The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-03-30 00:00:00

DREADFUL MURDERS AT PENCE.

A distressing tragedy took place on Sunday mor
Penge, the perpetrator being a man of re,,peetAblO
named Frodenck Hunt, residing at No. 4,
terrace, Dulwich-road. About seven o'clock B.
was called hastily to the house. In the
Mr. and Mrs. hunt they found the unto
.dy
kneeling at the bedside, quite dead. wimat
frightfully cut. She was closely envelope • f the
sheets, and it appeared both from this f iin her
husband's subsequent confession tha I been
attacked in her sleep. A brief struggle jp.. .o doubt,
taken place, and probably life was • V as sum as she
fell upon her knees in the stub- ayer. Her little
girl. Annie Hunt, aged seven p •-'in dead on the
pillow, her throat being no fa • ,!. : the wound
extended back almost to the stairs were
found two boys—Arthur and I• . e first aged
nine and the second live years, ' danum had
been given, and who were si its effects.
By the administration of emetic -medic.' they
soon recovered. Their eldest I.
.' Tick Bour-
don Hunt, aged between twelve . tad refused
a draught which his father ha x is medicine.
A fifth child—Kate Hunt, aced • • d with the life '

-
governess, ..owes her life - ...-.. --
ling lady's
declining to part with her who my father
came to the door and asked that sent dowm
stairs to her mother's bed. An at it occurred
soon after Mr. Longrigg, the surg were,' the
terrible catastrophe. He Villol I bleat boy.
Frederick who asked him whet had hap.
pened. "Something very sad h , " was the
reply and then the lad was told i ; misiderate
wo that his mother was dead. i asked to
go, with his sister Kate, to the . riend, Mr.
Guest, of Laurel-grove, to whom murderer
had written an agonising letter, intervals
which extended over several day• i vas found
outside Hunt's bed-room dour, an rawled ill
pencil the words, "Take this to I ease don't.
come inside Mrs. Hunt's room." I nt, which
was dated the 11;th instant, and Sr began in
ink, thus, "Dear I:ueA—l have that my
attempt to tusks my connection ii, my loss at
Morley 's has been a wretchol (alum pears that
Hunt, • man whose age is stated at ' oployed as
an accountant in the house of Met ey, in St.
Paul's-churchyard, but that a few ii re, having
made an unsuccessful application f in his in-
come he had left his situation. T' which is •
long one, written on a sheet of foci i or goes on
testate that the writer has lived a ' • Tdenicd, as
he calla on all his friends to altos • . •ie seas no-
thing but destitution and the workh :• s wife and
children- that he will save them fr I will send
them to heaven before sending him 11. Among
the matters more calmly set f. his having
borrowed ZZSI on two life-polices, a• uest that •
portion of this money remaining mu
.he proceeds
of a sale of all the household ed.' pplied to the
mf,i7lieifit olf.ei
hpisd.
mid i eabts.dellie givesdesires
o.: hie, if hi, father,
:' .C 2 may be
given to His,, Waas, the governesa ter additions
to this letter are scrawled in petted, re ostensibly
written after the isorters, and dim el taken some
quantity of isnisi. ni. He says 1ti3,4 i has gone to
he....... , cu.,. .1... 1.- .1.. . imu 1•1111Ani :
that he is going mad ; that his Imo mad, and biro
sister cut her throat. To this he in reflections on
the firm he had served, saying, "1 an. Morley he
could have saved me from this." Ile cal, upon the same
gentlemen to get his two surviving children intsi the
Albert Orphan Asylum. After writing this letter Hunt
left his house, and had not been long '-one when the
surgeon entered the bedroom and found the two bodies
' still warm. This was at seven o'clock, and at half-past
the police made their appearance, when telegrams were
sent to the London police-stations. The mother of Mrs.
Hunt was lying paralysed in an upper room, and it was
necessity to deceive her WI to the cause of excitement
below. She believes ttat her daughter has died in child-
bed. Meanwhile, Hunt had gone down the railway
to Beckenham, where he swallowed more laudanum),,
leaving the bottle, as he says, on the line. He then
threw hiniaelf scrim the metals ; but not on the lines
along which the down boat train was coining. When it
had passed. the signalman saw him, and took him up to
Penge. Hunt, it should be stated, is a very little inan.
not more than five feet high, and with a full-sized head
on the body of a boy. He was therefore easily captured.
the more especially a.s he was suffering from the effects of
the poison. When at Peuge he broke away from his cantors
and nearly aucceesied in throwing himself before the
Bickley train as it 'aide in ; but he was prevented, and
was led by Mr. Woolhains, the stationmaster and the
signalman, to the police-station, and given in custody of
the police. The staimachpunip was applied to the prisoner
by Mr. Longrigg, by whose directions the wretched tliall
was kept walking for many hours of the day, to prevent
the effects of the narcotic poison, and was moreover
smartly beaten with towels. To the doctor he confessed
that he bad first murdered his wife and little girl, and had
then tried to poises. two of the boys. On hearing that.
they had been saved, he cried, "Host 1101, doctor,/ hoped
they were in heaven. Iwas weal when I did it, hut 1 ant
...ow. I wish I was dead: oh, let nue kid myself r
He also said he had bought a shilling's worth of laudanum
in London, and had mixed a little sugar with that which
he gave the boys. lie had sat up the whole of the previous
night, burning papers. Mrs. hunt had been appreheusiv•
for the safety of her husband, knowing that he was much
depremed • but she had no fears for herself. On Saturday
the unfornmate num hr..l mken his eldest boy to the
Crystal Palace.