DOUBLE TRAGEDY
MAN AND WIFE KILLED
SON ARRESTED FOR MURDER.
BATTERED TO DEATH WITH AXE.
A RAVENSBOURNE CRIME.
ACCUSED ALLEGED MENTAL PROBATIONER.
(Per Press Association). DUNEDIN, This Day.
A double tragedy occurred at Ravensbourne, a harbour suburb, about 11 o’clock this morning, when an elderly couple, Mr Thomas Davidson, aged 67, a retired furnaceman, and Mrs Agnes Davidson, aged 59, were battered to death.
Their son, Stanley Davidson, aged 22, was arrested on a charge of murder.
Deceased resided on Main Road, Ravensbourne, with four sons and one daughter. All except Stanley and his parents were away at 11 o’clock, when a neighbour heard screams, and saw Mrs Davidson running toward the house porch, where her husband lay face down, with a man attacking him with an axe. The neighbour hurried for the police, who on arrival found Mrs Davidson dead near the porch and Mr Davidson dead inside the porch.
The son, Stanley, was found sitting on a sofa in the front room, and a blood-stained axe was found near the porch. It is stated Stanley was recently released on probation from a mental institution. -Ashburton Guardian, 25/2/1936.
DOUBLE TRAGEDY
MOTHER AND FATHER DEAD
VICTIMS OF TOMAHAWK ATTACK
SON ARRESTED
Tragedy in its ghastliest shape overwhelmed a Ravensbourne household this morning, the mother and father of a family of five in a tidy, comfortable home at 271 Main road being battered to death.
The victims were:
Thomas Davidson, aged 67, a retired furnaceman.
Agnes McIntosh Davidson, aged 59, his wife.
While the victims were lying dead at the back of the house a 22-ycar-old son, Stanley, was sitting quietly on a sofa in a bay window overlooking the harbour when the police arrived only a few minutes after the attack had occurred, and the young man was taken into custody. He made no resistance whatever and showed no signs of recognition of the tragedy to which, it is alleged, he was a party. Terrible injuries to the head were received by both Mr and Mrs Davidson, who had also gashes on their arms, where, apparently, they had attempted to ward off the rain of blows. The wounds were so severe that death must have been instantaneous, at least in the case of Mrs Davidson.
The tragedy occurred with dramatic suddenness shortly after 11 o’clock. Only a little time before Mrs Davidson had been talking to a neighbour, and two children from the next home had been playing in the Davidsons’ yard. There was not the slightest sign of any event which would lead to the double fatality.
The children of Mrs Dow, who occupies the neighbouring bungalow, had just returned from playing next door, and Mrs Dow had gone to her own yard to bring in the baby when she heard terrifying screams. As she reached the hedge dividing the properties, Mrs Davidson, who was frantically alarmed, rushed towards her. But the woman turned before reaching Mrs Dow, who was horrified to see Mr Davidson lying down on his face and groaning, in the back porch, with an assailant over him and still raining blows on his head with an instrument.
It appeared that Mrs Davidson made a sudden decision to return to her husband’s aid. She actually reached the doorway when the attack was turned upon her. Mrs Dow immediately rushed to the neighbour on the city boundary of her home, and a call for police assistance was made. While Constable Hood, who is relieving at the Ravensbourne station, hurried to the house with another man a call was put through to the Central Police Station by Mr W. Connor, clerk to the West Harbour Borough Council.
Only a few minutes had elapsed since 'Mrs Dow, a young housewife, had been a spectator of the double attack, and before going to the back of the premises by the pathway, Constable Hood posted the other man at the gate in case the assailant had not by then got away.
That the need for assistance was past was at once apparent to the constable. Mrs Davidson was lying dead, with her head frightfully injured, on the concrete pathway between the house and a low embankment, while the dead body of Mr Davidson was lying in the porch, his head and shoulders being on the outside pavement.
In a few minutes, Chief-detective J. B. Young and Detectives H. Wells and H. Le Sueur arrived. Inside the porch Mr Young found a blood-stained tomahawk, and going to the sitting room in the front of the house he found Stanley Davidson, a son, sitting on the sofa looking out of the window on to the harbour, a stone’s throw from the house. The young man was immediately taken into custody. He was exceedingly quiet, and made no resistance whatever when removed and placed in the police car, which conveyed two officers and the arrested man to the Central Police Station. Dr W. Evans, the police surgeon, made an examination of the bodies; and photographs were taken of the scene.
Mr Davidson, who retired from the employ of a Dunedin foundry some months ago, was very well known in the West Harbour district, in which, for many years, he took a keen interest in all activities. All his family resided with him and his wife, but Stanley was the only member unemployed. The other three sons and the daughter were away at work when the tragedy occurred.
