The Dreadful Murder in Grahamstown.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2118, 18 October 1875, Page 2

The Dreadful Murder in Grahamstown.

As our issue of Saturday was actually ' in the course of publication, news was \ brought of a fearful murder which had j been committed in Grahamstown, thebare I facts of whiehjwere at once placed Before j our readers in a " second edition." The facts as far as since ascertained in derail. were these:—ln,a yard to, whjclx there is an entrance in Golden Crownstreet lived a miner named Walls, his wife Margaret, and two children—-a boy named Patrick Henry, aged eight years, and a girl, Mary Anne, two years younger. Walls was a miner, and working in the Central Italy mine on the day shift at the time of the occurrence. The two children were seen by a boy named Baxter lying close by the cottage walls, and the mother striking them with an axe. The boy gave the alarm to Adam Elliott, who seeing what was taking place, ran for the police and assistance. Mr Sandes, Sergeant Elliott, and Detective Brennan were soon on the spot. The scene on th*ir arrival was a fearful one. 51The brains of each child were.protruding in a ghastly manner, the head of the boy having been smashed in apparently by the blunt side of the axe,. while the sharp side seemed to have been used to the girl in the endeavour to sever the head from the body. The left side of the boy's head was completely battered in, and the skull fractured across the forehead, so that the top part of the head was separated across the forehead, although the skin of the forehead was not broken, the brains protruding from the back of the head. The left side of the girl's neck was deeply cut, and it is probable that the neck , was also dislocated. Death was of course inevitable, the surprising thing being that it did not sooner occur, considering the fearful nature of the injuries i sustained by the children. They were i both alive when the father returned home. He was quite frantic with grief. The boy lived about an hour and a quarter after ha had received the injuries, and the little girl about an hour and threequarters. The wretched mother was takes to the Grahamstown Station, where she was kept all night, watched and guarded, and subsequently removed to Shortland. She has slept fairly well, aud her awful position seems hardly to be realised by her.