NOVELIST'S TRAGEDY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7433, 20 June 1902, Page 2

NOVELIST'S TRAGEDY.

KILLED M A BROTHER. MURDER AND SUICIDE. The well-known novelist, Paul Leicester Ford, author of " The Honourable Peter Stirling" and many successful books t was murdered in New York by his brother, Malcolm Ford, a distinguished athl.te, who afterwards committed suicide. It was in the library in Paul's home, at 37, East Seventy-seventh Street, .that the tragedy was enacted. Paul Ford wa» sitting at a table when his brother was admitted by a maid. Without any parley Malcolm drew a revolver and fired, the bullet entering the left breast of his brother and piercing his heart. Malcolm's shot at himself is said to have inflicted an almost precisely similar wound. The only words uttered before the shooting were a demand for money by Malcolm and a refusal, by Paul, who, when his brother produced the revolver, rose from his chair and said, " All right ; I want to die bravely." Mrs Ford, alarmed by the shots, hurried to the library. *Paul talked to his wife for several minutes before he died. Mrs Ford had! been in a room on an upper floor when she' heard the reports. She seemed to know intuitively what had happened and ran downstairs screaming and calling her husband's name. Mr Ford, who was born at Brooklyn in 1865, edited the writings of Thomas Jefferson, the writings of John Dickenson, and numerous otheif works relating to American history and bibliography. He was also the author of "The Great K. and A. Train Robbery," " The Story of an Untold Love," "The True George Washington," and a number of magazine articles and short stories. He married Mary Grace Kidder in 1900. According to Reuter, Malcolm Ford was in ill-health, and his action is attributed to mental aberration.. .