The Warwickshire Herald. — 1895-03-14 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

THE ARMENIAN ATROCITIES. TOOTING.  Mr. Braxton Hicks held an inquest at the Tooting Vestry-hall, on Saturday, on the bodies of Martha Taylor, aged 37; her daughters, Maggie, lA, Annie, 11, and Florence, 7; the WM% Frederick, William, and George Taylor, aged respectively 5 years, 3 years, and 18 months; and on the body of Frank Taylorozged 32, plasterer,of Fountain-road, Tooting. Richard Henry Hocking, a neighbour, said he had known Taylor as a quiet, respectable man, but of late there had been a considerable change in his manner. On Thursday morning last week, between 6 and 7 o'clock, the witness's wife heard a knock at the front door. He went to the window and asked who was there. On looking out of the window he saw Frank Taylor, the eon, who called to him: "Mr. Hockins, father's cut all the children's throats, and mother's dead." He at once pent to let the bey in, and found that his throat wri cut also. He bound up the boy's throat, sent his wife for the police,and himself ran for a doctor. Shelgtly afterwards Policeconstable Smith arrived, andthey went to Taylor's house.—The coroner: Had Taylor ever spoken to you of being hard up ?-IWitness: No, sir. The witness further stated that bit his knowledge Taylor was a religious man. Police-constable Frederick Smith deposed to finding the bodies. Dr. Arthur Anland stated that when he was called to No. 125 Fountain-road, he and the conitable discovered the bodiesnUthrg children and Taylor and his wife in the back end the front rooms. The , Mother Was lying on her back in the front room, and ' from-her appetatnce there Deemed to have been a great struggle. Her thumbs were nearly cut off, and she had evidently been injured about the body before her death wound in the throat had been given. In all the cues death was due to !hemorrhage from wounds in the neck, which had in all probability been indicted by a razor. There were no signs of a struggle having taken place in the lower rooms, only the upstairs rooms being disarranged. Sergeant Shoesmith stated that he was given the property al the deceased man, Frank Taylor, which was found upon him at the Wandsworth and Clapham Infirmary, where he died. In his clothes were found a short-handled knife, recently sharpened, and • letter written in pencil, addressed to "Mrs. Taylor, 12, Fountain-road, Lower Tooting." Two leaves of a Bible, containing Psalms 23 and 25, were also discovered in one of his pockets, and a sheet of a hymn book. The letter was as follows: "To my Dear Wife and Children,—People have accused me of many wrong things, but the Lord has washed them away in His precious blood. I can't bear the shame that lam accused of. May God protect you and my dear children when lam gone. I know the Lord will provide for you, because you are full of grace, and that is everything in the eyes of the Lord. May God bless you all and keep you from all shame. I am going to a better land, and hope to see you in Heaven. I am broken-hearted.—FßANK." On the back of the letter was the following: "Tonight we depart this life of trouble. Oh Lord, have mercy on us, consider mine enemies, for they are many. They hate me with a cruel hate. Oh Lord, remember not the sins of my youth, and receive us round the Throne of Grace. My life has been destroyed by mine enemies, but in Jesus lies my help. Our eyes shall see the King in His beauty, and shall behold the land that is very far off. For him that cometh I will in no wise cast out. Lord, have mercy on us and on my enemies. I have been hunted down, but Jesus will receive me in His fold. Amen. It is finished." On the envelope was written: "I love my wife and children too much to let people jeer at them. They are all very pure." George William Philips, relieving officer of the parish of Tooting, said Taylor applied to him for relief on February 12th. Taylor said that he had six weeks' rent owing, and that his son was only earning 2s. 6d. per week. He told Taylor that he could get a job at the stoneyard at 15s. or 16s, a week, but Taylor never asked for it afterwards. Elizabeth Hocking, neighbour of the Taylors, said that they were quiet, inoffensive people. They were poor, but never wanted for food. The father went to work on Monday week, and returned home, his wife telling her that he had been ill. This, in the witness's opinion, seemed to prey on the man's mind.—The Coroner: Was he given to fits of temper ?—Witness: No, he was the most loving of mem. Dr. Neal, medical superintendent of the Wandsworth and Clapham Infirmary, gave evidence as to the post-mortem examination made of the body of Taylor. The condition of the lunge shewed old pleurisy, and the cause of death was haemorrhage from the cut in the neck. John Millege, the landlord of No. 12, Fountainroad, said that the deceased had lived there for 15 months. He owed six weeks' rent, but the witness did not press him for it. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that the six children and the mother were murdered by the man Taylor whilst he was of unsound mind, and that he committed suicide when in the same mental state.  Not for 60 years, it is said, has so wholesale a butchery been recorded in this country as that which has just taken place at Tooting. The last previous case of the kind is stated to have been what is known as the Steinberg murder, which is commemorated by a stone in the churchyard of St. James's, Clerkenwell. Here is a copy of the inscription: "Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Ellen Lefevre, aged 25 years, and her four children Henry, aged 5 years and 6 months, John, aged 4 years and 6 months, Ellen, aged 2 years and 6 months, and Philip, aged 8 months, who were murdered at their residence in Southampton-street, Pentonville, during the night of Monday, September Bth, 11334, by Johann Nicholas Steinberg, aged 45 years, a native of Germany, and father of the above children, who afterwards murdered himself and was buried according to law." The inscription continues: "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock 2—Jer. xiii. 20. His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street —Job. xviii. 17." Then come some lines written for the occasion by some local poet: Poor babes, could not your innocence prevail? And when your father heard your plaintive wail. Did no compunction smite his guilty soul, Dark thoughts of blood and murder to control. Then follow some 10 other lines which the frosts and rains of 80 years have left undecipherable, and the inscription ends thus: "This stone was erected by public subscription to commemorate the lamentable event."