SENSATIONAL SEQUEL TO M’CASKELL TRAGEDY

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19267, 2 January 1931, Page 1

SENSATIONAL SEQUEL TO M’CASKELL TRAGEDY

HUSBAND COMMITS DRAMATIC SUICIDE.

(United Press Assn.— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.)

PERTH, December 31. There was a sensational sequel to the M’Caskell tragedy, when the Jiusband, Victor M’Caskell, committed suicide in a most dramatic manner. Mrs M’Caskell and her infant child were found battered to death on her husband’s farm, and William Albert, aged twenty-one, a farm hand, was found hanging from a rafter on the verandah, . circumstances pointing to his having committed the crime. However, the police were not satisfied with the theory that Albert was the murderer, and inquiries showed that Mrs M’Caskell’s life was recently insured for £2OOO.

When he learned that the police had held up the funeral of Mrs M’Caskell and her daughter, the husband was fourteen miles away, awaiting the cortege. He suddenly motored back to his farm at a high speed, pursued by a policeman. M’Caskell drove right through a wire fence, halted near a haystack, placed gelignite in his mouth, and blew his head and portion of his body to atoms. The policeman arrived just in time to witness the horrible deed.