Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1888-01-28 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

WIFE MURDER AND SUICIDE. A painful domestic tragedy has been brought to light at Carlisle. Richard tilaister, who was formerly a traveller for Messrs.Copestake and Co., London, went to reside in Westmorland-street, Carlisle, about three or four months ago, having unsuccessfully tried a small grocer's shop in the neighbouring village of Scotby. He was out of work, and his relations with his wife appear to have been very unhappy. On the 20th inst. she had come to the determination to leave him and go to reside with her mother in another part of the county, and he had himself ordered a railway lorry to go to his house for some of the furniture next morning. About eight o'clock on the morning of that day the neighbours heard screams, but they did not pay much attention to them. Between 11 and 12, when the railway wagoner arrived with the lorry, he knocked several times without obtaining any reply, ' and the neighbours becoming alarmed the window was forced, and Mrs. Glaister's brother and Mr. Messenger, a draper who lives in another part of Carlisle, entered the house. In the bedroom, at the foot of the bed, Mrs. G laister was lying dead, very much cut over the hands, face, and breast with a knife, and having a deep wound in her chest. At the head of the bed her husband was found dead, with his throat no deeply cut that Isis head was nearly severed from his body, and in his hand was a bread-knife, with a blade about eight inches long, smeared with blood. The circumstances of the situation left no doubt that he had murdered his wife with the knife and then used the weapon to cut his own throat. Both husband and wife were in their nightdresses. In the bedroom were two of their children, one of whom was four years of age and the other two months. They also were in their nightdresses. The baby was lying in the bed and the other child was playing with its mother's corpse. Information was at once conveyed to the police. Before his death Glaister had written two letters to the editor of a Carlisle newspaper. One of these was dated the 17th and the other the 20th inst. In the first he said that full particulars of the affair would be found in the letters to his father and his wife's mother. He added that his wife's unkindness to him had driven him to commit the crime. In the second letter he said, "I've lived as long as I could, aid no longer than I could have peace in this world. I now fly to the next to get peace and rest for my poor shattered head and mind. Had I only had peace and kindness at home all would have been well but only to get worried and cursed and sworn at, battered, and all kinds of threats is more than I can bear. May God have mercy upon my soul. I may part with my loving children, but death will only do it. God knows it, and into His all merciful hands do I commend my soul, and hope and trust that my father-in-law and my mother will see that they are not abused now that Janie and I are gone." While Glaister was in the service of Messrs. Copestake and Co. he had an accident. He fell out of a gig and injured his head. Since then he had been very susceptible to the influence of intoxicating liquor, and he had had some drink on the fatal night. Mr. J. H. Browne, city coroner, held an inquest upon the two bodies, when the facts already mentioned were given in evidence. A next-door neighbour of the deceased, named Wallace Bell, an elderly man, stated that at a quarter before eight on the morning of the lint inst. when in his own house, he heard some screams, which he found came from Glaister's house. He thought he heard Mrs. Glaister call "Murder !" but was not quite sure. Presently-, however, he distinctly heard her say, "I'm done, I'm done, I'm done !" He called his daughter and said , he thought there was something wrong, but after that he heard a gurgling noise, and came to the conclusion that Glaister had been attempting to strangle his wife, but that she had recovered. Asked by the coroner why he had not given the alarm or made further inquiries or communicated with the police, witness said it did not arise from callousness, but he did not like to interfere unless he was sure he had the law on Isis side, and he had not been certain that Mrs. Glaister called "Murder," and he had to go to work at 10 o'clock. The evidence of other witnesses showed that the murder and suicide had been committed with the bread knife before referred to, but a second knife of a still more formidable character, with a longer, narrower, and sharper blade, was produced, which had been found concealed inside the mattress of the bed. The jury returned a verdict of "Wilful murder" against Richard Glaister in the inquisition on the wife's body, and of "Suicide while temporarily insane" in the case of the husband.  ~f