Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1910-08-20
: | WAS INSANE,
SAYS ALLEGED
SLAYER OF WIFE
Friends Of Kearny Man, Who Is
Held on Murder Charge, No
ticed Change Lately.

Il have the defense of insanity to
make. said Richard O'Leary. of
Kearny. when arraigned at 10 o'clock
today before Recorder James f. Kelly
In the Kearny police court on the
charge Of numbering his wife. Annie
O'Leary, at their home, 201 Kearny
avenue, just before o'clock last night
She died at st. MichaeIs Hospital, this
city. at 1920 o'clock this morning. 1t
was one of the most brutal attacks
in the Kearny police records, and is
believed to have been due to a
maniacal outburst. O'Leary was ar
rested at 10 o'clock last night by
Roundsman Magee.
After telling rambling story about
brooding over the loss of two houses
in Tappan street and fearing the loss
Of his three-story house, on the first
story OF which he and his family dwelt
at the Kearny avenue address, O'Leary.
without the slightest sign of emotion,
asked, '1s She dead? Well, she was a
good woman, and I am sorry. But 1
was crazy when I did it. i was often
told that 1 was off my base"
Committed without Bail.
ieCcOto oSt AACAAJ eNOAhAtAiLtCQ ~ L<Cdl5
without bail to the Hudson county jail
to await the action of the Hudson
county grand jury, and he was hur-
ried away to Jersey City in the police
patrol wagon IL charge of Detective
Sergeant Walter Oliver, of Kearny, and
Prosecutors Detective Alexander Ross.
Eleanor. the 13-year-old daughter ur
the couple, was in the bathroom when
she heard a scuffle in the kitchen and,
rushing into the latter room, found
that her father had felled her mother
with f1atiron and was trying to in
fiict still more punishment. She ran
upstairs to get help from the tenants,
and her brother Joseph, across the
street, hearing her screams. ran over
and was Mortified to find his father
bent over the PROSTATE form of his
mother, pounding her head with the
sharp point of a fatiron. Joseph
wrestled with his father and fairly
dragged him to the stoop in front of
the house and called for aid. Two
neighbors, Fred Breen and Arthur
May, responded and held O'Leary until
Roundsman Magee. who had been told
about the trouble. reached the house
DR.. f. Stanley Goudy was called and
found the woman in a critical condi-
ton and advised her removal at once
to the hospital, to which place she was
taken by the roundsman and Patrol
man Magee
While the roundsman was locking up
OLeary the latter remarked indif-
ferently, WELL guess that I am
good for twenty years now. sup
pose killed her." But he did not
know her fate until arraigned this
morning, and although the court at
tendants expected that he would col
lapse, he did not show the least com
Germ about his wife's tragic end
The O'Leary family has lived in
KearIs$ fifteen years. having moved
from Newark; has been prominent In
church and other circles, and consisted
OF the parents. two sons and four
daughters. three of the latter being
married O'Leary was a machinist
and had moved from Bordentown when
the Pennsylvania railroad repair shops
were transferred to Kearny twenty
three years ago. He had been a gang
foreman. Latterly he had worked in
the Erie railroad shops. but about four
months ago fell upon his head there
and sustained an injury that his
family and friends believe affected his
brain He was in constant fear Of
being taken to lunatic asylum, and
DIR. Alters. the family physician. ad-
vised that he be watched closely. He
treated him about a week ago for
mental and nervous trouble