The Warwickshire Herald. — 1886-10-21 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

SHOCKING TRAGEDY AT FULHAM.  FOUR CHILDREN MURDERED. SUICIDE OF THE MOTHER.  ON Saturday Dr. Diplock, coroner, was informed that a terrible trageoy had been enacted at Fulham. a married woman, named Frances Leader, the wife of a butcher, having murdered four of her children and then committed suicide in the Thames. It seems that on Thursday evening a person named Charles Wilcox tt's ent to Walham Green Police Station, accompanied by Robert Leader, a little boy, who was found wandering on the bank of the , Thames between Broomhouse Dock, Fulham, and Wandsworth Bridg , which is but a short way off. The little fellow told a pitiable tale, which was at first received with some incredulity; but he persisted in his statement that his mother, France Leader, had thrown him and his four brothers, Henry, Charles, Frank, and Albert, whose ages range from nine years to eight months, into the Thames at Fulham. The boy Robert was questioned at the station, and he then gave an address of a Mr. Dewing, of 2, Epple-terrace, Parson's Green, Fulham, where he said his parents formerly , lived. The police at once communicated with Mr. Dewing, and found that the poor boy's statement was in that respect perfectly correct, and through Mr. Dewing the present address of the deceased children's father was discovered, it being at 133, Denmark-road, Camberwell, where Mr. Leader carries on the business of a butcher. The Camberwell police put themselves in communication with Mr. Leader, who on Friday morning went to Walham Green Police Station, where he was confronted witti a sad corroboration of his son's story, one of the deceased—Henry Leader—having been found in the water. The boy Robert then repeated to his father, in a more coherent form, the tale that he had already told the police, that on the Thursday afternoon his mother, with the baby and the three other boys, went on a steamboat to Chelsea. They then walked to Parson's Green, and, remarked the poor little boy, "We came to some stone steps, and then we stopped. Mother and my brothers walked into the water. They are now dead " With the exception of the baby, about whose death there is some conflicting testimony, it is believed that all the deceased struggled violently, bt..t were alternately threatened and held down by the mother. It is further stated that the mother clung to her infant to the last, and threw herself into the water with her baby in her arms; but nothing accurate until the evidence is given at the inquest will probably be gleaned as to the manner in which the mother could have drowned her boys, who, according to the statement of the little fellow Robert, resisted to their utmost. While holdine• an inqw-st at the Princess Royal tavern, Fulham, on the body of an infant, Dr. Diplock, the coroner, was informed that a second body—that of Frank Leader —had been discovered, and the police, under the direction of Inspector Kellar, have since continued their search in the river with the necessary appliances for recovering bodies. The dead body of Frank, whose appearance denoted a painful death, was removed to the mortuary, where his deceased brother lies.  Sir Charles Warren maie. an unusually early visit  to the Walham-green Police-station on Monday, arriving there before six o'clock, when he made special inquiries with reference to the tragic event at Broornhouse Dock, which is about ten minutes' walk from the local police depot. Inspector J. Brown and Inspector Kellar were diligently engaged in superintending the operations of dragging for the bodies of the mother and her infant, which are still believed to be embedded in the mud not far from "the stone steps," so pathetically described by the little boy, Robert. A rumour, not credited in " official circles, was prevalent in Fulham, where it is asserted as not improbable that the woman, after ' drowning her three boys, escaped with her infant, and is still at large. While considering the rumour as absurd, the police, who have been informed of this new phase in the crime, are taking the n ,cessary precautions in the matter, and special instruc tions have been given for a wide circulation of the woman's description, who, as already stated, was 5 ft. in height, about 32 years of age (looking much older and careworn), and was dressed in mourning at the time when she was last seen in Fulham. The mother was devotedly attached to her baby, and t le police believe that the body of the murderess will be found in the Thames, with her infant clasped in her arms  - An inquest was held on Monday on the bodies of the children, and the jury returned an open verdict that the deceased were found drowned, but there was not sufficient evidence to show how they got into the water. The efforts of the police, in dragging for the remains Of the mother and child, have been unsuccessful, and it is feared that no further discovery will be mad c until the bodies float in the usual course.