TRIPLE MURDER
MOTHER’S AWFUL ACT.
THREE CHILDREN SLAIN.
“I HAVE KILLED MY KIDS.”
(By Telegraph — Press Association). DUNEDIN, Monday.
A tragedy involving the lives of three young children occurred at 8.30 this morning at 28 Brighton Street, Kaikorai. Ulure Lindsay Hart, 5 years. Andrew Hart, 3 years, Nola Hart, 14 months, were found with their throats cut.
The first intimation was when the mother, Ellen Hart, threw a stone on the roof of Mr Upton's house, adjoining them, telling Mrs Upton to come in with her.
They went into Hart's house, and Mrs Hart said: “I have killed my kids. I loved those kids.”
Mrs Upton called her husband, who found the children all dead.
The two boys were lying on the mat in the kitchen, and the baby was found in its pram with its head almost severed.
The tragedy must have occurred just after Mrs Hart’s husband, a carpenter, left for his work.
The bodies were removed to the morgue. Mrs Hart was taken to the police station.
Later.
From certain superficial gashes In Mrs Hart’s throat, it is gathered she attempted to kill herself with the razor that was used with such fatal results.
The father, Alexander Hart, is in an absolutely collapsed state.
The police have not secured his statement.
The Harts came to Kaikorai about a year ago from Mosgiel.
Mrs Hart is said to have been a resident in the North Island at one time.
No statement has yet been secured that might elucidate the tragedy.
The scene in Hart's house was such that even the police, habituated to rough sights, were disturbed. The infant’s head was practically severed, and the two elder children were dreadfully gashed.
Apparently the demented mother apprised the neighbours almost at once. Her own wounds were so slight that the application of a little iodine sufficed to treat her. She showed the utmost solicitude that the news should be broken quietly to the father, who was away at work. -Waikato Times, 9/11/1925.
"RELIGION DROVE ME TO IT"
MRS. HART'S STRANGE PLEA IN THE CHILD-SLAYING TRAGEDY
(From "Truth's" Special Dunedin Rep.) Less than an hour after Alexander Hart had kissed his wife and three young children goodbye on the morning of November 9, a terrible tragedy was enacted in his little home at Kaikorai; and when he sped back from work at the call of a telephone, the place was a shambles.
In one of the front rooms, lying strapped in her little wicker perambulator on the floor, was the 15 month old baby, Nora Ellen; and huddled together on the floor of the kitchen were the two boys -Lindsay, aged five, and Andrew, two years younger. All three had terrible gashes in their little throats, and were quite dead.
Prior to the husband's sad homecoming, kindly neighbors had taken Mrs. Hart away from the ghastly scene, and were caring for her when the police came and took her into custody. The following day a charge of murder was laid against her, but the hearing of it was not proceeded with till Thursday of last week, and then the full story of the tragedy was told.
Accused, who is a short, stout lady of thirty, was wearing a navy blue costume and a black velvet toque pulled well down over her face. She stumbled blindly into the dock, and sank limply into corner of the seat.
When the word "murder" was reached in the reading of the charge, she pressed her ungloved hands tightly over her ears. It seemed as though the awful import of the word seared her brain, and she didn't wish to hear it again.
"I'VE KILLED MY KIDS." Mrs. Margaret Ufton has been a neighbor of the Harts ever since the latter came from Mosgiel 14 months ago. At 5.20 on the morning of November 9 she heard something falling on the roof of the house; and, going out to see what it was, she heard Mrs. Hart calling out: "Mrs. Ufton, come quickly." Mrs. Hart was leaning up against the back door of her own place, and, when asked what the trouble was, replied; "I've killed my kids."
The incredulous neighbor said: "Surely you haven't done that?" In answer she was told ''Yes, the whole lot of them, and I did love those kids."
Mrs. Ufton went on to tell the Court that she asked Mrs. Hart to go into her place, but, she said that she couldn't leave her children. "I noticed some cuts on her throat, and her stockings, arms, and hands were smeared with blood. I put my arm round her and took her into my house, where she said: "We had an argument last night."
Later she added: "I suppose I'll hang for this. "
Leaving Mrs. Hart to the care of a Miss Macdonald, Mrs. Ufton and her husband, who was at home at the time, went into Harts' to see if the children were alive. They entered by the front door, which was open, and in the front bedroom they found Nola lying in her pram, dead. Her throat was cut, and there was a pool of blood beneath the pram. In the kitchen Lindsay and Andrew were lying together in a welter of blood on the floor, and their wounds were similar to those of the baby. Sick with horror at the sight, the beholders went out of the house of tragedy by the front door and back to their own place.
