Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-07-14
From All Quarters.
IA HORRIBLE BUHCHERY.
FrightfuI Scene in a Mas
saChusetts Town.
PROGRAM FOR The WORLDS FAIR.
Congregationa|ists in Ses-
sion in London.
SMILER'S BODY TO Be ExUHMED.
Mr.. Blaine Rapidly Inn
proving in Health.
sMILER's BODY TO Be ExUHMED.
A BRUTAL MURDER

George Maggie, Infatuated by Drink,
Kills His Wife in Cold Blood-The
instrument Used is an Axe-Five
Wounds Found Upon the Victim,
Either of which was Sufficient to
Have Caused Death-The Murderer
ApPrehended-The Wife Slayer's
Head Cut in Twenty Places, Which
Wounds, He Says, Were inflicted by
Himself.
DEDHAM, Mass, July 13.-For the Sec
ond time within two months Dedham has
been the scene of brutal murder. This
time the tragedy was enacted in the quiet
manufacturing section of the town known
as East Dedham, and the victim, as in the
case of the West Dedham murder of June,
is woman. At about 2:30 o'clock this
afternoon George Maggie, an Irishman, re-
siding in a double tenement house corner
of Bussey street and Mill lane, borrowed
an axe of his landlords wife, Catherine
Burns, for the purpose of cutting some
kindling wood. He cut the wood and car
ried 1t into the cellar kitchen of his part
of the house and arranged it neatly in the
cooking range, pouring some kerosene oil
over it. He then came out and engaged
in conversation with Mrs. Burns. While
he was talking his wife Belle returned
from market with some purchases and
passed in, Maggie following her. A mo-
ment or two after, Mrs. Burns
heard the sound of blows, followed by
heavy fall. She quickly hurried to the
open doorway and looked. One glance was
enough. There lay, before the stove, with
her head split open by the blow of
an axe, the unfortunate Mrs. Maggie. From
the gaping wound on her head streams of
blood were gushing, forming little rivulets
and pools on the rough boards of the
floor. Maggie was not in sight. After
striking the murderous blows he threw
Burns, terribly frightened, hurried to the
grocery store of Selectmsn Thomas P
Murray, where she told of Nagle's mad
deed, and few minut ,s aft onward George
Maggie, the murderer, came rushing into
the same store. He was bleeding prof asely
from several wounds on his head and his
clothing, face and hands were soaking
with blood from his own wounds and the
life blood of his wife. He accosted Select
man Murray with: ct don't know what is
the matter with me. I have killed my
wife. Come dow and see her."
Murray went with him to the scene of
the murder, and on reaching the door Muir
ray urged Maggie to remain outside. This
he refused to do, but pushed in through
the crowd that had collected. AS soon as
Maggie again saw the dead body of his " ife
he began to cry and exclaim: ooh! My
Godl Why did I do it!'
Selectman Murray and William J. Hayes,
one of the crowd, took Maggie to the Office
of DR.. Babcock on Walnut street, where
the wounds on his head were dressed. In
an explanation of how he received the
twenty or more cuts on the head Maggie
said he made them with the axe after he
had killed his wife, as he wanted to die.
After his wounds were dressed Maggie was
taken to the Deadham lookup, where he
will be kept until he has hearing, which
will probably come tomorrow or Wednes-
day after the autopsy.
When the officers arrived at the house
the murdered woman lay just in front of
the stove in large pool of blood. On her
head were five gaping wounds. either suff-
Gent to have killed her. The deepest
wound extended across her right temple
and the remaining four ran across the top
of her head. portion of the right ear
was also cut off, All five blows were made
with the sharp edge of the axe and each
cut through the skull bone into the brain.
The first of the blows had evidently been
dealt as his wife was in the act
of lighting the fire, as her stiffen-
ed fingers held pal tly burned match.
Maggie had resided in East Dedham
about three months. He came here from
Adams, Mass, and had worked as a wool
sorter in the Merchants wooden mills. He
is thirty-eight years old, his wife was
thirty-four, and they had been married
about three years. They had no children.
He was man much addicted to strong
drink, and only two weeks ago his Wife
paid his fine and secured his release from
the Dedham House of Correction, where
he had been sent for ten days on charge
of drunkenness. There is little doubt
drink was what caused him to kill his
wife, although it is said there is a faint of
insanity in his family.