For some months last year Stanley Davidson had been an inmate of an institution. Since returning to his home he had worked in the garden. Described by friends of the family as always of a quiet nature, he was very devoted to his mother and father, whose kindness he had recognised, neighbours stated. The young man was on friendly terms with the rest of the family, but, it is stated, he never made his presence known in the home.
There was no warning of the tragedy. The mother was apparently in the back garden when the attack was made suddenly in the house. Mr Davidson had reached the porch and had only a step to make to be into the open when he was struck over the head from behind with a sharp instrument, the blow felling him. The injuries were so severe that it would appear that any one of the several wounds would have been fatal.
What actually caused the attack no one will probably know. But the sequence of events which ended in the loss of two lives is provided by the scene witnessed by Mrs Dow When within an ace of escaping with her own life, Mrs Davidson swiftly turned to her husband’s assistance, only to meet a sudden death. On being attacked, she apparently attempted to escape by the path, but was struck down before she had gone five yards. Her head was terribly mutilated, one blow having cleaved her skull.
Both the victims had seemingly endeavoured to ward off the blows, as their arms bore several cuts. The rear of the home, which had every evidence of being kept with scrupulous tidiness and was very comfortably furnished, was a shambles.
Commendation is due to Mrs Dow and her neighbour for so promptly giving the alarm, and to the police for the expedition with which officers from both the Ravensbourne and Central Stations made their thorough investigations and arrest.
The accused man will be formally charged at the Police Court tomorrow morning. -Evening Star, 25/2/1936.
“I SLOGGED HIM WITH AN AXE”
Son’s Alleged Confession when Charged with Murdering Father and Mother
EYE-WITNESS’S STORY OF BRUTAL CRIME NEAR DUNEDIN
In one of the shortest preliminary hearings on a murder charge, taking just one hour, Stanley Davidson, aged 23, was committed for trial this morning at the Police Court on charges that he murdered his father and mother at Ravensbourne on February 25.
Two police officers were on duty with accused. Dr D'ath gave evidence as to cause of death-blows on the head from an axe which was exhibited. Evidence by an eye-witness, a neighbour, Mrs. Dowall, was that she heard a scream and saw through a fence the woman victim rushing towards her with bloodstained arms, while in the background accused was striking his father with an axe. She went for assistance.
The chief-Detective gave evidence that when accused was asked what happened, he said: “I slogged him with an axe.” Asked the reason, he said: “Just temper. They were nagging at a man.”
Mr W. F. Forrester represented the accused. -Waipukerau Press, 18/3/1936.
MURDER OF PARENTS
ACCUSED MAN INSANE.
[per press association.] DUNEDIN, May 11.
The hearing commenced at the Supreme Court of the charge against Stanley Davidson, of murder at Ravensbourne, on February 25, of his father, Thomas Davidson, and his mother, Agnes McIntosh Davidson. Accused, who pleaded not guilty, was represented by Mr. J. M. Paterson.
The Crown Prosecutor said that accused lived with his parents and a brother and sister. When the latter two left home, accused was in bed, apparently normal. Three hours later, a neighbour heard Mrs. Davidson screaming. She rushed towards the neighbour with hands upraised and covered with blood. The neighbour also saw Davidson lying face down, and accused standing over him, beating him with an axe or tomahawk. It would appear that Mrs. Davidson had been attacked, that the husband went to her rescue, and when seen by the neighbour, she was running back in the hope of rescuing her husband. The police shortly afterwards arrived. When questioned by Chief Detective Young, accused said: “I have slogged them with an axe.” Asked why, he replied: “Just temper. They were nagging a man.”
The Crown Prosecutor added that the whole issue of the case would b c that of insanity. Accused had formerly been an inmate of a mental hospital. The Crown Prosecutor understood that medical men would say that at the time of the offence, accused was suffering from a mental disease. The facts were such that he did not feel it his duty to controvert the evidence of the medical men.
Evidence for the Crown was then called.
Mr. Paterson called Doctor Hayes. Superintendent of Seacliff Mental Hospital, who said he first examined the accused in November, 1933, and then found him in the early stages of a state of mind in which there was a separation between the thought processes and the emotional side of the mind. There was a gradual withdrawal from reality with emotional apathy. In March, 1935, he was admitted as a voluntary patient, and in April was definitely committed. He then suffered from delusions and hallucinations.
After hearing the medical evidence that the deed was committed in an insane frenzy, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity.
Judge Kennedy ordered that accused be kept in strict custody at Seacliff till the Minister of Justice’s pleasure was known. -Greymouth Evening Star, 11/5/1936.
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