Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-17
MADE ACLEAN SWEEP
New York Grocer Kills Wife, Chill
dren and Himself.
WIFE WAS PARTY 10 TEE Deed
Both Diseased and Discouraged
Over Business Reverses.
RATCHET WAS HIS WEAPON

NEW YORK, January 17-John Mat
thews. a retail grocer some time between
last Saturday night and this morning muir.
dered his wife and their two children. q
boy ten years old and girl two years. by
hacking them to death with a hatchet
Matthews then committed suicide by shoot.
ing himself in the head. Before dying il
is believed that he turned the gas on with
the intention that asphyxiation should help
complete his murderous work. The crime
was committed in a small bed room in
the rear of the store kept by Matthews
The wife and her two children met death
while asleep. 1t is supposed that Mat
thews had become Respondent from pecu-
MARY difficulties.
The tragedy was discovered through the
odOr of escaping gas. which prompted a
milkman making his rounds early today to
call Il policeman. Upon the floor of the
sleeping room the officer found the corpse
of Matthews. In his hand was a revolver,
and there was u bullet hole just above his
mouth.
There were two beds in the room. On
one of the beds lay Matthews wife. Her
head was chopped and mangled almost be-
yond recognition. On the other bed the
two children lay, side by side. Their faces,
too, were frightfully cut and hacked. The
blOodStains made the little bed room look
like slaughter house.
Tragedy Was Prcmeditated.
That the murders and suicides were pre-
meditated was evident. Matthews had
waited until his wife and children were
asleep. Then he stripped himself to the
waist, took the Ratchet in his hand and
brair ed his wife. After that he attacked
his children. From letters left 1t was as
certained that fer some time Matthews had
been intending to end his own life He had
f,,r boo
town and had failed A few months ago
he opened the grocery store and had met
with little success. His wife, pretty little
woman. had recently undergone severe
operation. 1t was these things evidently
that prompted Matthews to write this let
ter which was found open and unad-
dressed.
mo healthy man or woman can commit
suicide from poverty or business reverses
He is so healthy that hope and activity are
boiling rampant within him. My wonder IS
that suicide is not more common 1t seems
to me a wonderful provision of nature that
a man need not live when life is BURDEN
some.
Another letter. apparently written later,
was as follows:
1T is ii terrible thing have to do to keep
my word. l promised that all snail go with
me- and delay is no good. If | could only
have died alone. l love ny wife and two
children | t, Id them l did not want to go
in any business; that my mind was gone
and / guess that my nerve is all that Is
left Fer five years we have talked the
thing over. | always wanted TO go OFT in
a boat ana accidentally CapsiZe. kne"
that otherwise / would have d hard time OF
it."
Wife wcs 1. Party to Deed.
Fro-l q letter left by Mrs. Matthews to
q friend it vas gathered that she was a
party 70 a suicide agreement. She wrote
as follows:
Herman is going to die. and [ am going
with hin. ard we ara going to take our
durlirzs with US.
Herman" is supposed to mean Mat
theys From other letters the impression
was gained that Mis-. Matthews, driven to
desperation by the serious effect of the
operation which she had undergone, had
even urged Matthews to kill his family.
and that from time to time he had put Off
the action of their plans.
Mrs Matthews had even left instructions
as to the clothes in which the dead chill
dren should be buried and signified the
place of inter1ncnt for the entire family as
Highland. y. Y. where she was born and
lived during her girlhoOd. Matthews was
thirty-iive years old.