WE CONFESSED OUR SINS "I should have stated," said Mrs. Ufton in concluding her evidence, "that when I was taking Mrs. Hart into my place I asked her where her husband was, and she said: 'Wilkie Road, Kensington. He told me this morning that he did want me, but I couldn't stay on his terms.'
Later on, when Dr. Evans arrived, she said: 'We confessed, our sins last night, and my husband said the children would have to suffer for my sins. I didn't want them to do that."
"Did Mrs. Hart give you the impression that she was fond of her children?" asked Mr. J. B. Callan, counsel for accused. "Yes, very fond," replied witness, who, before stepping down from the box, cast a pitying glance at the huddled form in the dock, whence came the sound of soft sobbing.
But the drooping head was never lifted, the tear-drenched eyes never raised.
The evidence of Ozmond Bernard Ufton and Eva Selina Macdonald was merely corroborative of that given by the previous witness.
TO LIVE A CHRISTIAN LIFE Mrs. Gladys Blanche Newall lives right opposite the Harts at No. 22 Brighton Street. She frequently visited Mrs. Hart, and they were out together on election day. On the morning of the tragedy witness went across to Ufton's house, and there saw Mrs. Hart, who threw her arms around her neck and wept bitterly, saying: "Whatever you think, it has been nothing but religion that has made me do this.
"I was getting the children ready for school, and I did it on the spur of the moment."
She and her husband, so she told witness, had decided to lead Christian lives, and had confessed their past lives to each other. Her husband said he would forgive her for everything, but there were some things God would never forgive her for.
"Mrs. Hart asked me what they would do with her, and begged of me not to leave her."
Tears hovered on witnesses eyelids, the corners of her mouth twitched nervously, and she was grateful for the chair handed to her by one of the city's social workers.
Even the elements were in keeping with the sordidness of the story being told, and at times hailstones played a terrific tattoo on neighboring roofs, as though endeavoring to drown the hearing of the saddest details.
"Her — stockings — were — covered — with — blood, and her arms and hands were also smothered with it," continued witness, falteringly. There were three slight wounds on her throat. Mrs. Hart was a most affectionate mother — "there is no doubt about that whatever," concluded witness, recovering her composure.
DOCTOR'S EVIDENCE. Dr, William Evans was called to the house of tragedy at 5.30 a.m. and in the front room he found the body of the baby Nola, strapped in its little wicker pram. There were horizontal wounds on the throat below the level of the voice box, completely severing the structures of the neck down to the vertebral column, the windpipe, the blood vessels, and the muscles each side being severed. On the floor, in the kitchen were the bodies of the two boys with wounds similar to those on the baby, except that the elder boy's chin bore marks of recent bruising. On the kitchen table there was a closed razor, the blade of which was bloodstained.
The deaths of the children were caused by shock and haemorrhage following their injuries.
The doctor went round to Ufton's house, where he saw Mrs. Hart, who had been weeping, but at the time was calm and collected. While having the wounds on her throat dressed she said: "I don't know what came over me to kill my children; now I realise it was a wrongful thing to do."
About three hours later the doctor saw Mrs. Hart at the police station, and she then told him that when she returned from church on the Sunday night her husband said:
"God will forgive all but one of your sins, and I can't forgive that one either."
A fortnight previous to that she and her husband had agreed to tell each other of their past sins.
Her husband came home one evening and told her that, after listening to a street preacher, he attended a gospel meeting in a hall at the corner of Filleul Street and York Place, and as a consequence he had taken a different view of religion to what he did previously. He persuaded her to attend one of the meetings, but she found that
THEIR "CONFESSION" AND A VAGUE HINT OF THE PAST
she couldn't take the same view as he did. Continuing her story to the doctor, she said that until she was 22 years of age she was a Catholic, but after marriage went to the Baptist Church with her husband's people.
"ELDEST CHILD NOT HIS." "Is there anything else you can tell us, doctor?" prompted Chief Detective Lewis.
There was a dramatic pause, and then witness continued hesitatingly. "I saw her on the 12th in the hospital and she was calm and collected.
After covering the same ground as she had at the police station, she told me that her husband had said that the eldest child wasn't his, but when he kissed them all before going to work on the morning of the 9th and said there were to be no more arguments she thought everything was all right."
"Are you prepared to express an opinion about motives or accused's mentality?" asked Mr. Callan of the doctor when he had given his evidence, and the reply was: "No; in a case like this you must be very careful."
During your conversation with her was there discernible any mental weakness? — No.
