The Sun. — 1847-12-10 (London, England)

MURDER AND SUICIDE OF THE MURDERESS. On Tuesday afternoon the inhabitants of this city were horrified by the news of a tragedy such as was never before known to have taken place within its precincts—the murder of four children by their mother, having cut their throats with a razor, and the taking of her own life by the same means. The woman who perpetrated these crimes was the wife of a jobbing brewer, named Ridout, who, at the time of the occurrence, was absent from home, having been employed since Monday in brewing at the Beef-steak Tavern. The facts, so far as we have yet been able to ascertain them, are these:— The cottage in which the family resided is situated in a garden not far from that part of the canal from which the Bradford boats start, but on the opposite side, and the way to it so intricate, and the situation so lonely, that very few of the inhabitants of Bath, perhaps, have ever been to the spot; and, but for this horrid occurrence such a humble and retired recess would have remained unnoticed except by the occupants of some of the straggling houses in the vicinity. This cottage has but one floor, which is divided into two apartments, the one a kitchen or sitting-room, and the other a sleeping chamber. A poor woman, named Seers, lives in another cottage not far from it, and was in the habit of seeing and having a neighbourly conversation with Mrs. Ridout. In the afternoon it struck her as remarkable that she had seen nothing of her for the day. Wanting some water, Mrs. Seers went to the pump on the premises, and %% hile there she thought she would call and inquire how her neighbour was, but on trying to open the door she found it locked. Mrs. Seers was then induced to look in at the window, when the horrid spectacle presented to her eyes was the wretched woman lying on the kitchen floor, steeped in her blood. She immediately called the attention of another neighbour, a labourer, to the shocking sight, who immediately gaiN information of what had been witnessed at the polleeoffice, and instantly afterwards Captain Carroll dispatched an inspector and another officer to the place, when the dour of the cottage was forced open, and a scene was exhibited to view at which the beholders shuddered with horror. Passing the dead body of the woman, whom they found with her throat cut, and a razor lying by her side, the next object which met their eyes, just within the adjoining room, were the lifeless bodies of the four children, weltering in blood which had flowed from the fatal wounds inflicted on their throats. One of the murdered innocents is an infant about nine months old, and the eldest of the four is about six years old, deaf and ,dumb. A large tub was standing in the room almost full of blood and water, and the circumstance suggests the probability that the wretched mother had, on making the incisions in the necks of her unhappy offspring, held their heads over the tub as a receptacle of the vital current as it flowed from the wounds. One of the little victims was found with his legs partly hanging over the step leading to the bedroom, as if ho had struggled and made an ineffectual effort to get away. Tho perpetration of the tragic deed is supposed to have been the effect of insanity, as it is stated that the woman had been subject to symptoms of unsoundness of mind for some time past.—path Chronicle. Yesterday afternoon the inquests on the bodies were held at the Crown Inn, Borthwick-street, before Mr. 1 11. English, the city coroner, and a respectable . jury. 4. The name of the unfortunate woman was Jane Ridout, John, and those of the children, William aged seven years; Funny, aged four years; George, agedtwo and a half years; and Mark, aged ei g t months. y The CORONER having briefly addressed dressed the jury, the bodies were viewed. The body of the woman presented a fearful appearance, the throat being gashed with two deep incisions, and the body being completely saturated in gore. In the adjoining room lay the bodies of the four children. Elizabeth Lintran, grandmother of the children, and mother of the deceased woman, was the first witness examined. She deposed to having been living with her daughter for the last five weeks, at the request of the husband. She had been in a low state of mind, and had previously told her husband that she had gone out one