SLEEPING WOMAN ATTACKED.

Gisborne Times, 1 October 1909, Page 3

SLEEPING WOMAN ATTACKED.

” slelfQng woman attackLj. i n r HDSBP'S SIVB ANGE DELUSION. I Just / before sunrise on Saturday the Sydney “Morning F. Keep,*?;: No. 2 Central-street, ■was murderously attacked by her husband William Keep, who afterwards. stabbed himself with a butcher’s knife, and now lies in Sydney 'Hospital in a critical condition./ The couple are joint proprietors of “Our Boys and Girls’ Own Newspaper and Home Companion,” and have been a most affectionate couple. Keep is 49 years of age, and his wife is 47. On Saturday morning, about 5.30, Mrs Keep was awakened by a blow on the head' Opening her eyes, she saw in the dim tight her husband standing beside the bed with his right hand raised. .Another blow fell, and Mrs Keep sprang out of bed and grappled with her assailant, who was dressed only in night attire. Several more blows were struck, but Mrs Keep evaded her husband and .got under the bed. Keep ran out of the room and Mrs Keep took the opportunity to look ~ tliei bedroom door ■ from the inside. Then raising the window she screamed for help. Constable M'Grath, who was in the telephone room at the Centra] Police Station, SO yards away, beard the screams and telephoned to Clarencestreet station. On receipt of the message Constable Emmett immediately despatched, and Senior-constable Hendon ran from the Central. The front door was looked, and bad to be broken open. The police found Mrs Keep in her bedroom, and in a sittingroom across the passage they found her husband. He was lying on the floor, and at his side was a butcher’s knife. A red natch over his heart ami a trickle of blood on the floor told what bad happened. He was unconscious. Mrs Keep was taken to Sydney Hospital ip a. cab, and the Civil Ambulance took Keep there plso. The woman had eight distinct sculp. wounds on the head, varying in length from Ain to 3in. The injuries were dressed b v Dr Golledge. Keep had a knifethrust just under the heart. Three stitches were put in the wound, and he was admitted. Later on'his condition became so critical that his dying depositions were taken. Keep was very weak as he to’d his story, and from Ills statement it seems obvious that his mind had wandered. Ho said about o o’clock he saw a man in the room. They closed, and he snatched something which the man had in his hand. It seemed to be a ruler or something of the kind. Keep said'the strange man wont out of the room and he followed, and then the man rushed at him and pushed him against a door. He felt something go into hi s body and fell down. Tim last thing he had in bis memory was pulling something out of bis body. There were two men, hut one took no part in the attack. Tim one who attacked him was about 30 years of age, and be would know him again if be saw him. Mrs Keep, who was not kept at the hospital, afterwards visited her husband. She says be was under a delusion about the attack upon him, and her statement is borne out by investigations made bv Constable Farlev. The door of the house was locked, and the knife used by Keep was kept in the kitchen, where a stranger would bs unable to find it. The. weapon with which he clubbed Airs Keep was an iron bar about 15 inches long and half an inch thick. It was usually kept in his office downstairs. There were no signs of burglars.

Keep had been suffering from an internal complaint. AVhen he went to bed the night before he was not well, and several times during tho night Mrs Keep was disturbed by his ’moving about the room.