Widnes Examiner. — 1884-12-06 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

SHOCKING TRAGEDY AT BURY.  MURDER OF THREE CHILDREN AND SUICIDE OF  I.HE MOTHER.  A shocking tragedy, involving the death of four persons —a woman and her three children—occurred in Bury on Wednesday. The victims are Hannah Mason, aged 37, the wife of John Mason, waste bleacher, who lives in Miltonstreet, Elton, Thomas Mason, aged four years, Nelly, aged three years, and Gertrude Mary, aged eight months; in each case death was caused by the hand of Mrs. Mason. Mr. and Mrs. Mason, it seems, have always lived on good terms with each other and with their neighbours, but of late Mrs. Mason has been suffering from an attack of melancholia, and notwithstanding the assurance of her medical attendant (Dr. Mellor) that her condition was not at all serious, she appears to have laboured tinder the irnproision that she had an ailment from which she would never recover. Her state was not such as to cause much anxiety to her friends, and she showed ne signs of mental aberration. On Wednesday morning she appeared to be in her usual condition, and having had breakfast with her, her husband at half-past eight o'clock left the house and went to his work at Bury Ground. Almost immediately after his departure Mrs. Mason went into the house of the next door neighbour with a bottle which she bad borrowed some time ago and having left it without making any special remark, she returned to her own home. The husband upon going home to dinner about noon found the blinds at all the windows down, and the back and front doors locked from the inside. With the assistance of his brother-in-law he burst the back door open, and not finding any of his family about, went upstairs, when he found near the window of the back bedroom his wife and three children lying dead with their throats cut. Mrs. Mason was fully dressed, and the children were in their night dresses, with their stockings and clogs on. Near to the woman lay a razor eavered .with blood, and there can be no doubt that with this instrument she killed her children and then committed suicide. The horrible work seems to have been done very deliberately and very quietly. The fact that a utensil in the room contains a large quantity of blood, and that there is comparatively very little on the carpet or on the clothing of the children suggests the idea that Mrs. M isort held them so as to allow the blood to Row into the basin, and, then, when they were dead, laid them in a row where they were found, afterwards placing herself near them ; and the other fact that no cries or sounds of straggling were heard by the neighbours on the other side, leads the police to think that probably before she attacked her victims with the razor she stupefied them by the use at some narcotic. The bodies of all four were warm when the husband found them, and they remained so for two hours afterwards. On a table in the sitting-room downstairs the following letter in her handwriting was found, together with the policies of insurance issued upon the lives of Mrs. Mason and the children : Dear John,—You must forgive me for doing this ; I have been a good wife to you. You must bury all of us with George [her eldest child, who had died some years ago]. I cannot leave my children behind me to be knocked about. I say good-by to you. I have done nothing wrong to anyone. The Lord forgive me. I kave been a true wife to you. The cause of my illness Ido not know. You have been a good husband to me. You must forgive me and try to forget. On another scrap of paper was the following : I have prayed to the Lord to take me. I cannot lie on a sick bed and die and leave my children. I know they are gone before me. I know the end of them. I watched them die, and am happy. Good-bye. The occurrence has caused a painful sensation in the locality, both Mr. and Mrs. Mason being greatly respected by their acquaintances.