New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-11-23
SOUGHT DEATH TOGETHER
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER COMMIT SCICDl
IN THEIR LONELY ROOMS.
THE ELDER WOMAN HANGS HERSELF, TIM
YOUNGER CUTS VEIN IN HER wRIsT-A
LETTER TO son OF THE AGED

WOMAN GIVES A FAINT WARN.
ING OF THE TRAGEDY.
Antonio Ledecky and her daughter Fannie yee.
terday furnished the first recorded case In this city
wherein mother and daughter had made COM
pact to follow each other in death. The mother
used rope The daughter opeled q vein In her
left arm and slowly bied to death.
Mrs Ledecky was sxty-seven years old; her
daughter thirty-fve. Fourteen years ago they
came to this country from Vienna. and occupied
four rooms on the ground floor OF the fve-story
tenement -house No. $40 East Eighty-seveEth-st
With them, until he married about five years ago.
was the son and brother. Otto who now has Z
furniture store at No. 22Jl Eighth-ave. Two Other
sons are clerks in the Government offices OF Vienna
Mother and daughter lived alone, and in such re.
tiremen that neghbors in the house had scarcely
spoken more than ten words to either OF them II
as many years The mother. while her health
lasted did passementerie work. The daughter
gave music lessons TO few Of the better class Of
children in the neghborhood The mother began
to suffer with rheumatism and became almost Q
cripple when her mind began to give way, and n
the last two years she had displayed all the signs
OF passive insanity.
"Some day the pain will drive me to my DEATH
she had said to her son.
IF my mother dies | have nothing left to hold
me to life When you hear Of her death look foe
mine" These were Fannies words to her brother.
Yet Otto Ledecky took special thought or heed
Of the warning. Yesterday morning a letter came
in his sisters handwriting. Otto read these words,
Forgive us for the trouble that we have caused
you. What l told you might happen has hap.
| pened Come to the house at once. The door viii
be open and you will find u.s."
Half an hour later a hoarse shrek rang through
the East Eghty-seventh-st. house II was from
| otto Ledecky, who had just entered his mothers
front paror Twisted tightly round and round an
iron pipe in the ceiling was line Of thin cording;
and from the cord dangled the dead body OF the
old woman. She stood tiptce on the ground, hef
face twisted into a grtmace, her eyes wide open
and staring at the crtcifx on the mantelshef
Ledeckys heart stood still; he reeled back against
| the wall. and In that moment his eye fell on the
| face of his sister back In the rear OF the inner
| paror He lurched forward and spoke TO her.
but the figure leaning back in the armchair never
! stirred: the face remained fixed and cbangeless.
On the ground by the side Of her chair was Q
| wash-basin half filled with dark-red blood that
had drpped down from crooked cash IN the
| left wrist. resting across the arm OF the chair.
| Two inches from the basin lay something that
| gilnted sharply in the dim light II was razor:
| music bearing the title I'VE Part TO Meet Again
! In the rear OF the sitting rooms were Two bed.
| rooms, the first occupied by the mother, me
| second by the daughter, Both had been occupied
| daughter had hastily slipped on petticoat From
| the foot of the rocking-chair In which Miss
| Ledecky was found away back TO the rear ped
| stretched line OF blood stains on tne
| sheets and pillows bloody finger marks and
| this circumstance gives rise to the impression
| that Miss Ledecky had inflicted the wound while
! bed to death with eyes nxed on the body Of her
mother,