The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-28 00:00:00

WIFE MURDER AND SUICIDE.

The Scotsman reports that, on Saturday, a house
in Fountain-bridge, which it had been observed by
the neighbours that no one had gone in or come
out of for some days past, was broken open by the
police. On the floor of the kitchen were found the
lifeless bodies of the occupants (a Mr. and Mrs.
Ferrier) with their throats cut. The man was
lying with his face downwards, with a razor under
his neck. There were also two table-knives lying
close by the body of the woman. It was at once
suspected that the man had been the perpetrator
of this atrocious deed, and the suspicion was con-
firmed some time afterwards by the discovery of
a slip of a paper on which the man had written the
following words :—" I am now unfit for my busi-
ness. I have applied to the authorities of both
Ayr and Edinburgh for protection, and only got
laughed at. I now appeal to God. I should wish
to be laid beside my boy, but if this woman is to
be laid there let my body be given to the dissecting
room, and after they have done with me let my
body.be burned." On the some paper there were
also instructions given as to the management of
some property of which he was the proprietor, and
the whole was distinctly written. It may be in-
ferred from the words in the above-quoted sentence
—" but if this woman is to be laid there"—that
Ferrier had written this scroll in the interval
between his cutting of the throat of his wife and
his own suicide. Both of the deceased were nearly
sixty years of age, and had no family. The man
was not engaged in any particular business, but he
had a good income from house property.. The
neighbours state that, in consequence of the intem-
perate habits of Mrs. Ferrier, she and her husband
had of late had frequent quarrels. The last time
that any disturbance was heard in their house was
on Wednesday night last. Early on that evening
the wife had been seen much
intoxicated, and be-
tween eleven and twelve o'clock a noise of scuffling
was heard in the house. The scuffle had not lasted
long when some of the neighbours heard a gurgling
noise, as if some one, had been choking, immediately
after which all become suddenly quiet.

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