom, that led to an investigation.

IVHEN Police-Constable McGlone, of Mount Albert, entered the dwelling early last evening, he found four people dead. The victims of the tragedy are:

ERNEST WHITBY KIDDELL, 57, retired Customs officer. LOUISA KIDDELL, 55, his wife. LORNA KIDDELL, 27, a student, their daughter. COI.LEN W. KIDDE LL, 25, farmer, their son. An English family, the Kiddells appear to havd begun their association with New Zealand in 1022, when Collen Kiddell started farming in Taranaki. Hd worked on a dairy-farm at Ratapiko, near Eltham, and more recently took up a place of his own near Mangaweka, on the Main Trunk Line. domestic worries In a letter to the police, Kiddell, senior,, stated that domestic trouble was leading him to take the lives of hi a wife and children, and then his own. The little house in West Street had sheltered the family only a few days when tragedy intervened, and the inference from the evidence gathered by the police is that all had agreed to die. The daughter, possibly, was an exception to the ghastly pact. She had apparently been shot in her sleep, an she lay upon a settee in the living

room, with one arm stretched out as though she had been groping on the floor for matches and candle. In the adjoining bedroom were found mother and son, clasped together on the bed. On the floor beside the bed, lying cn his back, was Kiddell. senior. A Winchester .32 rifle, with four live cartridges in its magazine, rested across his still-crooked arm, and the bullet which killed him, after entering his head through the roof of his rahuth, had lodged in the ceiling. KILLED HIS FAMILY Clearly, the father had killed his family and then bent across the muzzle of his weapon, so that the bullet would enter his mouth. Tlie girl must have been shot first, and the suggestion that the mother and her son must have been ready for iheir fate is strengthened by the absence of any evidence of a struggle. All were in night attire, and the mother and her son were together, side by side, as though they had been sleeping peacefully. The boy had been shot through the face, the bullet entering at the right side of the nose, and emerging, as though deflected, through the temple. Death, in all cases* must have come at once. The girl had been shot through the back of the head.

UNPLEASANT TASK

POLICE INVESTIGATION SHOTS HEARD BY NEIGHBOUR The task of the police investigators was not pleasant. According to Superintendent Wohl®aii, the police have established the fact that the date of the shocking tragedy was June 22, some time after 10 p.m. This morning Mr. Murray Mcßride, w ho lives in Williams Street, nearly behind the Kiddell home, said he remembered being awakened by shots, soire little time after he had gone to bed, as far as he could recollect, about a fortnight ago. He said he distinctly recollected bearing two shots. There might have been more. UNSUSPECTING NEIGHBOURS Strangely enough none of the nearer neighbours recollect hearing shots. vt ancl Arrol and Mr. and Mrs. McMahon live opposite, and Mrs.* Taylor lives next door. Mrs. Taylor’s is not even divided from the nouse of tragedy by a fence. There 8 °nly 20 feet of lawn and pathway. • seems almost extraordinary that the

bodies could have stayed so lons undiscovered. Yet the circumstances are reasonable enough. After the police arrived, Dr. D. N. W. Murray, the police doctor, examined the bodies.

This morning the house was fumiited and the bedding burned. The

THE LATE MISS LORNA KIDDELL

fire in the backyard, detectives searching the house, and groups of curious onlookers,, were the only indications of anything unusual. The bodies had earlier been removed.

LIGHT LEFT BURNING

DISCOVERY OF BODIES It was a light left burning in a front bedroom that led to the discovery of the bodies. Neighbours had been perplexed at the stillness that brooded over the house. After being in the house only a few days, the occupants had apparently

left, but none of the neighbours had seen them go.

In the windows the blinds were drawn, but at night a light glowed through the rose-coloured fanlights of the casements.

A neighbourly feeling that the light bill would be mounting ominously caused Mrs. E. McMahon, who lives at No. 2 West Street, across the road, to discuss the mystery with other residents, and finally on Friday last, she wrote to Mrs. J. Clark, the owner of the house. LETTER TO OWNER Mrs. Clark had let the house, furnished. some months ago, and the previous tenants moved out only the day before the Kiddells came in. Mrs. McMahon wrote to Mrs. Clark last Friday, and on Monday received a reply, in which Mrs. Clark, who had formerly lived in the house, and was therefore well known in the locality, said her tenants had paid their rent in advance, and she therefore did not feel justified in entering the house. She expressed concern, however, at the' manner in which the light bills would be. mounting up, and mentioned that she had wired the son. Collen Kiddell, at Mangaweka, but had received no reply.

Mrs.'McMahon said she continued to feel uneasy, and yesterday told her daughter, who goes to the Grammar School, to call and tell Mrs. Clark that the light was still burning. “DEAD IN HERE”

Mrs. Clark then decided to make a move. She sent her sister to the Mt. Albert police station, and just before six o'clock last evening the girl arrived, with Constable McGlone, to whom she had given a duplicate key. As soon as he opened the door. Constable McGlone realised that all was not well within the house. He turned to the girl, and said, “Stand back, lassie. They’re dead in here.” . Before he went further with his

examination, Constable McGlone obtained a candle and matches. He saw the three corpses in the bedroom, and at once sent word to the city station.

FATHER'S LETTERS

FAMILY UNHAPPINESS Superintendent Wohlman said this morning that he could not disclose the exact nature of the domestic unhappiness revealed in the father’s letter to the police. To the question as to whether or not Kiddell senior had purchased the rifle in Auckland, he said he was not in a position to make a reply. Mr. Kiddell brought a gun with him from England, but that was not the weapon with which he slew his family. Apparently the death-dealing Winchester was purchased in Auckland for the purpose fulfilled on June 22. ACCOMPLISHED GIRL

Only soul-wracking unhappiness could have induced Kiddell to contemplate the dreadful deed he ultimately performed. What the exact nature of the trouble was may never be disclosed. Miss Kiddell, a studious and accomplished girl, is said to have been neurotic and temperamental, often a source of worry to her parents. The behaviour of both his son and his daughter is said to have caused Kiddell, senior, the gravest alarm and&anxiety. Passengers who accompanied the Kiddell family on the Remuera from England spoke of Miss Kiddell’s neurotic temperament, and her parents were sorely distressed on more than one occasion during the voyage. HIGHLY-STRUNG The son was also highly-strung and his behaviour had at times distressed his parents. ’(Continued on Page 11.)