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Show ' FREHZIED MOTHER KILLS FOUR CDIHDREN AND CUTS HER OWN THROAT 8TURB IUDG E, Mass., March St. A frensled mothor In the little hamlet of . Flekdale, after cutting off every means of escape by fastening windows and doors, , crushed In the heads of her four little children today, threw their bodies tnto a closet, scatte.ed oQ over them and herself, and thn. after setting all on fire, etoend her awful work and her own life by cutting cut-ting her own throat. It was Mrs. Peter Burke, the wife of a machlniat In an aucur factory, whe committed th fearful deed, and hVr vic- tims were LiUa, years old: William, ( - I years: Loalse, Ji years, and May Kvse, i Vi Biontha. . ' Tha4 the woman had previously eown ' s'rr.s of mental derangement seems to be I s.irr.ltted, but that it should have taVn fich a violent form was not even thought of by her husban i or hpr relatives. But for the arc! intal (".-icovery of the fre the deed of the .t other mijrht have beta tiiien. forever from tio wort 4 by j 1 the destruction ef the house. Two boys happened to be passing the house when they saw smoke coming from a window. They buret in the doors and tried first to put the fire out with buckets of water, but it rained on them so fast that they were obliged to run for help. The neighbors neigh-bors prevented the names from reaching above the first floor. . Up to that time no one knew of the tragedy. But someone noticed that a clot door was open, and glancing inside a blackened mass was seen. In this heap were the bodies of Mrs. Burke and her four children. The fact that she killed them was not disclosed until, one by one. tney were taken out, and then it was seen that earn one of the little ones had its heal spilt open, while the cause of the mother a death was seen In the gaping 1 w'ind at her throat. ' Irom the appearance and the position of the bogles it would seen as if Mrs. Burke had firt cut off every means of escape for the littl ones by nailing down the windows win-dows an3 locking all the doors. The weapon with which she crushed out the life of her own offspring was a large ax. It appeared as if the eldest. Li 11a, met death flrst, for It was her body that was at the bottom of the pile. That of William, Wil-liam, the next eldest, was above his sister, then came that of &oulse and finally the baby. - Mrs. Burke must have, dragged all the children into the closet and then poured kerosene upon their clothing, about the walls, and then upon herself. The Are had so completely charred the woodwork and the flooring that no blood spots could be found. The bodies of three of the children were burned almost beyond be-yond recognition, but that of Louise was only scorched. The body of Mrs. Burke was also badly burned.' As soon as the fire was discovered In his house Mr. -Burke was notified, and ha arrived Just as the bodies were found. He fainted from the shock. Mrs. Burke was Si years of age. The family friends say the union hae always been a happy 04 I I |