SENSATIONAL SHOOTING.
BY A REJECTED SUITOR.
[Per United Press Association.] INVERCARGILL, September 4.
At about eleven o'clock last night, at Nightcaps, Henry Reid, miner (22 years of age), a Tasmanian, shot Lydia Gibbon (22), and then attempted suicide. Reid, who lodged with Miss Gibbon's parents, had been paying attentions to the young lady, but she had discouraged him, as she was engaged to another. The two were talking in the kitchen last evening, and after all the others had retired shots were heard, and the girl was found lying in a pool of blood, with a bullet wound in her head. Reid was discovered down a well with a wound in his palate. Both are in a critical condition. -Evening Star, 4/9/1907.
At Nightcaps, Southland, on Tuesday night a young man named Henry Reid, 22 years old, shot Lydia Gibbon and then jumped down a well after trying to shoot himself. Neither are dead, but the chances of their recovery are not bright. The tragic affair was a case of a lodger falling in love with the landlady's daughter, who loved another. The intended murderer shot the girl through the head with a revolver, the bullet going in under the left eye. Reid had also put the revolver in his mouth and shot himself, the bullet, lodging at the base of the skull. Latest news states that both may ultimately recover. -Bruce Herald, 5/9/1907.
FULLER PARTICULARS.
INVERCARGILL, September 4.
About a month previous to Tuesday night's occurrence Miss Gibbon told Reid finally how she was placed, and that she could not, and would not, have anything to do with him. Jealousy appears to have been working last night, when Reid could contain himself no longer. He had been working in the mine till 8 o'clock, when he came home, dressed, went to receive his pay about nine, and returned at ten. One of Miss Gibbon's sisters, about 14, gave him his supper, and a few minutes later Lydia herself came in, and her sister retired, leaving the two alone. The rest of the family were in bed, and the only sound audible in the house was the quiet talking of the man and the girl in the kitchen. Not long after eleven, Mr F. Gibbon, carpenter, was startled by hearing two shots fired in quick succession, and another, apparently muffled, a few minutes later.
At first it did not strike him that the sound was from firearms, and he concluded that it was the banging of a door. Presently, however, he heard Gibbons, and rose to find out the cause, but, hearing nothing more, he returned to his room, thinking that the groan came from some of the younger members of the family, who were suffering from whooping cough. It was not until J. Foster, miner, who slept in an adjoining room, awoke him that Mr Gibbon became alarmed. Foster cried out: "Whatever is the matter?" and both men got up without delay.
There were lights burning in both dining-room and kitchen, and on opening the door leading outside from the kitchen they stumbled across the prostrate body of Miss Gibbon lying in a pool of blood. The two men carried the girl into the house, and Dr Baird and the police were at once summoned. The young woman's face was blackened with the smoke from the powder, and a bullet wound was seen just over the right eye. She was quite unconscious.
About a chain away from the house, in an adjoining section, there is a well about 25ft deep, holding four or five feet of water. Here Reid was found, groaning and clutching a rope. Gibbon went down the rope, and the swooning man was hauled up. He was all but unconscious, having shot himself through the palate. This morning both sufferers were taken to the Riverton Hospital. The doctor reports that both cases are very serious. Reid is shot through the palate, and the bullet has lodged in an inaccessible place at the base of the brain.
The condition of Miss Gibbon is, if anything, more serious. She is also shot in the thigh. The doctor holds out little hope of recovery in either case.
So far neither has been able to speak.
A packet of strychnine, purchased from an Invercargill chemist, has been found in one of Reid's pockets. Miss Gibbon was at one time an attendant at Seacliff Asylum. -Ashburton Guardian, 5/9/1907.
NIGHTCAPS SHOOTING CASE
BOTH SUFFERERS STILL UNCONSCIOUS.
(From Our Special Reporter.) RIVERTON, September 5.
The condition of Henry Reid and Miss Lydia Gibbon, the victims of the tragic shooting occurrence at Nightcaps on Tuesday night, is practically unchanged. If anything, a very slight improvement, is noticeable, but both are still unconscious. Dr Trotter (the hospital surgeon) reports this morning that his two patients are rallying slowly, but are very low. The doctor, however, does not altogether give up hope. To-day Miss Gibbon seems to be more sensible. Last night she appeared to recognise her sister, and also her betrothed, both of whom visited her bedside. She was able to speak to them, but not coherently.
Reid spent a very restless night, but this morning he was calmer. He was rambling a good deal, but was not able to recognise anyone. He appeared to understand better what the nurse asked him to do. Arrangements have been made to take the girl's statement as soon as she is in a fit state. Mr S. E. McCarthy, S.M., was here and remained all night, returning to Invercargill this morning. He was prepared to take the girl's statement if she rallied in time. If she continues to improve she may be able to answer questions reasonably this afternoon, in which case the magistrate will be sent for.
