The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-05-25
DEED OF A MANIAC
Cambridge Man Murders His
Wife and Commits Suicide

Rum Caused Him to See "Little Green
Devils"-The Little Daughter of the
Dead Couple Tells a Pitiful Story.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass, May 21.-At o'clock
.ast evening James Wilson. 40 years old.
living at 225 Vine street, East Cam bridge,
went insane, murdered his wife by cut
ting her throat and then cut his own
throat three times.
1t seems that Wilson has been for some
time confined in an asylum, but returned
home few weeks ago apparently cured
He secured employment as a laborer at
the pork packing house of John p Squire
& Co., East Cam bridge. Yesterday his
actions appeared strange, and his wife
was afraid that he was about to become
insane again. Everything passed on well
until night, when, without any warning,
he became an infuriated maniac.
He secured razor and chased his wife
around the kitchen and caught her at the
head OF the stairs. He caught her by the
hair and pulled her head back and drew
the razor across her throat. She either
ran down or fell down the stairs, as when
she was found there she was dead. Will
son then made three dreadful gashes in
his own throat, and was secured before he
could do any more damage
He was taken to the Massachusetts
hospital, where his wounds were dressed,
but death ended his sufferings few
hours afterwards.
Children's Awful Discovery.
The crime was committed between 6:20
and $3.50 o'clock. 1t was during these 10
minutes that Sarah, the 13-year-old
daughter, was sent out after her little G.
year-old brother.
The little girl went out and returned
within 10 minutes with the brother. Both
went upstairs and almost fell over the
dead body of their mother. They were
Mortified The dim light in the hall
showed the bleeding mass.
The story of the family's existence for
the past six years is best told by the
younger daughter. who was the first to
discover the crime. She told her story
with pitiful placidity, pitiful because it
showed that kindness had been rare in
her experience.
Ever since I can rememb ber," she said
my father has drunk, but he didn't use
to be so bad when we lived in Somerville.
That was three years ago. We had a real
nice place there, but father spent all the
money for drink and we had to move to
Charles street because we couldn't pay
the rent.
Sometimes we didn't have much eat,
either, but my mother did all the work
she could and we managed to get along.
When father was drunk he used to lick
my mother-awfully, sometimes, and my
biggest sister too My mother was never
ugly to him and always took care of him
when he WAS drunk.
Last fall he was drunk for a long time,
and when he began to get over it he was
funny and
Saw Things That We Couldn't See.
Zone day he got awful bad and my
mother had to tie him to keep him from
hurting any body, but he got away and
knocked vase off the table. Then he
stamped on the broken glass in his bare
feet and cut them awful
after that he took pieces of the glass
and cut his arm and then he took his
knife and tried to cut himself. My
mother ran for policeman and grabbed
the knife out of his hand. Pretty soon the
police came and took him away in the
patrol wagon and my mother cried.
"After that we didn't see him for long
time, and mother said he was getting
cured. He came back last March to this
place, where we had moved from Charles
street, but he wasn't cured, for in day
or two he got drunk and kicked my
mother and
Smashed the Dishes and Things.
Yesterday he kept seeing little green
DEVILS he said, all day, and made my
mother go and get him two pints of
whisky. This morning he seemed to be
better and poured one of the pints down
the sink.
''Then he began to see the things again
and went and knelt down by the bed and
cried. He stayed there long, long time.