You have heard that she once suffered from temporary blindness? — Yes. but I wouldn't say that had any bearing on her mental condition.
You have not, from your investigations, found anything that would prove that the deed was committed in a rational way? — I have not investigated the case.
Would you suggest that she should be placed where her mental condition could be studied and observed? — I see no objection to that, but it is a matter for the Justice Department.
A GRIM RELIC Constable Excell was the next witness and he produced a razor with dull stains on the blade. "This," he said, holding up the grim relic, "I found on the kitchen table and the table cloth was stained with blood where it lay."
Sergeant Dunlop recounted the taking of accused into custody. He took her from Ufton's house to the police station in a motor-car.
She walked out to the car quite quietly, but on the way down began to cry bitterly and say: "I shouldn't have done it; I shouldn't have done it."
Last ibn the line of witnesses was Detective Farquharson. On the duchesse in the bedroom he found a razor case with the two sections pulled apart. He searched the house for a note that was supposed to have been left but did not find it.
All he found was a writing pad on the kitchen mantelpiece with the address "Wilkie Road, Kensington," on it.
The cloth was on the kitchen table, on which there was butter, sugar, pepper, salt, chutney, meat paste, jam, milk, and a vase containing three tulips. The cups and saucers used at breakfast had been washed up and put away.
PREPARING FOR SCHOOL. On the end of the table near where the bodies of the little boys were lying there were a pair of little boy's blue pants, a black and white striped tie, a pair of socks, a looking glass and a hair brush. It looked as though the boys were being dressed for school (Lindsay went to the Kaikorai School and Andrew to the kindergarten).
Neither of them had his boots or stockings on, but Andrew had a stocking clasped tightly in his left hand.
Under Lindsay's head there was a little white hat.
At 9 o'clock that night the detective went to the hospital, and, on being assured by the doctor that Mrs. Hart was in a fit state to have a charge > read over to her, he acquainted her of the fact that a charge of having murdered her three children was being preferred against her.
She merely replied: "Oh, don't tell, me they are all gone."
On Mr. Callan stating that he did not propose to call evidence at that, stage, accused was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.
HUSBAND NOT CALLED. Chief Detective Lewis asked whether, in view of the evidence on the criminal charges, it was necessary to call further evidence at the inquest. Perhaps it would be necessary to call the husband.
Mr. Bartholomew, sitting as coroner, said there was sufficient evidence before him on which to base a finding.
The mental condition of the accused would engage the attention of the Supreme Court. For that reason he would carefully word his finding, which would be as follows:
"That Lindsay Hart's death was caused by shock and haemorrhage following injuries to the neck inflicted with a razor by Ellen Hart, but there is nothing the evidence to show the mental condition of the said. Ellen Hart."
Similar findings were returned in respect to the deaths of the other two children.
Mr. Callan pointed out that under Section 37 of the Mental Defectives Act the Minister of Justice could commit.
"I take it that a magistrate or coroner is a proper person to communicate with the Minister on the matter. For two reasons — firstly because of the nature of the circumstances, and secondly because of the opinion expressed by the only medical witness who has been in touch with the case so far; — I contend that it would not be improper to act in this case."
The coroner considered it a proper case to bring under the notice of the Minister, and he would recommend that accused be detained in a mental hospital pending her trial. -NZ Truth, 5/12/1925.
HART MURDER
Mother Who Slew Her Three Children Found Insane
VICTIM OF DREAD DISEASE
(From "Truth's" Special Dunedin Representative.) The last sad chapter in one of the most shocking tragedies known in New Zealand closed last week, when Mrs Ellen Hart, charged with having murdered her three children at Roslyn on November 9, was found not guilty on the ground of insanity.
ACCUSED, who had to be assisted into the dock, wore a neat navy blue costume with a black toque pulled well down over her face.
On the Judge giving permission for her to be seated, she sank limply on to the form, and bent forward in such a way as to be out of sight of those in the body of the court.
She toyed nervously with her handkerchief throughout the trial, and used it frequently on tear-drenched eyes.
For the defence Mr. J. B. Callan did not exercise his right of challenge, but the Crown did so in three instances.
"One couldn't imagine anything more shocking than the ghastly crime of a mother killing her own children — quite defenceless children," said the Crown Prosecutor in opening.
The only possible defence was that of insanity, and the life of accused might depend on that point.
The Act stated that "everyone is presumed to have been sane at the time of committing an offence until the contrary is proved" and the jury would have to concentrate on the accused's mental condition.
Was it a conscious act?
Did Mrs. Hart know that she was killing her children, and did she know it was a criminally wrong thing?