If Reid has recovered consciousness the statement of the girl will take the form of a deposition, and Reid will be given an opportunity through counsel to cross-examine.
Should Reid be conscious he will be charged with attempted murder, and will be placed under strict police surveillance, but will, of course, remain at the hospital. At 2 p.m. the condition of the patients was the same as in the morning. During the forenoon a bullet was extracted from the girl's left leg, and she is doing well, but is still unconscious. Reid is gradually improving.
(Per United Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, September 5. The latest information from Riverton is that Reid and Miss Gibbon, the principal parties in the Nightcaps, sensation, are both semi-conscious. The bullet was extracted from Miss Gibbon's thigh to-day, and she is doing the better of the two. The police are standing by to motor out and take the depositions if sent for to-night. -Otago Daily Times, 6/9/1907.
NIGHTCAPS TRAGEDY.
DEATH OF REID.
Invercargill, September 9. Henry Reid, who shot Lydia Gibbon in a fit of jealousy, died on Sunday night. The girl recovered consciousness, and though her mind is a blank regarding the tragic occurrence, every hope is entertained that she will make a good recovery. -Hastings Standard, 9/9/1907.
THE NIGHTCAPS TRAGEDY.
INQUEST ON REID.
THE GIRL SINKING.
PER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. INVERCARGILL, Sept. 10. At the inquest on Henry Reid, the jury found that he died from a bullet wound self-inflicted. Lydia Gibbon is sinking, and there is little hope of her recovery. -Mataura Ensign, 10/9/1907.
THE NIGHTCAPS TRAGEDY.
Press Association Invercargill, September 21.
Lydia Gibbon, the victim of the Nightcaps shooting, died this morning. -Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, 11/9/1907.
The Nightcaps Tragedy
THE CURTAIN FALLS.
What passed, or whether anything passed, between the girl, Lydia Gibbon, and the man, Henry Reed, at Nightcaps on Tuesday night, Sept. 3, about 11 o’clock, will never be known. Reed alone of other inmates of the house was up with this girl who, it is said, had been his sweetheart. He was going to help her wash the dishes. Prior to this act, or after its completion, he followed her to the door and, shooting her turned the gun on himself, thus locking all up into eternal silence. These were the circumstances as self revealed. Neither the man nor the girl spoke again, there was no confession on the one side or accusation on the other; but the tragic drama read aloud its own history, and the succession of its several stops — few and summary.
Dr. Trotter, of the Riverton hospital, held out very slender hopes from the beginning; a bullet had lodged in the brain of each patient, in unreachable position. There were slight rallyings, and relapses, periods of semi-consciousness which merged again to insensibility, and finally death.
Reed went on Monday night and Miss Gibbon early yesterday morning. Her parents and sisters were hastily summoned after midnight and arrived about an hour before she died. No inquest will be held; a doctor’s certificate closes the tragedy whose dreadful annunciation was read in the pistol shots which roused young Gibbon a week before. -Southland Times, 12/9/1907.
THE NIGHTCAPS TRAGEDY
FUNERAL OF MISS GIBBON
(From Our Special Reporter) RIVERTON, September 13. The last stage in the pathetic tragedy which so deeply shocked the mining community at Nightcaps last week was reached to-day, when the body of the unfortunate girl Mary Lydia Gibbon was buried. From 2 till 5 o'clock the mine was shut down, and the flag flown at half-mast. Not a soul was at work, either above ground or below ground. All the miners and, indeed, practically every able-bodied man and woman, boy and girl in the district attended the funeral to pay the last sad tribute of-respect to the murdered young woman. The melancholy procession which followed the body to its final resting-place left the house of the bereaved family at 3 o'clock. The coffin, covered by a white pall, and almost buried beneath beautiful floral wreaths, crosses, and anchors, was conveyed in a two-horse waggon. The principal mourners were the four brothers and six sisters of the deceased. Then followed old friends, members of the local Tennis Club (Miss Gibbon was a fine athletic girl, expert in tennis and popular among all the tennis players in the neighbourhood), and of the Nightcaps Presbyterian Church, in which the deceased was a chorister and active worker. All classes were represented in the cortege, which formed a long, sombre line. At the cemetery, which is situated on the top of a bleak hill, many miners and others were awaiting the funeral procession. It was a chilly afternoon, and the sight of the snowtopped Takitimu Range in the distance made the scene appear even more bleak. The service at the grave was conducted by the Rev. T. Tait, pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Not a few women and girls wept bitterly throughout the proceedings, and it was pathetic to witness the distress of the young sawmiller to whom the deceased was betrothed. The coffin plate bore the simple inscription: "Mary Lydia Gibbon. Died September 11, 1907. Aged 22 years." Away in a corner of the cemetery lies the body of Henry Reid, who was buried on Wednesday last. -Otago Daily Times, 14/9/1907.
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