The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-03-23 00:00:00

DRELDFUL MURDERS AT-P-ENGK

A distressing tragedy took place on Sunday mor .'
Pengej the perpetrator being a man of respectable . .
named Frederick Hunt, residing at No. 4 ?.
...-
terrace, Dulwich-road. About seven o'clock 6,
was called hastily to the house. In the bed si
Mr. and Mn. Hunt they found the unto
.dy
kneeling at the bedside, quite dead, wi• :oat
frightfully cut. She was cluely envelops, (the
sheets, and it appeared both from this f cm her
husband's subsequent confession tha. I been
attacked in her sleep. A brief strugiee p.. .0 doubt,
taken place, and probably life was • ias aon as she •
fell upon her knees in the attiti• ' -ayer. Her little
girl, Annie Hunt, aged seven y ~ vine dead on the
pillow, her throat being so fa • .I• ; the wound
extended back almost to the stairs were
found two boys—Arthur and 1 . e finit aged
nine and the second five years, • danum had
been given, and who were et its effects.
By the administration of emetic ‘ -.. • inedies they
soon recovered. Their eldest I. . :rick Bour-
don Hunt, aged between twelve lad ref used
• draught which his father has ..s medicine.
A fifth child—Kate Hunt, lured •. • d with thw
governess, and owes her life . mg lady's
declining to part with her ads - Ty father
came to the door and asked that sent down'
stairs to her mother's bed. An at it occurred
soon after Mr. Longrigg, the surg• wered the
terrible catastrophe. He VIM a . , Iciest boy,
Frederick, who asked him whet '. had hap-
pened. "Something very sad t , " was the
, rea;, and then the lad was told i • . ,iiii,ier.te.
w 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 days. ; vu found
outside Hunt's bed-room door, an rawled in
pencil the words, "Take this to b ease don't
come inside Mrs. Hunt's room." I nt, which
was dated the Pith instant, and w. began in
ink, thus, "bear Guest—l have • that my
attempt to make my connection as my lows at
Morley 's has been a wretched fatter' pears that
Hunt, a man whose age is stated at ' splayed as
an accountant in the house of Me, ey, in St.
Paul's-churchyard, but that a few ii ce, 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 (so i er goes on
to state Out the writer has lived a . •• (-denial, as
he calls on all his friends to witnc • . le sees no-
thing but destitution and the workh • s wife and
children' that he will save them fr t will send
them to heaven before sending him 11. Among
the matters more calmly set f. his having
borrowed .L. 70 on two life.polices, a,
.uest that a
portion of this money remaining mu :he proceeds
of • sale of all the household cite pplied to the
payment of his debts. Ile gives the if his father,
In Whitechapel, and desires that tl • .• tSY may be
given to Miss Wass, the govenie.A. .; • ter additions
to this letter are scrawled in pencil, ~ • re ostensibly
written after the murders, and die it taken some
quantity of poison. He lays his, g i has gone to
heme.em % vi,... .L_ '.-A- c _,. r ift... hiumelt •
that he is going mad ; that his Imo mad, and hi;
sister cut her throat To this he is reflections on
the firm he had served, saying, "1 arn Morley he
could have saved me from this." he cal, upon the state
gentlemen to get his two surviving children into the
Albert Orphan Asylum. After writing this letter Hunt
left his house, and had not been long gone when the
asllinnarienn.teWilisthmensbla r'rnse's!lerani ~i.l.l:Cribd, a2eatwh3allrlies
pest
the police made their appearance, when telegrams were
sent to the London isdice-stations. The mother of Mrs.
Hunt was lying paralysed in an upper room, and it was
necessary to deceive her 31.4 to the cause of excitement
below. She believes that her laughter has died in child-
bed. Meanwhile, Hunt had cone down the railway
to Beckenham, where he swallowed more laudanum,
leaving the bottle, as he say., on the line. Ile then
threw himself across the metals ; but not on the line
along which the down boat train was nulling. When it
had pasted, the signalman saw hint 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. Ile was therefore easily captured.
the more especially ilt he was suffering from the effects of
the poison. When at Penge he broke away from his captor,
and nearly 5UM0...11,41 in throwing himself before the
Bickley train as it 'smile in ; but he was prevented, and
• was led by Mr. Woodharna the stationmaster and the
signalman, to She police-station, and given in custody of
theipolice. The stoteachpunip was applied to the prisoner
by Mr. Longrigg, by whose directions the wretched mail
was kept walking for many hour., 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 had first murdered his wife awl little girl, and had
then tried to poison two of the boys. On hearing that.
they had been saved, he cried, " Good 11.0 I, doctor, 1 hoped
they were in heaven. lwas mat when I did it, hot I aim
sane now. I wish 1 was dead ; oh, let me kid myself r
He also said he had bought a shilling's worth, of laudanum
In London, and hat mixed a little sugar with that which
he gave the boys. He had sat up the whole of the previous
night burning mars. Mrs. Ilunt hail been apprehensive
for the safety of her husband, knowing that be was much.
depressed; but she had no fears for herself. On Saturday
the unfortunate man bad taken his eldest boy to the
Crystal Palace.

FORTHOOXING SALES BY AT.TOTION.
THURSDAY, MARCH 211
Mr. Ensor's Repository Sale, Winitorac.
Spruce fir and faggots at Binghaaa's Melcombr., by Mr.
T. S. Morgan.
Furniture and effects as 15, Brunswick Buildings,
Weymouth, by Mr. T. It 4 hArltul.
MONDAY, MARCH 2-1.
Dairy C0w..., Cob Hooe, Waggon, and Household Furni-
ture, at BrSantspuddle, by Mr. T. S. Morgan.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL It
Freehold Estates, Publichouae, Cottages, ,tc., situate at
Piddletrenthide and Piddlehiuton, at Antelope Hotel.
Dorchester, by Mr. T. Enaor.