The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1878-12-07 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

WALLASEY.  CAPTAIN Andrew Campbell Monroe and his little boy have succumbed since the publication of our last issue to the injuries they received in the terrible tragedy of Friday last. The father never regained consciousness, and died at three o'clock on Saturday morning. Hopes were entertained that the little fellow would have lived, Inasmuch as though the bullet had entered his head and came out at the back, it had not (i: touched the brain. Early, however, on Monday morning the child breath its last. so that the perpetrator of the terrible d has fully accomplished his purpose. The ooroner's inquiry into the circumstances of the tragedy .00k place at the Leasome Castle Hotel, Beacom* on Monday, before Mr. Churton, coroner, when the -ages of the deceased were stated 'to be as follows: Captain Munroe, 41, Beatrice Munroe 5 years, and Andrew Munroe 15 months. The wife of the murderer was as it were the only one left behind to tell the tale, and from her evidence it appears thatepeouniary embarrassments induced her husband to resort to the horrible measures which have ended so disastrously. She stated that she was married to Munroe seven years ago in London. Her late husband was originally in the army • afterwards he was in an oil business at Laverkeitiling. This was before their marriage; since their marriage he had done nothing. They had never had a settled place of residence. They went to New Brighton last Saturday fortnight, and lived at the Victoria Hotel. She never saw her husband the worse for liquor; he was in fact, an abstemious man, and perfectly regular in his habits. He was of variable disposition, sometimes very cheerful and sometimes very despondent. He was very reserved as to the causes of his despondency, always telling her not to mind or trouble herself, that it would be all right. He never threatened to take his life or the lives of his children. On the day of their saliva in New Brighton she noticed a greet change in him. Be frequently became excited and would get angry witn the children, especially with the elder girl, for little things, immediately afterwards appearing to wish to be reconciled to them. With herself he was affectionate at one moment and very cross the next. His appetite failed, and his countenance became haggard. She atoributea the obange, which became more marked ever k day, to the trouble he was In about money matters. Everything he did seemed to fail.—The Coroner: Then he had some mumpslion p Well, he had done literary work. He had written articles for the papers. For two months he devoted himself entirely to work of that kind, but it was not profitable. The last article he wrote was for the Saturday. Review, and it was returned, which caused him much disappointment. Since their marriage they had lived mainly upon what he received from his friends; but he had earned a few pounds occasionally. His father and mother lived at 15, Arniston-place, Edinburgh. They breakfasted together on Friday morning; her husband took nothing but a cup of tea. He afterwards took the three children out for a walk, and he asked her to join them. She said she would do so when she had ordered dinner. They went towards the sea. She was rather long in leaving to join them, and he returned to ask if she was coming. She told him she did not feel well, and would rather stay in. He insisted upon her going out, saying he wished to speak to her. She joined them in Mount-road, and they walked along the road some distance, she being a little way behind. She could see that he had something of an unusual kind in one of his coat pockets. She touched the coat, and, thinking it was a pistol he had in his pocket, she turned and ran away. He ran after her, calling to her to come back. She ran to a cottage and entered it. She asked the woman of the cottage if she knew any man who would follow her husband. A gardener, who was sent for, refused to go alone, but went out for a policeman and met one in the road. The gardener and the policeman both went after her husband, but , did not find him. She returned to the hotel. She did not see her husband again alive, nor her eldest child; but she saw the baby alive in the hospital. She had never before seen a pistol in her husband's possession.—How did you arrange as to paying Mr. Garrett, of the Victoria Hotel? My husband gave him a cheque upon a bank in Edinburgh. My husband knew the cheque would be returned; he expected the cheque would be returned on Thursday or Friday.—Evidence was then given as to the finding of the bodies, and the coroner, in Bumming up, said that the change which had taken place in Munroe after his arrival in New Brighton was such as to make him quite irresponsible for his actions. The Jury, after a brief deliberation, returned a verdict to the effect that Munrue had murdered his children and committed suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity.