The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-03-17
FEARFUL MURDERS.
The Mystery Which en- Australian
Tragedy Revealed.
A TALE OF TWO ooNTrNErTa.

HenrtIeas Monster in an English
Town-Buried Beneath the Fire
place.
LONDON, March IA tragedy un-
paralleled in the history OF British crims
came TO light yesterday through most
singular chain Of circumstances. In
July last man named Arthur Will.
Jams resided in the Dinham villa, in
Rainhill, d fashionable suburb of Liver
pool. Not much seems to be known
about the antecedents of Williams. He
seems, however, to have been received
IN society, and passed as well to do
bachelor. He coprted Miss Mather, a
young woman generally admired for her
beauty and other attractions, and recog-
nized as local belle. They got mar
ried and went to Australia, where they
were supposed to be living happily. The
people of Rainhill were shocked few
days ago by the news from Australia
that Williams had been arrested there
on a charge of numbering his wife, and
that he had concealed the body of the
murdered woman beneath the fireplace,
carefully covering the place again with
cement. There the authorities had un-
Viutneu tne retnalnS.
AS soon as these facts became noised
about in Rainhill the people called to
mind queer suspicious that had been
.afloat about Williams when he occu-
pied the Dinham villa. They remem-
lbered that one day lady and two chill
dren had visited the villa TO see Williams,
and from the moment of their entering
the place no one had seen them again. The
affair caused some remark at the time,
ibut nobody thought of murder, and the
matter was dropped with the supposi-
ltion that the lady and the two children
Ehad gone away without being observed.
Now, however, the neighbors began to
suspect that there might have been foul
iplay, and they determined to state the
Facts to the police. The police con-
leluded that no harm could be done by
Investigating, and they proceeded to
lthe Dinham villa and began to dig up
beneath the fireplace.
Mother and Children Dead.
They noticed, as they began. that the
iplace had been disturbed within a com
tparatiyely recent period, and certainly
tsince other work had been done in the
interior of the villa. They hardly ex-
fpected, however, to find anything, and
their amazement was great when
shortly after they had removed the
outer covering they came upon the
bodies of two children. The body of
one child indicated that the little one
killed was about years of age, and the
other was about years of age. Both
bodies were wrapped in damask table
cloth and both had their throats cut
The remains were i'll a fair state of pres
ervation, and the neighhors who had
seen the lady and the two children at
once concluded that these were the chill
dren.
The digging then proceeded with
greater energy than before, and the
searchers soon came up on another
body. This, upon being unearthed, ,,was
t0und to be woman. The throat was
also cut and the body wrapped up before
interment. 1t was said to be that of the
lady who had accompanied the two
children. The police kept digging, while
outside the news spread and the excite
ment grew and thousands rushed to the
scene of the tragedies. A new force of
police was called upon, and Gordon es-
tablished around the villa. 1t was now
waning toward evening, and the digging
proceeded rapidly, for rumor grew on
r,imor. and other reco1ections suggested
that there were some victims in the
sepulchre beneath the fireplace
Two More Bodies.
a girl of 12 years. Unlike the former
victims, she had evidently been
strangled, and it was evident also that
her death had antedated thut of the
lady and two children. The girls body
was removed and the search kept up.
A baby about l year old and with Its
throat cut. was also found. The har-
dened policemen could not restrain an
exclamation of horror as the tiny and
shrunken body was lifted up to view.
Up to this hour no more discoveries
! have been made. The news aroused the
people to frenzy in Liverpool, and the
multitude have rushed to the conclusion
that Williams must be Jack the Rip
per. There is no known evidence, how
ever, to sustain this theory, as the victims
We're not mutilated otherwise than
stated above. AT least such is the state
nent of the police.
Police Theories
The people IN Rainhill and the police
believe the woman and two children
who disappeared upon visiting the villa,
and whose bodies were undoubtedly
found yesterday, were the former wife
OF Williams and their two children and
that Williams had got them to come to
the villa for the purpose of getting rid
al them IN order that they might not be
IN the way of his marriage to Miss
Mather. This, however, is only an i'm
preston based on the circumstances.
At the time of the murder of Miss
Mather the wife with whom he won't to
Anstralia) Williams and his wife were
m Melbourne, and il is there he is under
arrest.
Latest adyices from Australia confirm
the belief that the first three bodies dis
covered were those of Willians wife
and his two children, whom he had de-
ssrted in liverpool. Mrs. Williams. it
~ believed, discovered his abiding place
and presented herself with the Children
at the Dinham villa AS he had in the
meantime been courting Miss Mather he
at once got rid Of them by murder.
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1ne Arnot Suit