Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1869-09-03 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SHOCKING TRAGEDY AT WATERFORD.  The Freeman's Janrnal gives the following particulars of a shocking tragedy :—" The victim was Mrs. Emma Lannigan, and the murderer and suicide Henry Lannigan, one of the dispensary medical officers of the Waterford union. It would appear that Dr. Lannigan, after serving as a medical officer in the navy, settled down in Waterford about five years ago, and was appointed 'medical officer to the Kilmeaclan Dispensary by the Waterford Board of Guardians. About two years afterwards, he married his second wife, Miss Emma Lackey, connected with a very reopectable family in Waterford city. They lived happily enough together for the first 12 months, but after that time Dr. Lannigan fell into habits of drinking, and Mrs. Lannigan being a woman of rather violent temper, quarrels frequently took place between them, and latterly the servants often heard him threaten her life. In fact, so reckless had the doctor become that on one occaiun he lifted a knife to the servant girl and threatened her life. On Friday evening the deceased were expecting a clergyman from Lis. snore to dinner, and it was intended to take advantage of this gentleman's presence to get their only child, a baby some six months old—baptised. A difference took place between them on this head, Mn. Lannigan expressing a wish that the rector of the palish, the Rev. Mr. Bourke, should perform the ceremony. Dr. Lannigan, who was excited (having being noticed by the boy servant to be under the influence of drink), kicked over the dinner table, and took up a knife, which he laid down after putting it to his wife's throat. He then took up a double-barrelled gnu which was in the room, but this he also laid down. Mrs. Lannigan took her child and ran out of the house down to a neighbour's, and the girl heard the doctor swear and may he would end her (his wife's) days. He then returned and ate something, and told the boy to hernese the horse, and take it to the town and leave it there. The boy went to do this, and the girl went to call her mistress, stating that her master appeared quiet. The mistress went up to the hone., and left the girl with the child, telling her not to corn. up, as she did not intend stopping at her own house that Light. About fifteen minutes afterwards the girl heard the sound of a shot. That was at about six o'clock in the evening. The boy returned to the house after hernaming the horse, but found the door locked against him. He then went for the girl, and, accompanied by Mrs. Hunt, the woman in whose house Mrs. Lannigan had taken refuge, they proceeded to the house and got in through one of the windows. They found Mrs. Lannigan dead on the floor of the parloar, bleeding from a fearful wound in the left cheek, and the doctor lying with his head on her breast, across the floor, his right hand on his breast grasping • revolver, and blood oozing from • wound in his temple, from which the brain protruded. He was living then, but he died in a couple of hours. A double barrelled gun which was in the parlour when the girl left was found in the bedroom, one barrel loaded and another apparently lately discharged, and one of the chambers of the revolver was empty, with a broken cap on the nipple. The boy stated that when he heard the shot his maker came out of the parlour and uttering an oath said, She is gone,' but he thought at the time the remark referred to the gun. He then went to get ready his horse. No one appears to have heard the sound of the second shot. A coroner's jury have returned verdicts of wilful murder by her husband while under the influence of strong drink, in the case of Mrs. Lannigan, and of death by suicide in the case of Dr. Lannigan himself. Both appeared about 30 years of age. Mrs. Lannigan was a handsome woman, and was well liked in the neighbourhood, as also was her husband. The servant boy swore at the inquest that he had brought 14 bottles of porter to the doctor the day of the murder, and it also appeared that a quantity of wine had been drank."  The special commission with reference to the Ulster Jir urbances concluded on Friday. The commissioners expressed a hope that their report wouldpromote future harmony.  The prosecution of the officials in Woolwich Arsenal who are charged with having committed a series of frauds upon the Government was brought to a cooelusion on Friday, when the prisoners were committed for trial, bail having been refused.  SERIOEN EXPLoSION ON BOARD A STEAMER AT TYNE Does, Sours