The Sun. — 1850-09-17 (London, England)

APPALLING MURDER AND SUICIDE.  CATAN, SEPT. 10.—This town and neighbourhood were thrown into the highest state of excitement and alarm at an early hour yesterday, by the arrival of several persons from the vicinity off Ballinah, who rushed into Cavan with the frightful intelligence that Dr. Creighton, lately come to reside near Ballinah, had just murdered one of the ladies of his house, and immediately after put an end to his own existence. This information was but too true. Dr. Creighton was a native of this county ; he resided near Cavan up to the period of his entering Trinity College, where he graduated and took out the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. He commenced his professional career in Townsend-street, Dublin, where he practised with considerable success ; he subsequently changed his residence to either No. 24 or 25, Great Brunswick•street. Some short time ago his manner became very eccentric ; his mind was evidently weakened and warped, and he became full of the idea that a conspiracy was on foot to destroy him, and that the members of his own household were deeply engaged in this plot. This deranged state of intellect became so palpable, that his friends were advised to withdraw him from practice altogether, and remcve him to the country. Accordingly, he and his family returned to this locality about two months ago, where it was hoped, that by turning his attention to agricultural pursuits, his mind might be diverted from those miserable hallucinations by which it had been preyed on ; arrangements were made for that purpose, and he was settled on a farm of some extent, Heath Lodge, the estate of William Humphreys, Esq., of Ballyhaise, on which an excellent house and suitable offices have lately been erected. Dr. Creighton 's monomania was a conviction that his friends were endeavouring to poison him in his food, and accordingly he refused food for several days. He would frequently lie down on the lawn, or in the fields, and eat grass, in order, as he said, to prevent the execution of the plans of those around him. On all other subjects he was perfectly clear and collected, and conversed in the most rational manner. He was not placed under restraint, and walked about the grounds and roads at pleasure. His family consisted of an aunt, Miss Creighton, advanced in life, and infirm, a young lady, named Faris, a near relative of his own, and a servant man. On the morning of yesterday (Tuesday), at about nine o'clock, Dr. Creighton went to his aunt's room, and told her that the servant was waiting to shave him, and begged of her to give him his razors for that purpose—they had been purposely kept out of his reach ; but seeing how calm and collected he was, and bearing from him that the servant was in attendance, she did not hesitate to give them to him. Miss Creighton, it appears, was still in bed, for he said to her in leaving the room, " Aunt, you need not get up, I'll send your breakfast up when it is ready." He then went down stairs, and nothing further was heard or seen of him until about a quarter of an hour after, when Miss Creighton, on going down to the parlour, and finding it empty, proceeded to the kitchen. Her horror may be imagined, on reaching this spot, to find Miss Faris lying dead on the floor, a pool of blood around her, and her head nearly severed from her body. A broad mark of blood commencing near the dead body, next attracted her attention. She surmised, and that correctly, that it was the blood of her unfortunate nephew, who, she thought had wounded himself, and then fled from the house into the plantations adjacent to it. She tracked this second stream of blood to the closed door of a pantry adjoining the kitchen but not opening into it. On pushing open this door, which was merely closed to, but not fastened, she found him bathed in blood and just expiring. He never spoke and died in a few minutes. She immediately fled to the house of a mabistrate residing in the neighbourhood, William Smith, Esq., and gave the alarm. An inquest was held on the bodies of these unfortunates by William Pollock, Esq., coroner, and a highly respectable jury, and a verdict returned in accordance with the too •well-know n state of mind of this unhappy gentleman. Dr. Creighton was not much over 30 years of age ; his victim was several years younger. She was an agreeable well-educated person, and had just arrived on a visit to her aunt, as she was preparing to emigrate to America,where her friends are now residing. Nothing is known of the proceedings of Dr. Creighton after his leaving his aunt's room, beyond what the position of the bodies indicated. There was no witness to it, the servant man having gone for milk for breakfast. From the situation and position of Miss Paris's body, it is supposed that when the murderer entered the kitchen she was in the act of stooping to take up the teapot that stood before the fire; that he seized her by the hair, and dragged her head forcibly backward, and then inflicted the wound that all but separated the head from the trunk. The second stream of blood indicates that he inflicted the fatal wound on bis own throat while standing beside her body, and then walked out of the kitchen into the pantry, where his body was found. They will both be buried in the one grave at an early hour to-morrow morning.—Correspondent of the Dublin Mail.