SHOCKING TRAGEDY AT TAURANGA.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXV, Issue 7145, 10 February 1892, Page 2

SHOCKING TRAGEDY AT TAURANGA.

■ »'» . WIFE AND FAMILY ATTACKED BY A RELIGIOOB. MANIA. BATTEUED BY A FLAT IRON. FOUR, CHILDREN DEAD. WIFE IN A CRITICAL CONDITION. (SPECIAL TO ADVERTISER,) Auckland, February 9, A iiiiißißLK tragedy was enacted at Tauranga this morning, somewhere about daylight, but the exact time ia not known. Dnnoan Munro, a well known resident} in I a fit of religions mania attacked bh wife ami family, of four little children, with an old fashioned ilat iron; and mangled them dreadfully, DISCOVERY Ob' THE TRAGEDY llio firafc discovery of the tragedy was uiado by the m.lkmaii, About six o'clook in tho moraing he saw Munro on tho beach i.i his night shirt; finding that no one answered his knock, aud seeing the front door open, tho milkman began to auspejt something was 'Wrong, and 011 opening the door he saw tho cWeet boy laying, on tho floor, ju3t at the entry to the kitchen,in a I'rioii or'blood . ■ . apparently dead uud buttered about tliehead almost beyond resoghition. Further, examinations Hbowod that the other threo children , had also beeu attacked, and '.■'■■ A wohful sight . j pressnted itsalf ia the bedroom. _ Tho second boy lay apparently slaughtered in a cot, aad the third boy and the baby were lyinc battered in the bed, having evidently been sleeping with their mother, They were all struck about the head in the samp way, the point of the iron hiving been driven into the head over and ovor asfain. There were no marks on the bodies I at all, A SIC'KENISG SPECTACLE, lira Munro was seriously mutilated, almost the whole of the back cf the head being j jabbed in, and the brain pvotuding, i'iecca of tho skull were picked up on the kitchen floor. There are marks of a violent and . VIWPEBATB STKUSCM haying , taken place, the side of the room beiug marked with blood and hair, where she had fallen or had been knookad against ia the desperate struggle for life. Uu beiu£» examined it was found that life win not extinct in any of tlie victims, but they were all lying in a hopeless state, NAMES np THE VICTIMS. Their names are Giace Emma Munro (the wife), a?cd 30 years; George,'. 6 years j John Hugh, five years; Alexander, thres years; Lillian, aged nine months. MUXROS A(!E. Munro'a age is 33, antf he was born in' Victoria, but has been a resident of Tauranga sinoo tho year JS64, DEATH'OF THE FOUR CHILDREN. The twi) eldest boy< lingered till about eleven o'cloak, when they both died, nearly at the same time, The baby lived till a lifctlo past 1 o'clock, and then expired, , The remaining child died in the evening. CRITICAL STATE OK JIBS MONRO, Mrs Munro lies in an nneonsoious stata, breathin.? heavily, but no hopes whatever are held ont for her recovery, After committing the dreadful deed the father wandered down abont the beach, where he was apprehended, ' On being spoken to, he admitted he hai KILLKD THEM ALL, and faid "Glory hallelujah," and when asked how he did it, said '• with a flat iron,' and that" God told him to do it," He has been confined in the poliae celU all day howling and screechin?, and altemately siuging hymns, and althoneh he is conscious of who b he has done, he "seems to have no idea of the enormity of the crime, He has been liable to HOMICIDAL MANIA for some years pas' , .. Since iio was a boy lio has been subject to epileptic fits, and some two or three .rears ago ho developed religion mania, whiob ouhuinated iu such dangerous symptoms that ho was sent to the Auckland Lunatio Asylum ■ After being there soma fow months his wife yio'ded against her befc*cr judgment to the ejrnest solicitations of hi* relatives, and he wai released from the asylum, Of late months ha has again developed dangerous eymptonn and hw threatened the life of hie family several times,

A SACRIFICE TO MAKE, The day before the fatal deed was t'lono ho said bo had a sacrifice to.make. Dr Builen repeatedly warned Munro't relatives of the danger of his b&jng at large, and especially to his family, but unfortunately no notice waa taken of his warnings.