HOTEL TRAGEDY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXII, Issue 12394, 19 February 1908, Page 2

HOTEL TRAGEDY.

Three Men Suffocated

On Christmas Day, the Swansea police were notified of the death of three men through asphyxiation. A party of four men went to a local hotel on Clmstmrs Eve and engaged a double bedded room. They were called next morning for breakfast, but the reply came that they would be down for dinner. Between two and tlirec in the afternoon the landlord again called, and receiving no reply the door was forced open, and three of the men were found dead, and the fourth unconscious. Death was due in each case to suffocation caused by escaping gas. It is stated that when the men went to bed the gas was turned off at the meter, but it was turned on again next morning, and it probably came on when the men were asleep. The man who was found unconscious, Thomas John, is progressing favourably. All the deceased were young men, and one of them is believed to be William Richards, of Abercrave.

Inquiries tend to sllow that the four men arrived at the" hotel, two at a time, and went to bed perfectly sober. The last remark made by one of their number to the landlord was, "We will have a, Chrietmaq drink to-morrow."

The men were apparently 20 to 25 yeaiu of age. A later message says that when the room was entered by the sister of the proprietress one man was foaming at the month and died immediately, "ilie other two were already dead.