The New York herald., 1878-12-04
A TENEMENT TRAGEDY.
HARGAREr DOWNING BEATEN TO DEATH BY HER
DRUNKEN HUSBAND.

MARGARET DOWNING BEATEN TO DEATH BY HER
DIuNKES HUSBAND.
Another text for a temperance sermon was fur
nslcd last night in domestic tragedy enacted III
little tumbe-down house, in Nineteonth street IL is
an old fashioned wooden structure. hidden out OF
sight. III the OF the tenement at No. 44 ana on
the upper floor in mere mites OF apartments dwelt
the two actors in the short, but eyentfn drama
husband and wife-Ly name John AMI Margaret
Downing John big, burly man of forty
who had served during the the Tifty-iirst New
York Volunteers and done service that won him pro-
motion. He was a shoemaker by trade, and has
of late been working steadily at place
ON Eighth avenue once he was given TO
registering habits aud during his incorporate spells
his temper ugly, but he was generally regarded
az peaceabe and harmless sort Of fellow. During
the last six months he absained fron liquor there
nothing in his habits on conduct to merit
rcbukc. On Monday evening. however, u
MAS noticed that he had been drinking. and
when he came home late at night hc was somewhat
noisy and abusive His wife Margaret. q weak. lean
little years his senior. who was re-
marked for her industrious habits. heard remou
srating with him. She was very deaf aud had very
little to say at amy time ana there was not
much wranglins on her side. When quiet was
supposed that lac had given his dcbsuch but
In the evening he came home drunker than before
and there were hard words heard by the neigh
bors in the little apartments OF the Downings and II
is sad. too, that the woman was heard once To beg
for her life Believing il to be only passing quar-
rel one interfered and when John stumbled down
Stairs soon after no one needed him. Once or twice
there heard little stir il the rooms
he had left and htful sob eroan
audible but the neghbors still kept to
their own quarters and religiously abstaned
from interference. Later in the evening John came
back triie sober and little anxious-looking,
il was thought, by those who saw him passing in.
His stay very brief though. He heard
moving about the room moment, groan such as
heard before came through the doorway and then
h. came ont and hurried away with An excited
and startled face. Then the ncighbors fairly
aroused al last. Their eyes confirmed what their
ears had long before interpreted tor them, and
sagacious soul called in policeman
johnson. The door opened, and in
the inner apartment bedroom. Margaret
Downing found lying upon the door. with torn
clothes and dsheyeed hair They tried to raise her.
but she dead. There some upon her
head, with clpts of blood about them. and on her
naked back We're couple OF abrasions that looked
like the marks of heel.
The officer at hurried into the street. and
Downing. who had not left the neighbor-
hood put under He taken
to the Sixteenth precinct station house. where
Captain Allaire locked him up and sent
word to Coroner Woltman, who viewed the body.
From all indications Downing, in his drunken de-
lrium, had assaulted his wife, and the patient little
woman had received her death at his hands without
putcry COMPLAINT.