St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-01-09
A Magic Mystery in Boston.
A WOMAN SHOT BY HER DAUGHTE

A WOMAN SHOT BY HER DAUGHTER.
Mrs Helen j. Ward of Boston, a wild
ow of 81, was fatally shot Tuesday
night by her daughter, a girl of lS.
The latter, according to her own story,
had bought a revolver, fearing burg
lars, and kept it under her pillow. On
waking suddenly at a. M, she saw an
object moving in the room, and in her
only half-awakened condition, think
ing only of thieves, tiled. The object
dropped to the floor, when the young
woman, now becoming thoroughly
awake, discovered what she had done.
There is, however, some suspicion that
the act was premeditated. The girl
claims to have been fully conscious of
what had happened only when she
found herself clutching the revolver and
her mother dying by her side. People
who have known the girl long time
scout the murder theory, and say the
Two have always been on the best of
terms. One story is that Mrs. Ward
was attempting to take her own life in
fit of despOndency consequent upon
financial mbarrassment, and that
while the girl was trying to prevent it
the revolver went off. Night Clerk
Charles W. Parker of the Parker House,
who rooms in the same building with
the Wards, had sat up with them until
III O'Clock, cOversing principally on
burglars. The women were very tim
id, and finally the mother gave her
daughter the pistol to be ready for any
supposed thieves as Parker went away
FACTS AND THEORIES.
The daughter, the alleged murderer,
will remain in Jail until the 9TH, when
her examination comes. Public opin-
ion has been much divided as to wheth-
er Mrs. Ward committed suicide be-
cause of financial embarrassment, or
her daughter committed the deed in a
sOmnambulistic state, or it was a de-
liberate murder. The murder theory
was strengthened by an autopsy,
which showed that two shots were
fired, IA ball being found in the victims
brain behind the left eye and in di-
rect line from the wound behind the
right ear, while the hattened bullet on
the floor which was supposed to have
entered at the ear and gone out through
the forehead over the right eve, was
proved to have fractured the scull at
the supposed point of exit aud glanced
off to the floor. This disposes of the
suicide theory, as had the shot behind
the ear been made first, the second
could not have been fired, and had the
forehead wound come first, Mrs. Ward
would have been too much stunned to
fire the more fatal shot. Moreover,
the hair by the ear was singed, and the
ShA H. A.
pistol must have been held close to her
head, and although the girl says she
slept that night with her mother, the
appearance of the bed indicates unmis-
takably, it is said, the occupancy of
one person only overnight. But, as it
to upset the theory of murder, young
Parker testities that he loaned the re-
vOlver to the women as a protection
against intruders, but had emptied one
cartridge shell of its powder and ball,
leaving the hammer resting on the
empty chamber, and two chambers
were subsequently found empty. This
story explains the absence of only one
bullet, and the query, if this is true.
now is where did the second bullet
come fiOm9 When the women retired,
it was late, and as they had been talk
ing about thieves and were naturally
timid and nervous, the girl put the re-
vOlver in a chair within reach should i,
be needed in the night. She saws she
woke up in the night to find the weap-
on under her thigh. Then she ac-
knowledges to seeing a supposed in
truder in the room and using it on him.
but makes the strongest claim against
having knowingly used it on her moth
er. Per contra, it is asked If she shot
at some one in the room why didn't
she shoot in some other direction than
at her mother, and why the delav in
calling doctor. One theory is that as
Miss Helen is an excitable. nervons
girl, evidently with the peculiarities of
sleep walker, her suddenly increased
fears of burglars wi ith exhaustion