The Cannock Chase Examiner. — 1875-10-16 (Cannock, Staffordshire, England)

THE DOUBLE MURDER AND ARSON IN  IRELAND.  The correspondent of the Doily Nem, writing from Cork on the Bth inst., furnishes the following details of the tragedy at Lixnaw :—Thomas Quitter, aged about sixty, held a good farm from Lord Listowel, and was reported wealthy for his position. He was never married. He lived at Kiltoomey, a mile from Lisnow, and nit '- from Tralee. At the end of a range of thatched houses, offices, dm, in which he lived, dwelt his sister-in-law, the second, or, as some consider, the first victim. The pair had lived together for some years after an alleged marriage ceremony in England. They were excommunicated by the parish priest of Lixnaw for carrying on an incestuous intercourse; but on the occasion of a mission by the Franciscan fathers of Killarney at Liknaw last summer they submitted to the Church, the excommiuneation was formally removed, and they have lived apart since. The woman had been a widow for a number of years, and her son, John Quitter, had been several years in the police, serving in the midland counties. He was discharged from the force, and his uncle (the deceased) then gave him means to emigrate. He came home last year, after having been seven years in America, and since then there has been perpetual quarrelling. He had been bound over to keep the peace at the suit of his mother and uncle, and informations were pending against him and three oihers. Last week fresh summonses for assault and threats were taken out. The prisoner had been drinking rather heavily since his return from America, but latterly he had become more tempera. He lived with his mother, and on Wednesday night the woman who aoted as her servant got supper for the mother and eon as usual, and retired to sleep in another house, leaving them together, about nine o'clwok. At about two o'clock next morning James Barrett, living near, was awakened, and looking out saw Mrs. Quitter's house on fire, and signs of fire in the other houses. The prisoner was walking up and down the road barehealed. Barrett rat, to the house of Michael Sheehy, another nephew of old Quitter's but found he had already been aroused, and was in the act of dressing hastily. They found Quitter, Jun. (his age is 40) looking unconcernedly at the flame.. Sheehy ran to old Quitter's house, and burst open the door, but was driven back by the flames and smoke. He made another °Hort, and succeeded in entering. He found the body of old Quitter lying on the floor with his head literally smashed in from the crown. He dragged him out, and found he was alive, but insensible. He died before the authorities reached him, without recovering consciousness. The flames had taken such a strong hold on the inflammable material of the thatched houses, and the extinguishing appliances at hand were so defective and inadequate, that the people had to let the lire exhaust itself. The police and Captain Maoternan commenced their examination as soon as possible in old Quilter's house. On the floor near where the body lay then found the remains of a four-pronged pike, the handle burned away, and in a hole in the wall they discovered a bundle of papers, which turned out to be deposit receipt. I 0 11's, and other securities for £4OO odd. The remains of Mrs. Quitter were next examined, and in the corner of the sleeping place there were found the ashes of the bed with the remains of the unfortunate woman distill. guishable by the form and the appearances of the almost destroyed intestines, and the steel chain of the beads she had worn round her neck. Under strong escort the eon was brought into Tralee last night and lodged in the constabulary barracks. Marks of blood were found on his drawers and shirt, but it is said he had changed his outside clothes. The theory of the police is that the mother was murdered as she lay in the bed, that the uncle was struck down with the pike, and that the murderer sought to destroy the evidence of his double crime by burning down the houses. The prisoner was removed back to-day to attend the inquest At the magisterial inquiry he preserved a demeanour of stolid coolness, refused to give any explanation, and persisted in representing himself as innocent and wronged. His hair is grey, and his features ill-favoured. The occurrence has caused the most profound sensation.