Solely for the purposes of observation accused had been taken to Seacliff Mental Hospital, and the full facts concerning the results of that observation would be placed before the jury to help them in coming to a decision.
"I'ye Killed My Kids" The first witness called was Margaret Ufton, who has been a neighbor of the Harts in Brighton Street, Roslyn, for 14 months. On the morning, of November 9 last she heard something falling on the roof not long after. 8 o'clock.
On going out of the back door she heard Mrs. Hart calling out: "Mrs. Ufton, Mrs. Ufton!"
Witness ran to the fence, and on inquiring what the trouble was, got the answer: "Come quickly." Mrs. Ufton ran round into Hart's place and saw Mrs. Hart leaning against the door on the back landing.
She had a man's coat over her shoulders, and there was blood on her arms, her face and her stockings, while there were three slight wounds on her neck.
When asked, what she had done she said: "I've killed my kid, yes, the whole lot of them, and I did love those kids." When taken from the scene of the tragedy into Mrs. Ufton's home she said: "We had an argument last night. He told me that he did want me but I couldn't stay on his terms."
When asked where her husband was, she "replied: "Wilkie Road, Kensington; but I left a note."
She also said: "I suppose I'll hang for this."
Mrs. Ufton and her husband then went into the Harts' house, and what they saw made them sick with horror.
Strapped in its little pram in the front room was the 15-months-old baby, Nola, dead from a terrible wound in the throat. Huddled together on the kitchen floor were Andrew, aged 4, and Lindsay, aged 5, with wounds in their throats similar to that inflicted on the baby.
"What impression did Mrs. Hart give you as a mother?" asked Mr. Callan of witness, who replied that "She seemed to be very fond of her children."
The first witness called by the defence was Dr. Hall, a specialist in eye, ear, and throat diseases. He examined Mrs. Hart on February 6 and found that she had not standard vision. The right eye had lost nearly half of its visual efficiency while the left one had lost 15 per cent.
There were two causes: (1) Cloudiness of the front of each eye; (2) chronic disease, now inactive, of the optic nerve in each eye.
The history of these diseases was quite definite, and there was no doubt that hereditary disease was the cause of them.
"I thought," said witness, "that under the circumstances she was abnormal, in that she showed no signs of emotion when I questioned her about the children.
"She was quite cheerful and unimpressed by the position she was in."
Henry Meredith Buchanan, until recently medical superintendant at Seacliff, first saw Mrs. Hart at Dunedin Hospital on November 10, when she told him that for four or five weeks she had felt "very absent-minded."
On the morning of the tragedy she had a feeling as though everything was pulling her down."
On the morning of the 24th, he saw her in prison, when she was eating a very big dinner; "one that I couldn't have tackled myself."
She was confused, and dazed, and couldn't tell him of the proceedings in the Magistrate's Court the day before. When she arrived at Seacliff on December 2, he saw her again and found that her interests were superficial like those of a young child.
He submitted her to an intelligence test, which proved that she; had the intelligence of a girl of 12, whereas the average adult had the intelligence of a girl of 16.
The first clear recollection she had of the tragedy was when she tried to cut her own throat.
It was in witness's opinion that she committed the ghastly crime while in the grip of an uncontrollable impulse, but whether she was aware of what she was doing he was unable to say.
His Honor: Could you say whether she knew that she was cutting the throats of her children and not those of sheep, for instance?
Witness: I simply could not say.
"The Cruellest Thing" Dr. Marshall Macdonald saw Mrs. Hart while she was in Dunedin Hospital and found no sign of remorse or emotion.
He next saw her in prison after she had made an appearance in the lower court and asked her how she had got through the ordeal.
She said she was surprised at the evidence, much of which was new to her.
She was shown a picture of her baby in the Otago "Witness" and she characterised it as "the cruelest thing they had done."
In the course of conversation she told witness that her recent conduct had been so abnormal that she was ashamed of herself — "a symptom that was not unusual in those developing mental trouble."
When questioned concerning the order in which she killed the children, she said that the baby was first, but she couldn't remember about the boys.
In summing-up, his Honor said it was clear from the evidence that accused did kill her three children; the only thing the jury had to decide was whether insanity had been proved.
Judge's Questions If they were satisfied that the defence of insanity was established he wanted to ask them the following questions:
(1): Was the accused insane at the time she killed the children?
(2): If she were insane, is she acquitted of the charge of murder on account of insanity?
It took the jury only a few minutes to record a verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity, and accused was ordered to be detained in Seacliff Mental Hospital. -NZ Truth, 18/2/1926.
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